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At this point, the scenario has become similar to the march to the finish of their winless 0-16 NFL season by the 2008 Detroit Lions.
You didn’t want them to win. And with four games left in the regular season and Riley Sheahan about to make NHL history, it would almost seem a shame for him to score a goal now.
Why just be bad, when you can be the baddest of them all?
Sheahan is 0-for-76 this season, having sat out two of Detroit’s 78 games. He’s also minus-28, second-worst on the team to Dylan Larkin’s minus-29.
“It’s been tough,” Sheahan said. “Obviously, it hasn’t been going great.”
This is the kind of year it’s been for Sheahan - in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sheahan’s point-blank chance at an empty net was blocked by Toronto defenseman Connor Carrick.
“I thought the last few games he had big chances,” teammate Tomas Tatar said. “It’s unfortunate he can’t put it in.”
It has been going at a historic pace, however. Sheahan is on the brink of making NHL history.
Since the NHL began tracking shots on goal as an official statistic in 1967-68, 13 players have fired at least 100 shots on net without tallying a single goal.
All of them have been defensemen, and none of them have been Red Wings.
If he goes without illuminating a red lamp for four more games, Sheahan is about to establish a new NHL standard for futility by a forward. Craig Adams of the Pittsburgh Penguins is the current standard bearer in this department. He went without a goal for all 82 games in 2009-10 but only mustered 84 shots on goal.
Sheahan is way ahead of that pace. And since no Detroit player has previously gone 0-for-100 shots in a campaign, the club mark is also his for the taking.
The Zero Sum Game
Players with 100 Shots in an NHL season who did not score:
Player-Team POS Season Shots GP
Gilles Marotte, Chicago D 1967-68 153 73
Mike McMahon Chicago/Minnesota D 1968-69 144 63
David Shaw, Quebec D 1986-87 136 75
Jim Morrison, Pittsburgh D 1970-71 134 73
Doug Jarrett, Chicago D 1968-69 116 69
Terry Harper, Los Angeles D 1973-74 114 77
Robyn Regehr, Calgary D 2002-03 109 76
Brad McCrimmon, Philadelphia D 1983-84 106 71
Stephane Robidas, Dallas D 2006-07 106 75
Brad Marsh, Philadelphia D 1985-86 104 79
Riley Sheahan, Detroit C 2016-17 103 76*
Garth Butcher, Vancouver D 1988-89 101 78
Brian Dumoulin, Pittsburgh D 2015-16 101 79
Todd Gill, San Jose D 1996-97 101 79
*Still active
Sophomore Jinx?
Larkin is another Red Wing embroiled in a downward spiral, one that extends back well into the 2015-16 season.
Since Feb. 12, 2016, Larkin has played 103 games, and in that span he is a minus-44.
While plus-minus isn’t an exact science for rating a player’s performance, the numbers next to Larkin’s name are alarming nonetheless.
The second-year Red Wing has been a minus in 47 of those 103 games and a plus player in just 15 games during that span.
“I think he’s got an inner drive to be great,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said of Larkin. “I think he’s developing a mental toughness. When people go through the types of things he’s had to go through, you go through different stages but I think this stage he’s in now is for the long-term good.
“He’s recognizing that and he’s going to be a much better player because of it. I’ve had lots of conversations with him. I think in the end he understands I don’t want him to be an OK player in this league, I want him to be a great player in this league and to do that he had to learn certain things, certain things that maybe he got away with a year ago he wasn’t going to be able to keep getting away with.
“I think he’s understanding that now.”
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