Ryan Robbins writes:
>Most of the shots in the first period by Maine were shots *at*
>the goal, but Roloson never had to touch them. Therefore, I can-
>not see how Roloson could be credited with so many saves.
>
>Is there a definition of a shot on goal for scorers to follow?
 
Well, first this is something out of the ordinary to me, for the *home*
team to be credited with more shots than they deserve.  In my
experience, when the totals have been inflated, they tend to be more
so for the visitors.  That way the home goalie can be given more
saves.  In fact, I have been places where the person helping out said,
"Aw, give it to him, he'll have more saves."
 
Anyway, like I have said, Heather and I split doing the chart at
Merrimack, and I have done it at Northeastern and Merrimack for about
7 years now.  My rule is, would it have gone in if the goalie did not
make the save?  1 inch wide is wide, to me.  But it's not possible to
see all angles, so sometimes you have to make a guess.  Remember that
for a particular shot, you may have a better view than the person
recording the SOGs.
 
It sounds like you are suggesting that some of the Maine shots that
were headed wide were counted as SOGs.  Sometimes you'll see this, if
a goalie gloves it or makes the stop just outside the net - often it's
close enough that the person keeping track counts it.  That's more to
do with the individual people who do the charts than any rule.  Some
people count anything close, some people are real picky.
 
There are issues dealing with the tracking of shots wide and blocked,
too, since these also appear on the chart.  Suppose Team A dumps it
in and it goes just wide.  Is this a shot wide?  I think I have seen
enough hockey by now :-) to tell when the intent was to dump it in, so
I'll usually make the call on that one.  But what about a clearing
pass that rolls in on the goalie - is this a SOG?  If it's on net,
I'll award a save, because hey, it WOULD have gone in.  Some folks
don't call that a shot because the goalie had an easy time of it.
Well, I've seen a few of those go in, and in those cases it HAD to be
a SOG.  So IMO, it is always one.
 
Another comes when the goalie is out of the net and a defenseman
blocks a shot.  Is that a SOG; does the defenseman get a save?  I say
no in both cases.  No one other than the goalie gets saves.  And, the
defenseman gets a blocked shot.  Thus, it's not a shot on goal.
 
More than you ever wanted to know about SOGs.  I'm always interested
to hear what other people think about this, btw.  Since there isn't
anything official on much of this, I have to decide for myself, and
though I think my reasoning is pretty good, I am always open to
hearing why I might be wrong.
---                                                                 ---
Mike Machnik                                          [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMM* 11/13/93
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