Boo Birds and "Shoot" Birds

So even from the team, they are recognizing that they need to take more shots, especially with the man-advantage. Fans have recognized their lack of aggressiveness with the 5-on-4 advantage, and the even less shots that come on two-man advantages. However, this idea that fans should stop telling shoot gets mocked and ridiculed by the media.

Last Thursday, during the two o'clock hour of the Common Man Show on FM 100.3 KFAN, radio personality, and appointed resident hockey expert for the station, Brandon Mileski, had this to say in reply to a listener email:

Listen to the whole show here

For the first 15 games of the season, the Wild ranked third in all situations for Corsi For per 60 minutes with 60.3. They also poured on the pressure with the man-advantage by attempting 162 shots. Now things didn't go well for the team as they owned an abysmal 6.67 conversion rate on the power play during that stretch. Mileski had a sarcastic comment about that too.

Through 15 games of the season, the Wild were getting 6.47 shot on goal per power play, but they suffered a horrendous 4.19 shooting percentage, hence the terrible power play numbers.

In the last 16 games, where fans have been more boisterous, the Wild have posted a power play closer to their three-year average at 15.42 percent. They've also been shooting less. Their shots on goal per power play has dropped to 4.69, but the shooting percentage has gone up to 13.33 percent all with the man-advantage. The attempted shots have dropped drastically too, to just 124 CF. That's including three power play opportunities in which they didn't get a single shot on net.

So what should we make of this?

Whatever the Wild were doing at the beginning of the year that was allowing them to get more rubber on net is not to blame for the low percentage. In fact, the Wild should be employing that same strategy as the shooting percentage has begun to climb. In the 15 games to start, there was never a power play opportunity wasted by not getting a shot on goal.

I know that I have been guilty of yelling at my TV for players to shoot, because, frankly, I don't believe that they're necessarily getting more creative as Mileski believes is what's plaguing this team. Rather the shots just happen to be going in. When we saw the power play clicking in preseason and ultimately play well with no pay-off, players have since become gun-shy. Do you need to have some standard when taking shots? Sure. But there's shooting to score, which the defensemen and forwards are trying to do too much of, and shooting to create more shots, which is what the Wild were doing to start the season, in my opinion.

By all means, a 15.42 percent power play should be the bare minimum for a team loaded with talent like the Wild is. Ultimately, you'd like to see more shots get put on goal now as the team looks like it is starting to crawl out of the cellar in terms of power play.

And this should go for every situation, not just the power play. The CF60 for all situations in the first 15 games was ranked third in the league with 60.3. in the time since November 13^th, the Wild has fallen to 10^th with a 57.3 CF60, which can also be seen in the possession numbers, because, as you know, if the team is not attempting a lot of shots, they are not possessing the puck nearly as often as they had been. While the Wild still lead the league in fewest shots on goal given up per game, they should be looking to play that up-tempo, possession-style game that won them games in the beginning of the season to help cover up their goaltending woes. In this case, the best defense will most certainly have to be a better offense.

So is yelling "shoot" as a fan in the stands something to be embarrassed about?

Is it something to be ridiculed by media types? Absolutely not. Wild fans aren't expecting the Wild to shoot just for the sake of shooting, because it is doesn't make sense to let one fly from the red line. But what Wild fans are expecting is more decisiveness and a killer instinct from their team and by refusing to pull the trigger when the opportunity is there, the team looks passive and submissive. Rather than going out to get that win, they look to just be happy with just being in the game.