One of the most ridiculous, yet admittedly exciting, parts of regular season hockey is the shootout. When the game can’t be settled by playing hockey for 60 minutes plus a five minute 3-on-3 session, we head to the charade known as the shootout.
Last season, 99 games went to shootout. A total of 713 shots were attempted and 225 were made for a scoring percentage of 31.6% (save percentage 68.4%)
First, let’s take a look at the most important player in the shootout, the goalie.
| Player | Saves | Attempts | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marc-Andre Fleury (2016-17) | 8 | 15 | 53.3% |
| Marc-Andre Fleury (Career) | 199 | 269 | 74.0% |
| Calvin Pickard (2016-17) | 3 | 4 | 75% |
| Calvin Pickard (Career) | 14 | 19 | 73.7% |
Career wise, the Golden Knights netminders are virtually identical and both guys are significantly better than the league average.
Things aren’t as rosy when we flip the coin though.
| Player | Makes | Attempts | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Neal | 18 | 49 | 36.7% |
| David Perron | 17 | 44 | 38.6% |
| Reilly Smith | 3 | 16 | 18.8% |
| Jonathan Marchessault | 1 | 3 | 33.3% |
| William Karlsson | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Cody Eakin | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
| Erik Haula | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
| Nate Schmidt | 0 | 1 | 0.0% |
That’s right, only four Golden Knights have attempted more than one shootout try in their career. The two with the most attempts, Neal and Perron, are pretty darn good at it though. The undisputed shootout king, T.J. Oshie, converts at a 54.9% clip, which is ridiculous, but stars such as Crosby (45.9%), McDavid (33.3%), Ovechkin (29.9%), and Kane (35.6%) aren’t far off from the Golden Knights.
Only two Vegas blue liners have ever taken a shootout attempt (Schmidt, Theodore), and three forwards have never tried one (Oscar Lindberg, Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare, Teemu Pulkkinen).
So, where do we stand if the game reaches the 65 minute mark? Have a feeling you may have heard this answer before… we’ll just have to wait and see.
Mike Johns
Any chance of VGN making an offer to Athanasios or maybe they don’t want to cause a disruption to the league.