Before this season, Gustav Nyquist’s career-high in goals was three. That was accomplished last season in 22 National Hockey League games with the Detroit Red Wings.
But he’s since started filling the net with greater propensity. He hit the 20-goal plateau for this season on Thursday, and now has four goals in his last three games. As Ansar Khan of MLive.com reports, it’s because Nyquist is shooting the puck more and more. A quick glance at his statistics shows he’s up to 121 shots in 44 games this season.
In 22 regular season games last season, he had only 46 shots. That would’ve put him on pace for about 92 shots over a 44-game period. So, that’s significantly lower than what he’s at in 2013-14 with Detroit.
“He’s getting good opportunity, but the other thing he’s doing is shoot the puck; he’s got to continue to shoot the puck,” Red Wings’ head coach Mike Babcock told MLive.com.
“In the National League you score by shooting, not by passing. So he’s done a good job in that area.”