Where are the shots and goals coming from?

I’ve had several interesting shot charts sitting on my computer’s desktop, and between Manchester Monarchs Insider and the Sochi coverage, I haven’t gotten around to addressing a report from the most recent NHL.com Super 16 rankings. It’s a good read, though brief.

On the blog and on various radio hits, I’ve referenced the Kings’ abysmal shooting percentage, which ranks 29th in the NHL at 7.24 percent.

In the regular season prior to Los Angeles’ Stanley Cup run, the Kings finished dead last in shooting percentage, scoring on only 7.49% of their shots. In the playoffs, that number jumped up to 9.32%. As a result, the team’s scoring jumped from 2.29 to 2.85 goals per game.

The Kings experienced the inverse of shooting statistics last season. After scoring on a healthy 9.15% of their shots in the regular season, that number dropped to 8.04% in the playoffs.

Could the Kings be in line for an increase in their shooting percentage, and as a result, a healthier offense?

From Corey Masisak’s NHL.com Super 16 rankings, here are the even strength shots that the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks have attempted:

And now, even strength goals scored by the Kings, compared to the even strength goals scored by the Ducks, who boast the league’s second best shooting percentage, at 10.35%:

As Masisak notes, the widest discrepancy between the teams’ scoring locations is Los Angeles’ inability to score regularly from the high-percentage area in the high slot, as noted by the top of the triangle highlighted. These are not perimeter or point shots, which have a higher percentage of being blocked. The stark absence of Kings goals from this area could be due to a combination of luck and perhaps the team’s puck possession play in the offensive zone, in which there is a high value placed on the ability to win competitions for the puck along the boards.

In any event, the Kings will be looking to bring some of their goal scoring ability back from Sochi. With Jeff Carter’s hat trick against Austria, he has combined with teammate Drew Doughty – who also has a goal today – and Dustin Brown to score six goals over the last two days of Olympic competition.