The Quest for Goals

The Florida Panthers have put together a nice little run for themselves – They have points in 7 straight games, they are one of two teams in the NHL without a regulation road loss (Pittsburgh is the other), and they are 4^th in the league in goals against per game. However, something just doesn’t feel right. The team is climbing the standings despite losing games in overtime. Yes, I’m talking about the “loser point.”

Personally, I don’t care for the “loser point”. If you were to remove it, the Panthers would be 4 and 6 so far this year. Fortunately for them though, the “loser point” is keeping them afloat in the standings. The Panthers are finding ways to get points day in and day out which is what matters most. What makes this even more impressive is that they have done it while only scoring more than 2 goals in any given game once.

Allowing 1.9 goals against per game is outstanding. The only teams who are better than the Panthers in that regard are Chicago, St. Louis and Anaheim. That’s some pretty serious company. Game in and game out, we are seeing impeccable defense from the blue line corps and stellar goaltending from Roberto Luongo.

Let’s talk about Luongo for a second.

He’s faced 264 shots on the year and has stopped 246 of them. That puts him at a .932 sv% among goalies who are classified as “starters”. This would be good for 5^th best in the league (If you’re looking at sv% league-wide, then his backup has the best in the NHL).

In terms of total shots attempts taken against the Panthers? They’re second lowest in the league with 529 shot attempts against. To give you some context, the league worst Buffalo Sabres have allowed 927. To make these numbers stand out even more, these numbers are taken from every situation, not just 5 on 5. This includes when they are shorthanded, which in terms of minutes is 6^th worst in the league.

So with all of these stellar defensive stats, why are the Panthers 4-6? It’s because they aren’t scoring goals.

It seems that Gallant and his coaching corps have focused on locking up the team defensively. It makes sense to build from the net out and that is exactly what they are doing. They have had reasonable success with this and even though they have picked up points in 7 straight games, the “loser point” cannot be relied upon to get you anywhere meaningful. The Panthers aren’t playing for overtime, they are just playing the type of game that focuses on team defense, which in turn sacrifices the offensive output that a team needs to win games regularly.

The Panthers’ shot attempts this year are a league worst 490. The next worst team has 535 shot attempts. It’s clear that they aren’t shooting enough. They could be looking for shot quality instead of shot quantity but that isn’t there either. The average distance of a Panthers shot is 36.14 feet. That needs to improve. The Panthers would need to get closer if they want to generate a “higher quality shot” if they’re going to start scoring more. This definitely contributes to the Panthers’ 5.54% shooting percentage which is second worst in the league. Part of their lack of shooting can also be contributed to them only starting in the offensive zone 27.76% of the time.

The Panthers have the tools to score more, they’re just not immediately choosing to do so. The coaches are just simply focusing on a “defense-first” style of game and that isn’t a bad thing, given their success on the defensive side of the puck. The Panthers have been able to string together points consistently with their lack of scoring. Now, when they figure out that part of their game, the team should be able to be a very competitive force in the league. In the meantime, I think they will settle for being one of the best defensive teams in the NHL right now.

Mike Obrand can be reached for contact on Twitter or via email at [email protected].