The Joe Thornton Phenomena: Pass or Pass?

During the San Jose Sharks’ annual “State of the Sharks” address in the off season, there was a promise made to fans. One that virtually every Sharks fan wanted to hear.

“I’ll shoot more for you next year,” said Joe Thornton.

Granted this promise came before the acquisition of Dany Heatley, so a little change of thought was expected. Everyone around the NHL was well-aware of the possibilities of pairing one of the leagues best snipers with its elite passer.

It’s hard to complain with the results of that dynamic duo. In fact you can’t, but I don’t think having a goal-scorer on your wing is an excuse to not shoot the puck. It doesn’t have to be a lot, I’m not asking for 10 shots a game, but when you have the opportunity to shoot with a clear path to the net, do it.

Thornton has a terrific shot when he uses it. His slapper is hard and heavy, and his wrist shot is quick and usually very accurate. Sharks fans rarely see him use it, but when he does it usually has great results.

He is on pace for about 180 shots this year, which is actually well above his career average of about 161. Even with the limited shots, he manages to score 20-30 goals perennially. Early in his career, he nearly hit 40 goals in a couple different seasons. By limited shots, I mean that he could easily shoot more often with teams defending him to pass.

A perfect example would be watching Thornton’s identical twin assists on the first two of Dany Heatley’s goals in his most recent hat trick against the Flyers:

In each case, Thornton probably had a better opportunity to shoot than Heatley did. Rather than taking the easier and more convenient scoring chance, Thornton decided to use two of his best attributes (patience and passing) and thread the needle through small openings to Heatley.

Everyone watching, fans, broadcasters, players, the lot of them were  wondering why he didn’t shoot. These kinds of plays will work now because Thornton can make impossible passes and he knows it. He makes the difficult passes look easy, but makes the the most common-sense shooting opportunities look like an unbeatable video game.

There is the possibility that he’s being unselfish with the puck to get teams to back off him, so when the playoffs roll around he flip the switch and start shooting more unexpectedly. I doubt that’s the case though. Jumbo, you’re an incredible player, one of the best in the NHL, but unless you’re trying to pull a sneaky fast one on everyone, please shoot the puck more!