Re: RPI III: Revenge of the Seth
not to be a jerk or anything but O'Grady's goal came on "just throwing it at the net" from Brutlag, it was not a great shot by any means, and while Pirri did get position for Jerry's goal - the shot was still deflected and essentially "thrown" at the bodies in front of the net.
The key is - get the freaking puck to the net. You don't have to get a perfect pass every time. Having a high goals/shot is nice, but putting the puck on net creates a ton of chances - Princeton had quite a few that they SHOULD have finished and came by just putting the puck towards the net.
It's great that we have the skill to control the puck, but we still do lose it by playing around with it too much - whether we're on the PP or not.
We can't have stellar goal tending every single night, we're still going to need to put more shots on net when we have the puck in the offensive zone.
TL;DR Putting the puck on net doesn't hurt, goalies make mistakes(I think we should know that) just like everyone else, but obviously if we can get a quality chance its better - but if theres not much, throw it at the goal.
You really don't know what you're getting at if your complaint about O'Grady's goal was "he just threw it at the net." That's what he does. Brutlag took the right shot, it was saved. O'Grady was in the right place at the right time and took his opportunity. That's not a function of just putting the puck on the net. That's a function of Brutlag taking his shot. You score when you shoot the puck at the right time. And guess what? This weekend, that's exactly what we did. When it wasn't the right time, by and large, we weren't shooting. We were maintaining possession, which has a double purpose. It gives us time to find the right opening, and it keeps the other team from being able to go on offense. You lose that when you just throw the puck on net.
When you are passing and maintaining control of the puck as well as this team has done this past weekend, there's no need to waste that control by throwing the puck on net pell mell. True, you can sometimes lose control of the puck by playing with it too much, but you're also pretty likely to lose control if you can't score on your shots. What's the purpose of just shooting it if it's a low probability shot? More than likely, you're just turning over the puck. Some teams have to take low probability shots because they're just as likely to turn the puck over after a few passes. But if that's not happening, why turn it over with a shot that's just thrown in there?
The Bergin and Polacek goals specifically were functions of patience over substance. They waited for the perfect opportunity - in Bergin's case, he found the right shooting situation, in D'Amigo's case he found the perfect passing lane - and pulled the trigger on more productive shots that had a better chance of hitting the back of the net, and they did. If Pirri had just shot it instead of looking for D'Amigo on that last goal, Polacek never gets his opportunity to score, and Pirri probably doesn't score either.
Patience is the sign of a discipline and mature team. Throwing shots on net shows a complete lack of confidence in your ability to maintain control. They haven't done anything to suggest that they will have a problem maintaining control when they have possession. Absolutely no reason to blow that advantage away by just taking silly shots. They were just outshot 2-to-1 and managed to outscore their opponents 4-to-1. So obviously, it's working.
By the way, while you complain about other teams doing it and claiming that we can't depend on solid goaltending... why not? The defense has been superb, keeping their heads even when the team doesn't have the puck, and making a lot of York's saves easier. Other times, he's been there to make the big stops when they count. He could do without wandering so much, but nobody's perfect.
We don't get to dictate what other teams decide to do when they have the puck unless our defense forces them to do things they'd rather not. If they're going to be forced to take low probability shots all game, I trust Allen York to make those saves.
