Every coach says "get to the middle".

I wanted to know what the middle is actually worth, in a league most of us never see numbers from.

So I went through every 5v5 shot attempt in the Czech Extraliga since the start of the 2023-24 season: about 120,000 attempts and 4,480 goals, in more than 1,300 games.

The question was simple. From each part of the offensive zone, how many attempts does one goal cost?

The Evidence

I split the zone into three areas:

• The slot: the "home plate", from the goal posts out to the faceoff dots and up to the top of the circles.
• The near perimeter: outside the slot, within 45 feet of the net.
• Far out: 45 feet and beyond. Mostly the points and the high boards.

From the slot, a goal costs 11 attempts. From the near perimeter it costs 49. From far out it costs 123.

Now look at where teams actually shoot from. Almost half of all attempts (47%) come from far out, and they produce 10% of the goals. The slot gets 32% of the attempts and produces 78% of the goals.

Two things explain the price of the far shot.

It doesn't arrive. Four in ten attempts from far out are blocked. From the slot it is fewer than two in ten.

It doesn't come back. The usual defence of the point shot is the rebound. In the Extraliga, a saved shot from far out is followed by a second attempt within three seconds 7% of the time. A saved shot from the slot is followed by one 12% of the time.

Counted in goals: one rebound goal for every 136 saves on far shots, one for every 62 saves on slot shots.

What the Best Teams Do

This is where it gets interesting for a coach, because "quality over quantity" is only half right.

Across 42 team-seasons, the number that goes with scoring most closely is slot shots on goal per game. Total shots on goal per game goes with scoring too, but clearly less. The top offences do not shoot less. They reach the slot more often.

The cleanest example is Liberec in 2023-24. They took the smallest share of their attempts from far out in the league (39%, against a league average of 47%), the largest share of their shots on goal from the slot, and scored the second-most 5v5 goals per game.

So the message to players is not "stop shooting". Far shots still make up one goal in ten, and a defenceman who never shoots is easy to defend. The message is that the puck at the point is the start of the attack, not the end of it.

Practice: The Home Plate Game

Set-up. Mark the home plate with paint or cones. Play 3v3 below the tops of the circles. The team with the puck also has two point men at the blue line. Shifts of 40 seconds.

Rules.

1. A goal only counts if the shot is taken from inside the home plate.
2. A rebound goal counts double.
3. The point men may pass, or carry the puck down into the play. They may not shoot from the line.
4. When the defenders win the puck, they pass to a coach in the neutral zone for a point, and a new puck goes in.

What to coach. Forwards: use the low-to-high pass to pull defenders out, then get back inside before the puck does. Point men: your first look is the slot, your second is your partner, your third is your feet. Everyone: after a slot shot, the next three seconds are worth more than the shot was.

The Takeaway

In the Extraliga a goal from the slot costs 11 attempts and a goal from far out costs 123. Use the point to move the defence. Shoot from where the goals are.