The NHL regular season came to an end and so did my "project" of collecting trustworthy location data for shots on goal taken by Montreal player P.K. Subban. As I've explained in my first post published here back in late November of 2014, inaccurate official data was the main reason why I've decided to review the games and gather more reliable shots on goal locations.

Officially, Subban recorded 170 shots on goal during 2014-15 regular season, but based on my reviews the correct number should be 169. So, before we take a look at the graphics which will display locations of his attempts to score a goal, one little stat correction. On February 8th playing at Boston, the Habs' defenseman took only two, but was credited with three shots on goal. With 7:07 into the second period (or 12:53 left to play in the period) the NHL.com ice tracker data is showing #76 as a player who took a shot from the left side.

Actually it was #67 Max Pacioretty, who took the wrist shot. With that said, the correct total numbers should be: 99 slap, 56 wrist, eight backhand, five snap shots and one tip-in which all adds up to 169 shots on goal, 35 less when compared to 2013-14 regular season. In many ways, recently concluded regular season was the best of Subban's 6-year NHL career. He scored 15 goals, added 45 assists and finished with 21 plus/minus, all career highs for the 6' and 217 lbs defenseman.

Now let's look at the first chart to see where 25-year old Canadien most often took shots on goal and where was he located when he actually scored a goal. On this point chart we can see all the shots except seven shots Subban took from own half of the ice.

The graphic reveals condensed shots on goal taken from the right point close to the blue line. With a closer look we can also see shots frequently fired on the opposite side but much closer to the face-off circle. Five of Subban's 15 goals were scored from that area of the ice and the vast majority of those shots came when the Canadiens had man advantage. More on the power play data split later on, but first a look at another way to present the same data with visualization known as heat map.

In order to come up with the visualization, I've divided the ice into a grid of so-called "shooting" cells defined with a regular hexagons with a side length of five feet. With the defined grid in place I was then able to count how many times the player took a shot from certain area of the ice. Next, I classified the counts into four color-coded classes and the result is the next visualization. Again, those seven shots P.K. took from own half of the ice are not included in the analysis.

We can't read from where on the ice Subban scored a goal from this chart, but overall, it's a more vivid representation of the same data. Subban covered more ice with his shots on the right side, but was stationed closer to the goal when he attempted shots from the left side. And this leads us to the already mentioned power-play data split.

On the next chart we'll be able to see only power play attempts from Toronto native who ended the season with eight goals when Montreal had man advantage with 11.6 percent shooting conversion rate.

Shooting tendency is clear from the above chart. Although there were number of shots triggered from the right side, the vast majority of Subban's 69 power play shots on goal came from the left side where he also scored seven of his eight goals in man advantage situations. Often times Subban started power plays stationed at right point position, before switching the sides with his partner and ended up with his deadly one-timers fired from the left side.

The rests are 98 shots on goal made at even strength and two shorthanded shots, both shot from own half of the ice. Here's the chart based on even strength shots on goal only.

As we can see this one paints completely different picture. Two things that come to mind. First, even strength shots are much more scattered if compared to shots displayed on power play chart and second, the shot on goal locations in this one shift more to the right side and are closer to the blue line, which was to be expected for a player playing right point position. The shooting percentage drops to 7.1 percent which is still higher when compared to last season's success rate or his career average currently standing at 6.3 percent.

For the second season in a row, Subban played in all 82 regular season games and was a big part of Montreal team which finished on top of Atlantic division. The Habs will now face the Senators in Round 1 of the 2015 NHL playoffs. In their four regular season meetings, Subban recorded 10 shots on goal, but ended those games without a goal. Hopefully, he'll be more productive in the playoff series and will help his team advance to the second round.

Follow @G_49er