By John Vogl
Jim Corsi has an interesting resume. For example, the Sabres' goaltending coach used to announce WWE television shows in Italian. (Andiamo, Cena!)
But his lasting legacy will be the "Corsi rating."
Years ago, he began tracking players’ shot differential, totaling the goals, saves, missed and blocked shots at both ends when a player is on the ice. A positive number means the opponent’s goalie is being tested, while a negative rating means that player’s netminder is busier.
Only four of the 23 skaters who have played for Buffalo have a positive number, according to statistical Website BehindTheNet.ca: Christian Ehrhoff, Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno and Thomas Vanek.
“We’re spending way too much time in our zone,” captain Jason Pominville said. “We’re running around. We spend too much time without the puck.”
The stats back that up. Only three teams in the NHL are worse than the Sabres in shot differential per game:
Edmonton minus-7.8
Nashville minus-7.4
Dallas minus-7.1
Buffalo minus-5.0
It's obviously something the Sabres need to change if they hope to start winning. They need to start testing the opposition, not just use Ryan Miller as a target.
"Shots on goal isn’t always a translation,” the goaltender said. “I can stand in there and play some hockey, too. We’ve just got to translate it into getting the puck back and getting some more opportunities and sharing the balance of the opportunities with that other team.
“Eventually, we’ll start taking that over. That’s what I would hope our goal is here.”
tagged
Jim Corsi | Ryan Miller
