In my game story from the Penguins' loss in Buffalo over the weekend, I mentioned that the Penguins missed a high number of shots, with 14 attempts going wide or over the net, or hitting a post or the crossbar.
The 14 missed shots was four misses shy of the season-high mark, but not that unusual given the number of shots attempted overall. The Penguins attempted 61 shots that game, the eighth-most attempts in a single game this season. Obviously, if you're attempting more shots than usual, you're probably going to miss more shots than usual too. But it's not always a strong correlation.
Sometimes players just have more trouble hitting the net than usual in a game. For example, in the game in which the Penguins missed the season-high mark of 18 shots against the Capitals on Feb. 25, they attempted 52 shots, the 23rd-highest total of the season. In that case, they were just recording an usually high number of misses.
The reverse is sometimes true too, where everything the Penguins put on net just seems to connect in a game. The game in which the Penguins missed the net the least often was on Feb. 11 against the Islanders, when only three shot attempts were misses. It wasn't because they weren't attempting many shots, either. They attempted 58 in that game, the 13th-highest total of the season.
There was a comment on that aforementioned Sabres game story from a reader asking where the Penguins ranked this season when it comes to missed shots, saying it seems to them like the Penguins miss the net more than other teams.
Is that just a perception, or is it reality? And what do the results look like for individual Penguins players?
Let's break it down.
The Penguins are in the bottom half of the league when it comes to the frequency of attempted shots, with the Penguins attempting an average of 51.3 per 60 minutes, ranking 23rd in the league.
They have the sixth-fewest missed shots in the league, though, with 462 over 46 games, meaning they miss on average 10 times per game.
Of the Penguins' unblocked shot attempts, 25 percent miss the net.
How does that stack up against other East Divison opponents?
The Capitals attempt 51.16 shots per 60 minutes. They have 514 misses over 46 games, missing on average 11.2 times per game. Of the Capitals' unblocked shot attempts, 28 percent miss the net.
The Islanders attempt 51.41 shots per 60 minutes. They have 465 misses over 46 games, missing on average 10 times per game. Of the Islanders' unblocked shot attempts, 25.7 percent miss the net.
The Bruins attempt 56.11 shots per 60 minutes. They have 529 misses over 44 games, missing on average 12 times per game. Of the Bruins' unblocked shot attempts, 27 percent miss the net.
The Rangers attempt 52.98 shots per 60 minutes. They have 538 misses over 45 games, missing on average 12 times per game. Of the Rangers' unblocked shot attempts, 29.3 percent miss the net.
The Flyers attempt 53.46 shots per 60 minutes. They have 510 misses over 45 games, missing on average 11.3 times per game. Of the Flyers' unblocked shot attempts, 27.6 percent miss the net.
The Devils attempt 54.12 shots per 60 minutes. They have 538 misses over 45 games, missing on average 12 times per game. Of the Devils' unblocked shot attempts, 28.9 percent miss the net.
The Sabres attempt 48.66 shots per 60 minutes. They have 504 misses over 46 games, missing on average 11 times per game. Of the Sabres' unblocked shot attempts, 28.2 percent miss the net.
So if you're watching Penguins games and think that they tend to miss the net a lot, that's rooted in perception, not reality. The Penguins are the most accurate shooters in the division when it comes to proportion of unblocked shot attempts that reach the net, as well as overall misses per game. And league-wide, they're among the most accurate teams.
If we break it down by player, are there any anomalies, with any players recording an unordinary amount of misses given how often they attempt shots?
Not really.
The Penguins with the most misses this season -- Bryan Rust (57), Kris Letang (40), Sidney Crosby (38), and Jake Guentzel (36) -- are also their four players with the most shot attempts, in the same exact order. If it seems like Rust is missing the net more often than other skaters, it's because he is. But he's also attempting more shots than most, so that's not unusual. For example, Alex Ovechkin leads the league in misses this season with 80, but he doesn't exactly have an issue with his accuracy. He's just shooting a lot.
Jason Zucker (25) and Jared McCann (22) rank fifth and sixth respectively on the team in missed shots, which again isn't anything surprising given their workloads.
Looking at the breakdown of how exactly a shot is missed (wide, above, crossbar, or post), Crosby has struck iron the most on the team this season at six times, with five post shots and one crossbar. Rust fires the puck over the net more than anyone else with 10 missed shots that way, six more than anyone else.
Just with the overall team rankings, there isn't anything rooted in fact here that makes any one or handful of players stand out as being horribly inaccurate with their shooting. Certain things may lead you to have that perception, like if a player fires the puck over the net and misses on a huge opportunity in a tight game, that might stick in your mind and give you the idea that the team in general or specific players have issues with their accuracy. But the numbers themselves show that the Penguins are doing just fine in this area.