PHILADELPHIA \u2013 When there\u2019s five seconds left in a period and the Flyers are busy passing the puck around the offensive zone at Xfinity Mobile Arena, you can hear the fans shout in chorus: \u201cSHOOT!\u201d<\/p>\n
Maybe those spectators should do that for the entire game.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the Flyers are near the bottom of the National Hockey League in shots on net.<\/p>\n
Perfect example: In their two games preceding Monday night\u2019s game against the New York Rangers, the Flyers had totaled just 31 shots (16 vs. Utah, 15 vs. Pittsburgh).<\/p>\n
No matter how you cut it, that\u2019s not a formula for success. If an opposing goalie doesn\u2019t have to work that hard, chances are he will be fairly fresh right down to the final horn.<\/p>\n
The Flyers are well aware of the problem and sound determined to do something about it.<\/p>\n
Defenseman Jamie Drysdale knows the team has to not only generate more shots but make sure they get on net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a mixed bag,\u201d after Monday morning\u2019s pre-game skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, N.J. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s just us turning away shots, just looking for perfect plays, things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you look up and you don\u2019t see bodies in front of the net. That can deter you from taking shots. So I think maybe it\u2019s a matter of simplifying the game and not turning away shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six defensemen might be the most guilty parties.<\/p>\n
The solution?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I think it\u2019s just having a shooting mindset,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cNot looking for those perfect plays and resetting a lot of pucks, which is fine. Kind of brings you back to where you were before you got the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drysdale said a defenseman should try to work his way to the middle, between the dots.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being in places where you can get shots through,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just having a shooter\u2019s mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drysdale has perhaps the hardest, most accurate shot from the point, which plays a part in why he quarterbacks the first power-play unit.<\/p>\n
In light of that 31-shot total for two games, Drysdale was asked if players on the bench pay attention to the number of shots taken by each team.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, the answer was not much.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt probably depends on the guy to be honest,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cI mean sometimes you will look up and see what the shots are and. . .maybe we should shoot more.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour odds (of scoring) aren\u2019t going to be very high if you have six or 10 shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
One team which does take a lot of shots is Carolina, which just happens to lead the Eastern Conference standings.Coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour\u2019s crew tries to get as many shots as possible, from all angles and all situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every team needs to find what works for them,\u201d Drysdale said. \u201cCarolina has a team that throws a lot of pucks toward the net, from behind the goal line, kind of anywhere. That\u2019s been working for them. There\u2019s definitely a happy medium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consensus is we have to get more shots toward the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet scored 48 goals one season and that didn\u2019t just happen by picking and choosing where to shoot from. There were nights when he was firing five, six, seven shots at the net when he played for the Flyers and the Penguins.<\/p>\n
Tocchet has assistant coach Todd Reirden working with his defensemen to get this issue straightened out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the eye test and there\u2019s analytics, right,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cI think we\u2019re last in shots from the point. Todd is working with them on creating shots with lanes and positioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want Jamie and \u2018Yorkie\u2019 (Cam York) to shoot more. But they\u2019ve been defending really well. So it\u2019s just baby steps. I think we\u2019re fourth-best at limiting shots. So there\u2019s a little give-and-take.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2013 When there\u2019s five seconds left in a period and the Flyers are busy passing the puck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,11211],"class_list":{"0":"post-498032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-dln"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116210364898839529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}