Corey Perry will score again. Probably.

But the Anaheim Ducks’ star winger is mired in a rather pronounced slump that’s particularly noticeable because it’s the beginning of the season. Through the first nine games, Perry has yet to register a goal. This is noteworthy for a player who, excluding the lockout shortened season, has posted totals of 33, 43, 37 and 50 goals going back the past four seasons.

Before digging into how or why this may be happening, it’s important to note that part of the reason Perry hasn’t scored yet is just bad luck. While he may or may not be doing things to contribute to this drought, one of the best goal scorers in the league does not suddenly forget how to score all together. Bad luck is involved in this.

The first place to look for Perry is his individual shot attempt rates. Here’s a look at his rates over the past five seasons

There has been a noticeable drop in the rate at which Perry is firing the puck so far this season. Perry’s rate of 13.77 shot attempts/60 so far in 2015-16 would be a career low for the Canadian-born winger. But, it’s not that bad of a rate. Perry ranks 103rd among the 357 NHL forwards who have skated at least 50 minutes so far this season. Certainly a drop, but still a respectable rate that could very easily correct itself over the course of the season to fall in line with Perry’s career rate.

Next is a look at where Perry is firing the puck from. Perhaps another contributing factor to his goalless streak is that he’s staying on the perimeter too much. Over the past three season, excluding the current one, Perry has generated 2.11 shot from the slot, per 60 minutes of ice time, above the league average. The image below shows his rate so far this season (the graphic is from the indispensable War on Ice. Their name was cut out in cropping to get the image to fit).

Perry is actually higher above the league average in shot rate from the slot so far this season. So, it is not as if Perry has, consciously or unconsciously, made changes to his game this season that have kept his shots more to the perimeter. He’s actually outpacing the rest of the league at a higher clip than usual this season in terms of generating shots from the slot.

So, while his shot rate is down, Perry has increased his rate above the league average in shots from the slot.

Perry is also still driving play when he’s on the ice, as indicated by his +3.04 percent relative shot attempt percentage. Scoring chances tell the same story, as the Ducks see a 3.77 percent increase in the share of overall scoring chances when Perry is on the ice as opposed to on the bench.

Perry is going to score again and he’s likely to do so in bunches ones he breaks his drought. While a nine game (and counting) goalless streak, for a scorer of Perry’s caliber, probably shouldn’t be blown off as only bad luck, there’s still plenty to like about his game so far in 2015-16. And so, expect a breakout game from Perry soon, and a whole lot more goals to come after that.

Probably.