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League Leaders: Wraparounds

Detroit Red Wings' Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, pushes the puck away from Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane (88) during an attempt at a wraparound in front of goalie Chris Osgood during the second period of Game 2 of the NHL hockey Western Conference finals in Detroit, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

More photos » Carlos Osorio - AP

9 months ago: Detroit Red Wings' Marian Hossa (81), of Slovakia, pushes the puck away from Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane (88) during an attempt at a wraparound in front of goalie Chris Osgood during the second period of Game 2 of the NHL hockey Western Conference finals in Detroit, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

What can you say about wraparounds? You just don't see them very often anymore.  As a distinct type of shot, they're by far the least common of those tracked by the NHL.  And, as it turns out, they're not a particularly high-percentage play:

ES ES PP PP
SOG G SPCT SOG G SPCT
Total 3673 197 5.3 407 35 8.4
Home 1905 108 5.7 228 18 7.9
Away 1768 89 5.0 179 16 8.9

 

So who leads the league in these low-percentage shots?  Again, there's somewhat of a bias at some rinks, so let's look at wraparounds on the road since the lockout:

 

Wraparounds Goals
Ryan Smyth 31 2
Eric Staal 25 4
Richard Zednik 23 0
Jason Blake 22 1
Rick Nash 22 1
Tim Taylor 21 0
Brett McLean 21 1
Thomas Vanek 20 0
Michal Handzus 19 1
Marian Hossa 18 0

 

Smyth is again the league leader, but he hasn't been particularly effective.  If we include wraparounds credited to him by his home scorer and his itchy trigger finger, Smyth is just 5-for-89 (5.6%) since the lockout.  Zednik is 0-for-40.  Bottom line: the wraparound was a cute move in 1980; now everybody knows it's coming.

Poll
Wraparounds - waste of effort?
yes
11 votes
no
10 votes
they worked great for me when I was nine years old
14 votes

35 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  Comment 3 comments |

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Not only do we know it's coming

But, speaking as a goalie myself, the lateral game in the past 15 years has advanced to the point where, when I see someone pulling behind the net, I genuinely HOPE he’ll try a wraparound – it’s much easier to make myself look big against the post than stop a well-placed pass to the slot.

by Vent on Nov 12, 2009 10:52 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Love the poll.

Silver Seven: the Daniel Alfredsson of Ottawa Senators blogs.

by DarrenM on Nov 12, 2009 6:11 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

The thing about a wraparound is, while the effect over the year has dropped drastically, it can create second chance opportunities, so I’m curious what the Goals/60 is after a wraparound shot.

For the shot in itself, it’s only real useful if you’re going behind the net with real speed and have the goalie caught.

by Moneypuck on Nov 14, 2009 8:14 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

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