Scoring goals and preventing goals is the driving force behind every drill created in hockey. Defensive structure, neutral zone play and offensive flow dominate practice rinks across Ontario. Teams that produce and prevent high quality shots win more games. With hockey continually transitioning deeper into analytics, a blueprint has begun to emerge on how to create more efficient opportunities. Recent studies of the neutral zone and teams creating offensive and limiting defensive zone entries with speed has shown an increased ability to control the possession game.

The desire to isolate these high ends opportunities was one of the driving forces behind my work on the Shot Quality Project at Sportsnet.ca. Shooting and save percentage count all shots on goal equally. In order to differentiate between these opportunities I focused my attention on more accurate location than the current data as well as pre-shot movement. I discovered that while only 15% of all NHL shots I reviewed involved pre-shot movement, it accounted for 50% of all goals scored.

Former New York Rangers goaltender and current TV Hockey Analyst for the Rangers and msg.com, Stephen Valiquette (also an OMHA grad) has taken his exhaustive study (he reviewed 100 games during the 2014/15 NHL season) in a new direction with the introduction of the Royal Road. When I saw Valiquette’s research, I realized that he provided a new dimension to my previous study and created another layer to the shot quality debate.

Valiquette has identified what he believes is the most important line on the ice, the line he believes supports the existence of shot quality. The Royal Road is a line that goes directly through the middle of the ice from one net to the other. It separates the ice into two equal parts. Valiquette has observed that a puck crossing this imaginary line immediately preceding a shot increases a shooter's scoring opportunity by over 10 times.