Anders Lee isn't afraid to shoot.
Anders Lee isn't afraid to shoot.
A lot went right for the New York Islanders in their 6-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.
Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves in his return to the crease, Brock Nelson scored two goals, and each member of the team's top line recorded at least a point.
However, Islanders captain Anders Lee's hard work in the offensive zone in the win got our attention, scoring the 1-1 tying goal at 5:33 of the first.
After Lee was denied by Avalanche goalie Alexandar Georgiev, he snuck the rebound inside the glove-side post:
Looking back on his career, Lee has never been much of a shot-taker.
He's always been known for getting into the dirty areas of the ice and going for rebound or tip attempts.
Lee's had a handful of games with six shots to his name, but his seven shots on Monday were the most for him in a game since Dec. 9, 2022:
Coincidentally, in that matchup against the New Jersey Devils, Lee scored what is the antithesis of a greasy goal, as he let a shot fly from the high slot that beat netminder Vitek Vanecek to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead late in the first.
His 10 shots that night set a career-high.
While the old saying goes, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," said The Great One, Michael Scott, after someone named Wayne Gretzky said it first, nights where Lee tends to take more shots usually yield positive results.
It's the law of averages, right? In theory, the more shots, the higher the chance of scoring. Obviously, shot quality matters, but Lee has generally been good with that over his career.
Looking at his career game logs, Lee has 96 games with at least five shots on net across his 761 career contests. However, in those games, he's recorded a total of 60 of his 260 career goals.
Looking among his highest single-game shot numbers, most of them have at least one goal attached.
Lee has five games with exactly eight shots, and he's scored five goals during that stretch, with two multi-goal games. In eight games with exactly seven shots, he has 10 goals, including his only career hat trick against the Columbus Blue Jackets from March of 2022:
In 25 games with six shots, he's totaled 16 goals, including four games with multiple red lights.
The most recent of these games came in January against the Winnipeg Jets.
All told, in the 222 games where Lee tallies a goal, he averages over three shots a game.
Of course, playing the body and playing in front of the net will be Lee's biggest strength, but on the nights that Lee trusts his shot, it can be a valuable asset.