One reason NHL traditionalists don’t embrace the shootout is because it reduces a team sport to an individual contest.
The shootout is shooter against goaltender with no one in between to help or hinder either.
If a team has a handful of creative offensive players or a goalie who is adept at the format, then it can gain a huge advantage during the course of the season by picking up extra points that otherwise might be lost.
It’s no surprise the Blackhawks, offensively inept the entire season, have not flourished in the shootout format. They lost again Friday night, 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks, after dropping a shootout Wednesday in Pittsburgh.
The latest setbacks put the Hawks at 2-7 in shootouts. But while their inability to pick up extra points in the format won’t be the reason they will fail to make the playoffs, it does continue to highlight their lackluster offense.
Hawks coach Denis Savard admitted that after Martin Havlat, it’s hard for him to choose two other snipers to fill out the three spots.
Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, who denied Havlat on Friday, is just 1-for-4 this season in shootouts.
The Hawks again failed to use Tuomo Ruutu in the shootout, despite the fact he has converted 2 of 3 attempts this season. He’s the only player other than the injured Jeff Hamilton (3 of 6) who has more than one shootout goal.
Savard had Ruutu slotted third against the Penguins and Canucks, but he didn’t get to him either time.
The Hawks have scored on 7 of 29 shootout attempts, a 24.1 conversion rate that ranks 24th in the NHL. Their goalies have fared even worse, stopping just 14 of 28 attempts to rank 27th in the league.
Shootout success can affect the makeup of the playoffs.
The Wild, which leads the Oilers by six points for the final playoff spot in the West, is 9-for-13 in shootouts while the Oilers are just 1 of 3. That eight-point difference more than makes up the spread between the two teams
Likewise in the East, the Sabres have a three-point lead over the Devils for first place in the conference. The Sabres are 9-2 in shootouts while the Devils are just 6-6.
While shootouts may determine who gets into the playoffs and the seedings, they won’t be a factor once the postseason gets under way.
In the playoffs, the shootout is shelved and tie games continue until one team scores a “real” goal, no matter who long it takes.
One-timers
The Hawks can’t be expected to say anything different regarding the playoffs until they are mathematically eliminated. But for the Hawks to make them, something remarkable would have to befall the last seven teams in the Western Conference. The Wild, which is in the eighth spot, is on a pace to get 95 points. Minnesota is averaging 1.15 points per game. The Hawks, who are averaging 0.91 ppg, need 42 points to get to 95. With 24 games remaining they potentially could score 48 more. To get 42 out of the last 48 points would require them to play .875 hockey the rest of the way and have every team in front of them virtually collapse in the final seven weeks. If that’s not daunting enough, there’s this: The Hawks haven’t won more than three games in a row all season, and they did that just once. . . . Defenseman Jassen Cullimore was scratched again Friday for the sixth time in the last seven games. If the Hawks can’t trade Cullimore and decide to buy out the last year of his contract, it would cost them about $1.24 million, which they could spread out over two seasons. The Hawks already have about $850,000 on the books for another season in bought-out contracts for Matthew Barnaby and Curtis Brown. Brown’s buyout figure of roughly $413,000 actually extends for two more years. . . . Hamilton was activated off injured reserve and Pierre Parenteau was sent back to Norfolk.
———-
rfoltman@tribune.com
