Thrashers need answers to shots-on-goal discrepencies

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s one glaring mark on the Thrashers’ season.

The team that is among the NHL leaders in several statistical categories is dead last in one -- shots on goal allowed.

The Thrashers are giving up a league-worst 34.9 shots per game. They have been outshot in 26 of their 34 games by an average margin of 11 shots in those contests. In 13 of the 26 games, the margin has been in double-digits.

“That’s a bad stat to be at the worst end of,” Thrashers defenseman Ron Hainsey said Sunday.

In the Thrashers’ past four games, they have given up 42, 47, 29 and 48 shots. Despite a 2-2 record in that span, they’ve given up a total of 166 shots, an average of 41 per game.

“It’s too much, no question,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said.

The statistics beg two questions. What’s the matter? What are they going to do about it?

As he has said time and time again, Anderson re-stated that his team is selective in the shots it takes, opting to pass to set up a better scoring chance. Another team, say Saturday’s opponent New Jersey, tends to put shots on goal from all angles.

“If you see some of the shots that [other teams] are taking, there are some shots that I wouldn’t want our guys to take because the goalie gets it and moves it,” Anderson said. “Other teams have a different philosophy. They are going to put the puck on net and go after it. What’s right and what’s wrong? It’s a philosophy.”

That’s one consideration, but there are others. Most are defensive lapses, according to Anderson, Hainsey and captain Ilya Kovalchuk.

“Defensively, we can do much better,” Kovalchuk said. “We score enough goals, but defensively we give up too many, myself included. The last goal [against New Jersey], I didn’t see the guy, but I have to know he’s back there.”

Kovalchuk was referring to the game-winner in the Devils’ 5-4 win Saturday night, a game in which the Thrashers were out-shot 42-26. Dean McAmmond, who entered the game with one goal and finished with three, stepped inside the blue line and whipped a shot on goal from 55 feet away, beating a screened goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.

The Thrashers goaltending has been a big reason they are 18-13-3 (39 points) and in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Johan Hedberg is tied for fourth in the NHL in save percentage (.927).

Some of the other issues, according to Hainsey, are:

• All five players on the ice need to be on the same page. “If one guy gets off the page, then somebody else is trying to do their job and so on. Then you end up with chances and rebounds and such.”

• Be more careful with the puck, especially in the neutral zone. “When you turn it over, you are already out of position.”

• Better offensive zone positioning. “We can’t get caught with everyone down low.”

• More time in the offensive zone. “When you get [the puck] in there, you can’t let it out and let the other team have it for 35-40 seconds because you get tired. Things happen when you get tired and you take penalties. All five guys need to be working together to get it out [of the defensive zone] and get on offense.”

• Handle to inevitable odd-man rushes. “All five guys have to get back in a hurry, get on the same page to get the puck out, as opposed to letting them have a rush and then spend another 35 seconds in our zone because we can’t get it out. That’s when you get second chances and third chances. That’s how you rack up 46 shots.”

Anderson has cautioned his team about play in the “danger zones,” the area five feet on either side of the blue lines. Turn the puck over in those areas and the opponent has taken over the offensive zone and is certain to get a shot on net.

“Let’s get control of the puck,” Anderson said. “One of my big things is, when we have the puck, we are great with it. Let’s get it. We have to have a little more urgency to get it as opposed to chasing it around.”

Anderson said he and his staff have spent time in practice on the team’s defensive zone coverage, danger zone coverage and neutral zone coverage. Fix those things and improved stats – and more wins – should follow.

“We can do it,” Hainsey said. “We’ve had games where we’ve kept teams under 30 shots. It’s just doing it every night. There is a big difference. New Jersey does it every night. They keep the other team in the 20s. We do it one out of four games. We do it 25 percent of the time, they do it all the time.

"That’s quite a few points in the standings. It’s not that hard to figure out. If you have A-plus goaltending, you have a little more room there. It’s great that we’ve had as good of goaltending as anybody, from both our guys. They may be able to do it for 82 games, but we can't [allow so many shots]. We have done it. It’s about doing it every game.”