Coyotes concerned with quality, not quantity

NHL stat sheets are “official,’’ but not always infallible. Helene Elliott and I were in Detroit a couple years ago when Matt Greene was credited with a couple shifts while he was in the locker room being treated for a concussion. I thought of that last night when, after the Phoenix Coyotes had a shot on goal, the Jobing.com arena scoreboard first added one to the Kings’ shot total, then subtracted one from the Coyotes’ total, then added one to the Coyotes’ total, all in about 30 seconds. Officially, the Kings recorded 48 shots on goal last night to the Coyotes’ 27. Coaching staffs keep their own numbers, and not surprisingly, Phoenix’s Dave Tippett said his numbers didn’t quite match.

Of course, ultimately the score is the only thing that matters, but the teams in this series have much different numbers in terms of shots on goal. In the postseason overall, the Kings are averaging 30.5 shots on goal per game and are allowing an average of 30.1 shots on goal. The Coyotes are recording an average of 26.8 and allowing an average of 37.3. Tippett was asked today whether he was concerned by that high average.

TIPPETT: “Well, what you’ve got to look at is (that) the numbers are per game. Five of our first six games went to overtime, right? You’ve got skewed numbers that way. The numbers last night, (the coaching saff) went through every single shot, every attempt. I would question some of the numbers, some of the attempts at the net, but I’m not going to second guess the stats guys. That’s not what I want to do. I look at the quality (of shots) we gave up last night. We gave up far more quality opportunities. Quantity I can deal with sometimes, but it’s the quality. We gave up far too many quality (opportunities).’’