Travis Konecny and his scoring tendencies in 2023-24

Photo Credit: Heather Barry

If you\'ve watched the Philadelphia Flyers for an extended period this season, you might have noticed that Travis Konecny, sitting on 23 goals in 51 games, has played some pretty good hockey . If you\'ve been keeping an especially close eye on him specifically, you might realize that he has a certain shot preference. Let\'s look at that.

Konecny\'s love for the glove & scoring on the rush

From when he was still a youngster playing in juniors to the point now where he is one of the longest-tenured Flyers on the active roster, Konecny has been known as a speedster by hockey fans for about a decade. He has scored a majority of his goals off the rush this season. In fact, it is an overwhelming majority.

That aside for just a second, you might have noticed that Konecny loves to shoot at a netminder\'s glove side. For a right-handed shooter like himself, that\'s typically going to be the norm. The difference? The 26-year-old takes it to a whole other level.

I compiled every single one of Konecny\'s 23 goals thus far and looked at the 22 of which were scored with a goaltender in the net. Of those, 18 were scored on a netminder\'s glove side — a staggering 81.8 percent. Quantifying that \"off-the-rush\" goal stat I mentioned earlier, 14 of those 18 goals he scored on a goaltender\'s glove were off the rush — coming out to 77.8 percent.

So, essentially, Konecny scores about 61 percent of all his goals on a goaltender\'s glove side on the rush. The other 39 percent could be on the blocker side, on an empty net, the five-hole, or, even, just an established possession where he tucks it anywhere. But nope, he just loves to score in that specific way.

Just watch here as Colorado Avalanche goaltender Ivan Prosvetov stopped as much as he could of Konecny\'s attempt at scoring past his glove on a penalty shot early in December, but as if it were destiny, the puck went in anyway. It\'s almost like someone dared him to shoot glove-side again (because that\'s all but the only place he shoots), but he got the last laugh with it going in.

https://twitter.com/NHLFlyers/status/1733704166134936015

Has it always been this way?

The question about Konecny is, has it always been this way? Is this some new revelation in his game in his eighth season in the NHL, or was it this crazy his whole career?

Well, just by looking at last season it becomes clear that this season has been an outlier. He still tended to shoot glove side on breakaways or odd-man rush chances, but he was getting more goals through established zone time. Additionally, the glove-to-blocker ratio on those rush chances was pretty split.

This season, the Flyers have evolved into one of the NHL\'s most dangerous teams on the rush. No team gets more of those opportunities than them, so it becomes natural that they score a lot in that way. The downside of that is they have been unable to score on the forecheck — like, at all. That applies to Konecny, too.

But, still, Konecny was as dangerous as ever on breakouts — he just had a greater shot selection, it seems. Instead of the many breakaways or solo entries he\'s scoring on in 2023-24, there were many 2-on-1 passes across and 3-on-2 opportunities.

With that being said, his scoring ability has evolved in these last two campaigns, shooting at 16.2 and 13.6 percent clips respectively after having a lowly 7.3 percent shooting percentage back in 2021-22 — that\'s because he has been sensational at fooling goaltenders recently. His shots are as perfectly placed as they can be. He\'s no generational scorer, but when he gets the chance he is effective in burying it.

Will goalies figure Konecny out?

Getting back to this season for a minute, should there be worry that goaltenders will figure Konecny\'s strategy out? There\'s reason to think they won\'t.

Konecny does a good job at mixing it up from time to time — he doesn\'t score on every single odd-man rush and breakaway he gets, of course. But what makes that glove-side shot so effective is that it is very difficult to stop. His release is so fast that, sometimes, the goalie doesn\'t even move their glove before the puck has already passed it.

https://twitter.com/NHLFlyers/status/1715893285909156072

Generally, when Konecny has a clear-cut breakaway he will go low-glove. On rushes or times when he doesn\'t have as much space, he will shoot high. That\'s just an observation, and not necessarily indicative of why he\'s been so successful. He has mastered that low-glove shot, though.

This season, in particular, we\'ve seen all shooters victimize the glove a bit more on breakaways. Like, it\'s almost all they shoot for — especially righties. I looked at about a dozen recent clips of breakaway goals, and I noticed that if the shooter does nothing fancy and just shoots the puck, they go for the glove. If they make a move, they\'re using the glove as a decoy and going for the blocker. Like, this was a trend that went on for a while. I mean, even some left-handed shooters were going for the glove, too.

So the short answer is, no, goalies aren\'t going to figure out Konecny, or at least anytime soon. They haven\'t figured out the rest of the league yet, much less him individually.

Konecny is evolving as a shooter on the fly with the rest of the league, getting pretty good at scoring on rush opportunities. This season alone, he is on pace for 22 goals on the glove side that are off the rush. If the Flyers can get an effective power play in the coming seasons (assuming he is still a Flyer, of course), his scoring output has a chance to rise even further.

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Travis Konecny and his scoring tendencies in 2023-24

Konecny’s love for the glove & scoring on the rush

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