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When it came to shootouts, let’s just say the Detroit Red Wings weren’t exactly Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.
You know that old joke about the hockey player who couldn’t shoot it in the ocean if he was standing on the pier?
Well, when it came to the shootout, that descriptive was apt where the Wings were concerned.
This season, though, suddenly they are a combination of Dead-Eye Dick, Billy The Kid and Wild Bill Hickok all rolled into one.
They just can’t miss, it would seem.
After Tuesday’s 4-3 win at Winnipeg, the Wings are 4-0 in the shootout. That’s the most wins in the league and they are one of only four teams yet to taste defeat in the shootout.
It’s a far cry from Detroit’s recent shootout history. The Wings were a combined 13-29 the previous four years in the NHL’s game-determining penalty-shot competition.
So what’s going differently for them? Actually, who’s going differently for them might be the more appropriate question.
Captain Henrik Zetterberg is two-for-two in shootout attempts, after going 0 for 9 previous three seasons. Both of his tallies have proven to be game deciders but he’s not alone when it comes to a shootout turnaround.
Gus Nyquist is two-for-four after going 0-for-five last year. Nyquist was eight-for-14 in 2014-15.
The newcomers are also playing a role. Thomas Vanek has scored on both of his shootout opportunities, continuing a solid career of shootout production that has seen him go 20-for-41 a 48.4 per cent success rate.
Curiously, one of the reasons the Wings brought in unrestricted free agent Frans Nielsen was due to his lifetime 41-for-78 shootout mark, among the best in NHL history. Yet this season, he’s gone 0-for-three, though Zetterberg credited Nielsen for opening the door to his shootout winner on Tuesday.
“I saw when Nielsen took his attempt that (Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellbuyck) went down when you tried to deke him, so I tried to do the same and it worked,” Zetterberg said.
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill doesn’t try to explain this turnaround other than to chalk it up to the law of averages and experience.
“We’ve spent a lot of time now in a lot of close games, and we obviously spent some time in shootouts and overtime,” Blashill said. “As you go through overtime – it’s hard to replicate overtime in practice, you don’t get enough practice time as it is and then it’s really hard to replicate, but I think we’re getting more comfortable in those areas.”
Of course, the shootout is a two-pronged event and the other area of necessity has also displayed an uptick for the Wings – their goalies are stopping more shots than Al Pacino’s character in Scarface.
Both Petr Mrazek (11-for-12) and Jimmy Howard (five-for-six) display .833 save percentages next to their name in shootout competition this season. It’s a significant turnaround for Howard, who was .570 (49-of-86) over the previous four seasons and owned a dismal 6-20 mark in the shootout.
“It’s something I know our goaltending has worked on a lot,” Blashill said of the shootout. “They’ve worked on a lot of breakaways and they’ve certainly shut the door, and we’ve found a way to score some goals.”
Roster Moves
An indication that the Wings are beginning to regain their health came Thursday, when the club activated Howard (groin) from the injured list and assigned goalie Jared Coreau and forward Tomas Nosek to AHL Grand Rapids.
Besides making his NHL debut in a 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh, Coreau was also pleased that he was up while the Wings faced Montreal and Canadiens Hart and Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Carey Price. Coreau admitted that he did a little Price-checking that night.
“That was honestly a very beneficial thing for me,” Coreau said. “I watched him very closely, especially in the second period because I had a better view. With the Detroit bench it’s hard to get a close view of the other net.
“I watched him, I watched the little tendencies he does and I’m going to try and incorporate them into my game over the course of the season. Obviously not right away because you don’t want to change too much but watching him was huge.
“He gave me a little tap on the pads in warm-up, which I thought was first class. It shows the kind of guy he is, too.”
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