Tip-ins and deflection shots and goals happen enough in hockey games for teams, players, and fans to identify them. Yet, the data shows that they are not as common as we think. This post goes into the topic with respect to the 2024-25 New Jersey Devils.
The tip. Players practice deflecting shots with their sticks. Goaltenders practice dealing with quick changes in direction. Fans enjoy it when their team does it for a goal. Less so if it does not or, worse, goes against them. It happens enough for people to know about them and even want to see it. It does not happen as much as you think it does. It also gets used interchangeably with other terms like re-directions and deflections. This post is about them – and how not so common they really are for the 2024-25 New Jersey Devils. And the other 31 teams in the NHL.
This post was inspired in part by two things. First, this comment from the Toronto gamethread on December 10 from one of the People Who Matter, DayOneFan82:
Is there anywhere that shows deflection goals scored by a team?
It feels like the Devils never get their sticks on pucks toward the net. I would love to see how they compare to other teams in the league.
Second, the NHL put out this ad about tipping which features New Jersey Devils goaltender Jacob Markstrom among others. Which, incidentally, does not feature only tip-in goals but does include deflections.
Definitions Matter or Tips and Deflections are Not the Same
To answer DayOneFan82’s question, the NHL does track deflection goals and even deflection shots by teams and by players. It also tracks wrist shots, snap shots, slap shots, backhand shots, tips, and wraparounds for teams. Players also have a couple more types: pokes, cradles, legs, and bats. First, I do not know why all of the player stats are not fed into the team stats. Second, what? What separates deflection and tip-ins?
I did not know how it was defined. This is where the NHL’s glossary of stats come into play. Through clicking on the ‘i’ icon, a legend came up. Clicking on one of the listings led to the statistics glossary. This page explains every single stat and their abbreviation on their pages. Here is what they have for tips and deflection goals.
Goals – deflection, G Deflect
Player’s or team’s goals on deflections. A deflection is a shot deflected off the player’s body, not his stick.
Goals – tip-in, G Tip
Player’s or team’s goals on tip-ins. A tip-in is a shot deflected off of the player’s stick, not his body.
This is a clear difference between the two. If The Big Deal takes a shot and Ondrej Palat’s stick re-directs it into the net, then it is counted as a tip-in. If Stefan Noesen crashes the net and a loose puck is knocked onto his leg to re-direct it into the net, then it is counted as a deflection.
This is how the league and the official scorers of each game counts each. Given that they count shots, we know that also logged into their by play by play data. We also know through watching games that players can and do get into shooting lanes to not only screen the goaltender by also intentionally try to re-direct pucks coming their way. Yet, it does not happen often according to the data.
The Uncommon Tip and Even Less Common Deflection
Going back to the first inspiration for this post, let me answer DayOneFan82 in earnest. The NHL does have team data for tip-in shots and deflection shots as well as goals. After last night’s games, here is how the Devils measure in each:
- Tip-in Shots: 60 – tied with Seattle for 14th in the NHL. League leader: Calgary with 74
- Tip-in Goals: 8 – tied with Boston, Detroit, Dallas, Buffalo, and Colorado for 17th in the NHL. League leader: Vancouver with 14.
- Deflection Shots: 23 – tied with Pittsburgh, Florida, and Minnesota for 1st in the NHL. League median is 13.
- Deflection Goals: 2 – tied with Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Calgary, Washington, Winnipeg, Columbus, Las Vegas, and Utah for 11th in the NHL. League leader: Los Angeles with 6.
The Devils can and do get tip-in shots at a fairly decent amount. A per-game rate would have the Devils a bit lower in league ranks due to the team playing 32 games already. However, they are around league median in tip-in shots and a bit below the median in tip-in goals. The Devils have been credited for a relatively large amount of deflection shots with just two going into the net – which is also within the a large part of the league. I understand the context of the question. The Devils were getting goalied by Anthony Stolarz and one common wish-complaint-concern-complaint is about the Devils not getting into the goalies’ eyes enough. Maybe not enough but the Devils have been OK at this part of the game.
The bigger surprise is that these are relatively uncommon events. Look at those league leaders. Calgary has had the most tip-in shots and that is still just an average of just under 2.5 per game. Only Carolina and Anaheim have higher per-game averages of 2.57 tip-ins per game – which is still just a couple per game. And the amount of goals coming from tip-ins is not very much. The top six teams in tip-in goals have 92, 106, 68, 89, 66, and 113 goals scored in total. Putting in 12 to 14 tip-ins is nice to have but it is not a significant portion of a team’s goal output. The Devils’ eight tip-in goals does not really imply that they are a high-scoring team, which they are with 106 scored in 32 games (3.31 goals per game). Even though it may feel that way if you are a Nashville or Anaheim fan this season.
Deflections are even rarer, both for the Devils and the league at large. The Devils get credited for more pucks going on target off body, equipment, or skate parts than 28 other teams and are tied with three others. It is still a very small fraction of how many shots they generate. And goals coming off of them are even rarer.
How can this be? We know tip-ins are nightmares for goalies to stop. The commercial points that out, if in a cheeky fashion. We know players practice and perform them. We know teams have plans to have them happen.
Definitions Matter, Again
The answer as to why these do not get counted so much is in the definition. First: the stats tracked for players and teams are for goals and shots on net. The NHL’s pages do not readily include what else could happen from a tip-in or a deflection. Namely: misses and blocks. That contributes to how infrequent it seems at the team and player (I’ll get there) level.
The NHL could count them up as the play-by-play log does record shot types for misses and blocked attempts, like tip-ins. The Devils-Kings game from yesterday recorded nine (9) such tip-in attempts, including Palat’s goal. That play-by-play log does count misses like if a tip-in hits a post or misses the net. It even has a block such as when Jonas Siegenthaler blocked a tip-in attempt by Adrian Kempe. This still requires the scorer to identify that and count it as such in a live game setting. What if the tip-in attempt gets blocked by the shooter’s teammate? What if the deflection attempt hits an opponent to go on frame? That may get lost if not recorded.
Between all of this and the lack of counting of those misses and blocks on the team and player pages, I think tip-ins and deflections are ultimately undercounted. Which oddly explains the phenomenon. It is common enough for us to know the Devils and 31 NHL teams go for them and to want to see that happen. It is not common enough to be counted a whole lot and ultimately ends up being a rarer event than we think. And this is another area where the scorer’s interpretation and ability to mark events (as well as reviewing and revising them post-game) is critical to our understanding of the game.
One More Thing: Player Data
As a result, player data for tip-in and deflection shots as well as goals is going to have some small numbers for each. Even if all attempts by them were accounted for, they will likely be far smaller than an intentional shot attempt. That said, it is interesting to know and you may or may not be surprised by who is doing them. Since this is a New Jersey Devils site, here are the leading 2024-25 Devils in both shots and goals by both tip-ins and deflections.
- Tip-in Goals: Devils leader is Erik Haula with 3. He is tied for 5th in the NHL with Ryan O’Reilly, Brendan Gallagher, Vincent Trocheck, Mark Scheifele, Jonathan Marchessault, Tyler Bertuzzi, Sean Monahan, Brock Boeser, Roope Hintz, Evan Rodrigues, Zach Aston-Reese, Elias Pettersson, Eric Robinson, Barrett Hayton, Jake Neighbours, and Leo Carlsson. The league leader is a tie between Jake DeBrusk and Kirill Kaprizov with 5. Only 5.
- Tip-in Shots: Devils leader is Stefan Noesen with 10. He is tied for 22nd in the NHL with Nic Dowd, Nino Neiderreiter, Gallagher, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Bertuzzi, Kaprizov, Connor McMichael, and Andrei Kuzmenko. The league leader is a tie between Anders Lee and Trocheck with 17 each. Yes, just 17.
- Deflection Goals: The Devils have just two as a team: 1 each for Noesen and Dawson Mercer. Only 7 players have more than 1 this season and the league leader is Will Cuylle with 3.
- Deflection Shots: Noesen leads the team with 7. He also leads the league in that category as Anders Lee trails him with six.
Similarly with the team data, since these events are only tallied for shots and goals and they are not common events recorded in the play-by-play log, these amounts are not very much. At the least we can say that the Devils have some players ranked relatively high in these four stats. Noesen will be understood to be high in deflections and tip-ins if only for being a netfront player for the team’s primary power play unit that generates a ton of offense. Is it a major driver of a player’s production? I would say not really since that no one in the NHL has more than a couple of tip-in or deflection goals. Which is understandable since going for a tip or being used for a deflection does not guarantee the puck gets on frame, much less into the net.
Your Take
Tip-ins and deflections will still get discussed, pointed out, and, given how well the opposition goalie is doing, wished for. The reality is that they do not get counted all that much to begin with and only presenting shots and goals makes the amount of times it happen seem smaller than it is. The 2024-25 Devils do get tip-in and deflection shots and have some goals from them. But it is not something that necessarily makes this season’s team better than last season or will keep them from getting goalied as much as they have been.
Hopefully, I answered the initial question and you found interest in the deeper dive into the data and its definition. Now I want to know what you think. Does your feeling about tip-ins and deflections match up with the data? Are you more or less pleased that the Devils are relatively fine in these categories? Please leave your answers and other thoughts about these kinds of shots in the comments. Thank you for reading.