Five games in and Colorado coach Patrick Roy is already on the defensive about his team’s advanced stats.
“The part I don’t like about the Corsi is you could shoot from the redline, or you could shoot from a terrible angle and your Corsi will look good,” Roy said today (video).
While technically true, we’re not aware of any team that actually does just shoot from wherever in hopes of improving its Corsi. That wouldn’t be very smart hockey. By and large, a team’s Corsi is a reasonably good measure of how much it’s controlling the puck.
Anyway, you probably don’t have to be told that the Avalanche don’t have a very good Corsi. In fact, it’s the worst in the league, according to War On Ice.
On Sunday, the Avs (2-3-0) lost 2-1 in Los Angeles and were outshot 40-23. They’ve been outshot in each of the five games they’ve played this season, by a combined margin of 163-121.
“I don’t think it’s because of the numbers of shots we’ve been giving, it’s more of the shots that we’re not taking,” said Roy, who prefers to track scoring chances rather than measures like Corsi or Fenwick.
Of course, the Avs haven’t been very good in that department either, per War on Ice.
Colorado hosts Carolina on Wednesday.