You hear them in every rink.
On the power play, as the puck is moved around the offensive zone, someone yells, ‘Shoooooooot!’
Sometimes it seems like the players listen, as they fire a puck into a defenders shin pad and watch as the disc gets cleared down the ice.
Chilliwack Chiefs forward PJ Marrocco says he doesn’t hear those people, but if there was one player who would be likely to launch one it is the 19 year old from Edmonton.
Marrocco says he’s the type of guy who will take shots from anywhere, because if you don’t shoot you can’t score.
“I believe in firing pucks from everywhere because if you don’t put it on net you’re never going to score, and even if you don’t score you create opportunities,” Marrocco said. “Back in Bonnyville (AJHL) at the start of this year, I was able to score on a shot from the top of the (faceoff) circle in my own end.
“It was a penalty kill where I just tried to get it on net and it ended up going in.”
Marrocco’s Chiefs have come out of Christmas with a 3-1 record, out-shooting their foes in each of the four games.
Their first game out of the break was a 2-1 overtime win over Surrey where they out-shot the Eagles 41-27.
They out-shot Coquitlam 29-12 in a 3-2 home ice win Dec. 30 and held a 39-23 edge over Surrey in a 4-1 win at Prospera Centre last Saturday.
Even though they lost 5-2 in Langley last Sunday, they out-shot the Rivermen 33-32.
“You look at shots but you also have to look at quality of shots because you can have 15 shots from the point with no traffic near the net,” said Chiefs head coach Jason Tatarnic.
Every shot the Chiefs and their opponents take is charted, which brings valuable context to the numbers on the shot-clock. Many times Tatarnic will see one of his players try to pick the top corner from 12 feet out and miss over the cross bar, which doesn’t register on the shot clock.
Shots go wide.
Shots are blocked.
In that 4-1 win over Surrey, Tatarnic’s chart counted 42 official shots on net. But the charting also showed Chilliwack directing 70 pucks at Eagle netminder Daniel Davidson.
Twenty went wide.
Eight were blocked.
Most came from ‘high quality’ areas in the slot between the hash marks, and three of Chilliwack’s four goals came on shots from the goal-mouth.
“If we generate 30 shots attempts in a period but 10 got blocked and five went wide, but they were from prime scoring areas it means we were generating offensive opportunities,” Tatarnic elaborated. “The fans see the shot clock, but this helps us go beyond that and I find breaking the shots down in this way to be really interesting.”
Where Marrocco is a ‘blast away from anywhere’ sort of guy, Coach T preaches a bit more patience.
“I think you can shoot the puck often, but you have to have a shooting lane,” he says. “If you have that shooting lane, then take the shot 100 per cent.
“You hear those fans on the power play yelling, ‘Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!’ and I understand that, but if a guy’s in a shooting lane and it’s just going to get blocked, where’s the puck going to go after that?
“If it’s not there, don’t force it.”
So back to Marrocco, who wants to pepper a goalie from every angle.
What’s his plan to create the space and shooting lanes and make sure he’s not just out there murdering shin pads?
“I think just using your speed, using hands to maybe pull the puck in tighter to your body at times,” he said. “It’s easier said than done, but you want to try to read the other team and where they are, and try to find those soft spots where you can get a good shot off.”