In NBA, teams have plays like pick and roll or pop, backddor screen, get the ball in the post .... and you can score in a variety of ways.
In NFL, you can run the ball, pass from shotgun, go play action, throw a screen pass....
In MLB, you have guys who can draw walks and steal bases, guys who can hit home runs, guys that can bunt for base hits, or go hit and run...
In NHL, throw puck to the net. There so many of these shitty angle goals, puck hits five guys and takes a funny bounce, goalie gets caught out of position, only on power plays do teams have legit plays.
They do make plays on charges to the net, or have set plays finishing with one-timers, but I do agree there are a lot of goals which seem to be 'shoot on net and get the rebound' or 'scramble in front of the net' type goals.
Scoring though is a lot harder than in other sports, which is why the total is so low. Sometimes I see shots that find the most miniscule gap and wonder how they do that.
more luck involved, but also less referee involvement. sometimes teams create the luck, teams have to box out like in basketball. an average team like the sabres greatly increases their chances for a win when they always push skaters towards the walls, away from the middle of the rink where shots go in easier. the sharks don't box out enough and in my opinion that's why they lose some games.
But from a gambling perspective, how can we cap an over 5.5 for a game. Pretty much ever over 5.5 is at +110 or better nowadays. I mean, do we look for missing defense men?? Cuz looking at the goalies isnt working, there are rookies and shitty goalies who pick up shut outs over big time teams.