Anaheim’s early scoring woes; Crawford, Halak, Nielsen, Fantasy tips and more in Scott Cullen’s Statistically Speaking.
There may not be a more puzzling story early in this NHL season than the scoring woes of the Anaheim Ducks, a team that ranked 11th in the league last season, with 2.78 goals per game.
This year, the Ducks have a laughable six goals in eight games (0.75 per game) and it’s very difficult to win games with that meagre production.
Start with a power play that is a league-worst 1-for-22 (4.5%), but recognize that power plays can run rather streaky, so while the Ducks need to improve there, they had power play trouble from time to time last season (including a 0-for-19 stretch over seven games in late December, and 1-for-24 over 13 games in February/March last year) and it didn’t prevent them from scoring altogether.
So, let’s look at those that are expected to drive the Ducks’ attack.
Ryan Getzlaf is generating 2.75 shots on goal per game, his best rate since 2008-2009, and his rate of shot attempts (18.3 per 60 minutes) is easily his best. Basically, it’s crazy that he hasn’t found the net yet.
While Getzlaf is a star, he’s more of a playmaker. The finisher on this Ducks roster is Corey Perry, a five-time 30-goal scorer whose shot rate is way down.
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