SHOT BLOCKING AND SAA
43% of shot attempts never make it on net. It would therefore seem that a team’s commitment to shot blocking could have a big impact on the number of shots actually faced.
This evidence certainly doesn’t show that playing on a top defensive club hurts one’s save percentage; if anything it suggests the opposite.
I remain unconvinced that playing on a strong defensive team makes it tougher to put up high save percentages.
These findings also show significant differences in shot-blocking tactics, which support the use of Fenwick or Corsi numbers rather than raw shot totals to evaluate team puck possession.
DO DEFENSEMEN INFLUENCE SV%
Teams that block more shots tend to have lower save percentages, on average.
Shot blocking seems to have an effect on goaltender save percentage that is residual and cannot be accounted for by the shot quality data.
So in other words, even if blocking shots worsens save percentage on shots that get to the net, shot blocking might still be a huge net gain because it prevents a ton of shots from even hitting the net.
GOALIES & SHOT BLOCKING
(Oct 2014)
It would be logical to assume that a goalie’s numbers would be adversely affected by a system in which his defenders screen him as frequently as opposing forwards, but is that truly the case?
I used a metric I called Possession-Independent Shot Blocking (PISB) to ascertain the rate at which teams block shots. It simply divides shots blocked by total shot attempts against (on the road, to account for scorer bias)
a higher shot-blocking rate has generally led to a higher save percentage
It’s difficult to say with any confidence that shot blocking leads to better save percentages, but until our metrics improve, I certainly wouldn’t assume that Bourne’s claim is correct. In fact, I’d wonder if it might even be the opposite.
GOALIES CAN’T STOP WHAT THEY CAN’T SEE
(Jan 2019)
teams have an understanding as to whether the defender will take away the strong or weak side on an incoming shot.
Guys go out there strategically to know which lane I’m picking for a sightline and they’re taking away the other half and making big blocks. That’s a huge part of why we’re having success defensively.” One half for the goalie to worry about, one half for the defender
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