What you see above are the even-strength shots-for locations for the near-indisputable top team of the last five seasons (Chicago Blackhawks) versus the near-indisputable worst team of the last five seasons. This is a sort of visual anti-shot quality argument, a demonstration of why, across these five seasons, the indisputable #1 team would shoot 9.9% while the indisputable #30 team would shoot 9.6%. Notice the horseshoe design, about where defensemen normally sit, then jump up into the play. Notice the dense cluster around the high slot. All teams make these plays, try to make them, the difference being some are better at possessing and moving the puck to make the shot. What’s the primary difference above? The amount of shots.

None of the above charting is possible without Greg Sinclair’s awesome site, Super Shot Search. Bookmark it, use it, love it.

Oh, hey, what if I was to look at the teams with the best and worst save percentage these last five years? Would they look different in even-strength shots-against? Well, let’s see, Toronto and Boston:

There is a difference here, I think. I mean, the initial difference are the numbers, Boston’s SV% (92.1%) versus Toronto’s (89.5%). Another difference is it seems the two charts maintain roughly the same shot distributions, but flip ends of the rink. Not much to dwell on there. One thing I will say, that could relate to the SV% discrepancy, is that it doesn’t appear that Toronto records many, if any, shots from right along the boards. Now, I don’t know if this is a recorder’s error or not; it seems to me it’s pretty hard to get a shot from right tight along the boards. Maybe one recorder does it based on where the body of the skater was located, I don’t know. Or…Toronto does allow shooters to come in a little tighter, and Boston owns the center ice a bit better. Could that explain a near-3% discrepancy? I don’t think so; we know Toronto’s had worse goaltending. But it might’ve “helped.”