Notre Dame finished with 31 official shots on goal

Notre Dame finished with 31 official shots on goal
by wearendhockey (2020-03-07 23:07:39)

That doesn't count the 4 posts. That total is a pretty typical output for the Irish this season, as they averaged 30.86 shots per game.

What troubles me though is the shots they don't take, and their tendency to fail to recognize when a shot is there, and when it isn't. This stems from an overall lack of dynamic skilled offensive players, something most who watch them already realize of course.

In a typical game this season I've lost count of how many times they make one extra move that removes them from a prime shooting area, or even one extra transfer from forehand to back or back to fore, and take a much lower percentage shot as a result. They constantly move a deep puck further out for a shot, and among Big Ten teams they are clearly the weakest at generating traffic or crashing the net. The crashing the net part is pitifully bad. We do not have players who get gritty goals at all. Morrison is clutch, but he does that with his skill as much as his grind.

Minnesota played better tonight, and Notre Dame played a little worse, but the amount of time we possessed the puck should have led to more than one goal. Both nights. Morris (or any goalie) should not be prohibited from making one lousy mistake. The first goal was all on him. He should make that save 100% of the time. But the second goal was clearly a team fail, Morris included.

After this much time as a relevant program Notre Dame should be able to recruit the pieces they frequently seem to be missing. When I pounded my head against the glass after near misses in 1973, or 1977, or 1982 those were teams that were almost lost to be wandering that close to an NCAA bid. Not anymore.

Maybe they need to emulate Penn State a little bit more

but not to their extreme. There were so many open shots they passed up tonight in search of the "perfect" shot. They are generous to a fault sometimes in passing to their teammates instead of shooting.

There are a lot of ways to get it done.

Anders Lee was masterful at creating his own space to finish with his physical play. Mario Lucia had an actual NHL caliber shot, and when the opponent lost him, he was quite deadly. Anders Bjork was better at recognizing another team's breakdown than most college players, and as a result found himself in good places to finish a scoring opportunity. I don't think this team has that type of talent. It needs a couple of players like that.

I would not like watching a PSU style much more than I did Ferris State. Notre Dame (and the entirety of hockey at all levels) takes too many shots to generate their 30 or 31 on net each game. Notre Dame probably attempts 20-25 shots a game that miss the mark or get blocked. Penn State probably does that 40 times a game.

Offense in hockey is all about odd-man breakdowns. We all know and love the 2-on-1 or 3-on-1 rush. Well even after you establish offense zone possession it is a matter of finding the odd skater and that skater then shooting. Of course if the shot is generated from far enough out it is also a matter of traffic to occupy the goalie and/or crashing the net. Notre Dame missed a half dozen good potential looks so far this weekend because they did not have people crashing after shots. They managed to also generate a few nice chances because they did do that. Got to happen all the time or almost all the time.