I tortured myself recently by watching every single goal scored in the four rounds of Vancouver's Cup run and decided to plot them to see if anything stood out. In hindsight there's a good deal of other activities I could have charted at the same time: pass charts, hits, penalties taken/drawn, etc. Perhaps later this summer I'll take another stab at it, but overall I wanted to know how Vancouver found paydirt as well as how the opponents solved Luongo/Schneider.
I originally was going to put all the charts and tables in one uber post, but it became a bit unyielding to read so I'll go round by round instead with a recap at the end. Ultimately the charts provide a different view of a story you already know: Vancouver had a rough first round, played stronger against Nashville and San Jose and - though close - were fairly schooled at both ends of the ice in the final.
Using ESPN, NHL.com and CBS Sportsline, here is the goal chart from the first round; Canucks' goals are plotted on the left, Hawks on the right.
[Click to view larger image]
How Vancouver scored, including the type of shot and the distance (as tabulated by ESPN; NHL and CBS had slightly different records). You can sort the columns by clicking on the header.
| Type | Distance (ft) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Higgins |
Tip | 13.2 |
| Hansen |
Wrist | 18.1 |
| Hansen |
Slap | 10 |
| D. Sedin |
Deflection | 7.1 |
| D. Sedin |
Wrist | 35.4 |
| Edler |
Slap | 34.1 |
| Ehrhoff |
Slap | 54 |
| Samuelsson |
Backhand | 17.5 |
| D. Sedin |
Wrist | 9.4 |
| Salo |
Slap | 48.1 |
| D. Sedin |
Tip | 5.4 |
| Burrows |
Wrist | 25 |
| Bieksa |
Backhand | 8.1 |
| D. Sedin |
Wrap | 7.2 |
| Burrows |
Slap | 12 |
| Burrows |
Slap | 26.2 |
Here's how Chicago scored, including where (location) they beat Luongo or Schneider.
| Type | Distance (ft) | Location |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Smith |
Wrist | 6.8 |
lower right |
| Smith |
Wrist | 18 | upper right |
| Stalberg | Wrist | 26.4 | lower right |
| Sharp | Slap | 22 |
lower left |
| Keith | Slap | 55.2 | upper right |
| Keith | Slap | 34.5 | upper right |
| Campbell | Snap | 24.1 | upper right |
| Sharp | Slap | 34 | upper left |
| Bolland | Wrist | 19.2 | lower left |
| Frolik | Wrist | 10.4 | lower left |
| Bickell | Wrist | 7.7 | lower left |
| Sharp * |
Wrist | 18.5 | lower left |
| Keith * |
Slap | 63.8 | lower left |
| Keith | Slap | 55.3 |
upper left |
| Hossa | Wrist | 33.4 | upper right |
| Kane | Deflection | 23.1 | upper left |
| Hossa * |
Wrist | 20 | upper right |
| Bolland | Slap | 22.4 | upper left |
| Smith | Backhand | 16.3 | upper left |
| Bickell * |
Wrist | 15.6 | upper left |
| Frolik * |
Penalty Shot |
8.6 | lower left |
| Toews | Wrist | 7 | five hole |
* = Goal scored against Cory Schneider
Some takeaways:
- Vancouver has nine scorers, Chicago had 11.
- Vancouver's sixteen goals came primarily from slap shots (at an average of 30.7 ft) or wristers (at an average of 22 ft).
- Roughly 55% of Chicago's goals were wristers with an average of 16.63 ft.
- 25% of Vancouver's goals were from defensemen.
-
4.6%22.7% of Chicago's goals came from defensemen. - Of the goals against Vancouver, 32% went low stickside, 27% went high gloveside and another 27% went high stickside.
- Daniel Sedin scored four different ways within ten feet of Crawford.
- Keith's slapshots were pure wrecking balls.
- Not surprisingly both teams struggled with rebound control.
- Games four and five saw Chicago dominate the 30 ft directly in front of Luongo or Schneider, directly between the circles (you'll see this happen again when we get around to the VAN/BOS chart which is by far uglier than the above).