Shots on Goal and Shots at Goal

The Ottawa Senators may need to adjust the sites on their sticks.

In yesterday's 4-3 loss to the Penguins, the Sens attempted a whopping 77 shots, but 40 of those shots were either blocked by Pittsburgh skaters or missed the net entirely, so only 37 of them were actual shots "on goal." Now, 37 shots on goal in a game is still a ton of rubber for Marc-Andre Fleury to have to deal with (no NHL team averaged that many shots per game over the course of the season), but with 40 more shots not even having a chance of going in, that's an awful lot of wasted opportunity and effort.

To put that in perspective (and to have some fun with the numbers):

The Pens attempted just 33 shots, but 21 of them were on goal, with only five attempts missing the net and seven being blocked by Ottawa forwards and defensemen.
Sens 50-goal scorer Dany Heatley didn't register a shot on goal yesterday, but was credited with four missed shots. During the regular season, Heatley was eighth in the League in shots on goal and 12th in missed shots.
Senators blueliner Joe Corvo missed the net five times, which is not terribly surprising, given that for the season he was 21st among NHL defensemen in missed shots despite being 150th among rearguards in average ice time per game.
The Sens attempted the same number of shots yesterday -- 77 -- as the Cleveland Cavaliers (excluding free throws). LeBron and friends made 44 of their shots, while the Sens made three.
Pittsburgh blocked 19 shots, two more than the NBA single game record for blocked shots.

On one hand, the huge disparity between the two teams in shots attempted goes a long way towards showing the possessory and territorial advantages that Ottawa had yesterday and should encourage the Sens and their faithful. On the other hand, if the Sens can't get a higher percentage of their shots on goal (likely meaning more shots from high-traffic areas and fewer from the sideboards and the top of the zone), they'll be making life easy on Fleury ... and hard on themselves.