New York Islanders: Mathew Barzal Doesn’t Have To Shoot More

One of the biggest criticisms of New York Islanders star, Mathew Barzal is that he doesn’t shoot enough. That’s actually completely false.

It seems like every year there is a false narrative when people discuss the New York Islanders. Last year, and this offseason, it was Anders Lee and Josh Bailey was a product of John Tavares. We’ve learned now, as both are having fine seasons, that rhetoric was clearly false.

This year, there are actually people out there getting on Mathew Barzal not shooting. After last night’s goal against the Vegas Golden Knights, he now has five goals on the season.

As of right now, he’s on pace for 12 goals over an 82 game season. Of course, the natural reaction from many is getting on Barzal for not putting pucks on net. That actually isn’t his problem at all.

When looking at the number of shots, Barzal is third on the team with 77 shots on goal. He’s only behind Johnny Boychuk who always puts a ton of shots on goal and Anders Lee who is coming off a 40 goal season.

For someone who never shoots, 77, on pace for 186 shots (16 more than last year) is a lot. This is all on the heels of a game last night where Barzal had four shots on goal, nobody else had more than two shots on net.

The next logical thing to look at is his scoring chances. Last year when Barzal scored 22 goals he had 84 high danger scoring chances according to Natural Stat Trick. This season, he is on pace for 99 high danger scoring chances, and remember he’s only on pace for 12 goals.

So why aren’t pucks going in the back of the net? Probably luck. To some, that’s such a cop-out answer but there’s no other explanation. Hockey is a game of chance, really all sports are. The stats can only tell you so much.

He’s on pace to have more shots on goal and more high danger scoring chances than last year yet his goal total is on pace to be 10 goals fewer than last year’s. That’s hockey, Suzyn. Sometimes the numbers don’t tell the full story. In fact, Barzal is doing just fine. The Hockey Gods should even it out for him soon.