Carlyle has bigger problems than the shot counter

Randy Carlyle should spend less time nitpicking about the accuracy of the shot counter and more time focusing on the fact that his team is being outplayed.

The Anaheim Ducks head coach took aim at a statistician following a 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final on Tuesday night - a game in which the Ducks were outshot 40-20.

"Well, I think the shots against tonight, I just have one tidbit that at one point it was 9-8 for us. And on one flurry it went to 14. So I don't know who is counting the shots," he told reporters postgame.

"They dominated the shot clock tonight. I'm not going to say they didn't. But in reference - I didn't think they had five shots in net, and then next thing you know they've got 14. It was out of sequence. There was one sequence, I think, they got one shot and a little bit of a scramble, and all of a sudden they had four more shots at it. I don't know who was keeping it, but he better get a pair of glasses."

Good one, Randy.

Carlyle may or may not have a legitimate beef with the stats crew, but he's missing the forest for the trees here.

So it's not just a Bridgestone Arena problem.

Nashville has driven possession in all three games.

Game ANA ES CF% NSH ES CF%
1 45.28 54.72
2 45.36 54.64
3 33.71 66.29

(Courtesy: Corsica)

Ditto for the scoring chances.

Game ANA 5-on-5 SCF NSH 5-on-5 SCF
1 25 27
2 3 9
3 11 28
Total 39 64

(Courtesy: Natural Stat Trick)

Clearly, Tuesday night's shot counter isn't the problem, and Carlyle shouldn't use him or her as a scapegoat for the Ducks' larger issues. Nashville is dominating Anaheim, and this series isn't as close as it appears.

That's what Carlyle should really be concerned about.

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