Floorball Analytics Glossary: xG, GSAx, Plus/Minus, and Other Key KPIs Explained

Key takeaways

• xG and xGOT measure shot quality; GSAx measures a goalie's performance against that quality.
• Plus/minus is a team-context stat, best read alongside individual, on-ball numbers.
• Special-teams rates (power play %, penalty kill %) are volatile in small samples - track them over a stretch of games, not one.
• None of these numbers replace watching the game - they tell you where to look.

This is a working reference for the KPIs that come up most often in floorball analytics - short, plain-language definitions, not a statistics textbook. For a deeper walkthrough of the single most important one, see What Is Expected Goals (xG) in Floorball?

Shot Quality Metrics

xG (Expected Goals)

The probability that a given shot becomes a goal, based on its location and game situation. Summed across a game or season, it represents the quality of chances a team or player created - the foundation nearly every other metric on this list builds on.

xGOT (Expected Goals on Target)

The same idea as xG, but restricted to shots that actually reached the goalkeeper (excluding shots that missed the net or were blocked). Comparing a team's xG to its xGOT is a good way to separate two different problems: not getting good enough looks (low xG) versus not hitting the net with the looks you get (a big gap between xG and xGOT).

GAxG (Goals vs. Expected)

Actual goals scored minus xG. A large positive number usually means hot finishing (which tends not to last); a large negative number usually means the process is sound but the ball isn't going in yet (which, more often than not, is a sign of better results coming).

Goaltending

GSAx (Goals Saved Above Expected)

A goalie's expected goals against (based on the shots they actually faced) minus the goals they actually allowed. A positive GSAx means the goalie stopped more than a league-average goalie would be expected to, given the shot quality they faced - which is the key improvement over raw save percentage: it adjusts for how hard the shots they faced actually were.

Save Percentage

Saves divided by shots on target. Simple and familiar, but blunt on its own - a goalie facing mostly low-danger shots will post a higher save percentage than an equally good goalie facing harder chances, purely because of what they're up against. Best read alongside GSAx, not instead of it.

Individual Player Metrics

Points (Goals + Assists)

The most familiar counting stat, and still a real signal of production - but it says nothing about how those points were generated (a great individual play vs. a favorable bounce), and it's silent on defense entirely.

Plus/Minus

Goals scored while a player is on the field, minus goals conceded while they're on the field. It captures team-context defensive/offensive impact that points alone miss, but it's heavily shaped by linemates and deployment - a strong player can post a mediocre plus/minus on a weak line, and vice versa. Most useful alongside individual, on-ball numbers (points, xG contribution) rather than read in isolation.

5v5 xG Contribution

A player's own xG generated at even strength - isolates a player's shot-quality involvement from special teams and from teammates' finishing, which raw points can't do.

Special Teams

Power Play % / Penalty Kill %

Goals scored per power-play opportunity, and the inverse for penalty kill. Both are genuinely important, but volatile over small samples - a team can look excellent or terrible on special teams over a handful of games purely from variance in a low-frequency situation. Track these over a meaningful stretch (several weeks, not one game) before drawing conclusions.

Win Probability

A live, in-game estimate of each team's chance of winning, updated as the score and xG battle evolve. Useful for identifying the moments that actually swung a game - a goal scored down 3-0 late moves win probability far less than the same goal scored in a tied third period, even though both are "one goal" in the box score.

With Floorball Scanner, you can track every one of these numbers - xG, GSAx, plus/minus, and the rest - for your own team and your opponents, by team, by line, and by individual player. For F-Liiga matches specifically, Floorball Scanner's F-Liiga tracking computes all of it automatically and live, so you're not calculating any of it by hand. For the practical side of turning these numbers into a game plan, see How to Use Match Data to Prepare for Your Next Opponent.