Nikolai Kulemin's Shot and Goal Locations - JP Nikota at The Leafs Nation

I believe that shot location is critical in assessing a players' shooting percentages, and probably has some bearing on the sustainability of a player's goal totals. If, for example, a player collects a pile of goals shooting from the tops of the offensive zone faceoff circles, I would expect that teams would begin to notice the pattern, make adjustments, give their goalies time to see the shots, and for our hypothetical sniper to score fewer goals in the future. On the other hand, if a player is fast and/or skilled enough to drag the puck close the net before shooting, but doesn't wind up with many goals, I'd expect bounces to start going their way more often before too long.

Nikolai Kulemin's 17.3% shooting percentage in 2010-11 has been the cause of much debate. Just how lucky was he to score 30 goals? In 2008-09, he had a shooting percentage of 11.6% and in 2009-10 he shot 11%, for a career average of 13.6, so most of us are inclined to expect a regression. Were his shot and/or goal locations so different last season? I've got all his away game data at even-strength from three seasons published over the jump, so read on for more.

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