20 years of the shootout in the NHL: What to know and who has been the best
The shootout has been a part of the NHL for two decades since it was implemented in 2005.
The percentage of games decided by the shootout has decreased from 15% at its high point in 2009-10 to a new low of 5.9% last season. The advent of 3-on-3 overtime beginning in 2015, a change from 4 on 4, has gone a long way to reducing the frequency of needing to go to a game-ending shootout. Some things to know about this now well-known feature of the NHL:
Carolina and Florida skated to a 6-all tie on April 4, 2004. It was the 5,729th and likely last tie in league history since the shootout is almost certainly here to stay.
All 30 teams played on the first day of the 2005-06 season, marking the NHL's return from a lockout that had wiped out the previous year.
The first shootout was held in Toronto, which hosted Ottawa. The game went to overtime after Daniel Alfredsson tied the score for the Senators with 1:02 left in the third period. Each team put just one shot on net in OT. Alfredsson got credit for the shootout winner when he and Dany Heatley beat Ed Belfour, while Toronto's Jason Allison and Eric Lindros each missed the net to give Dominik Hasek the victory.
A total of 2,486 games have gone to a shootout. The longest went 20 rounds on Dec. 16, 2014, in front of a crowd of just over 10,000 on a Tuesday night in Sunrise, Florida, between the Capitals and Panthers.
None of the first six shooters scored. Washington's Alex Ovechkin led off the fourth round by beating Roberto Luongo, and then Jussi Jokinen kept it going for Florida by scoring on Braden Holtby. It kept going ... and going.
All 18 skaters from each team participating before coaches Barry Trotz and Gerard Gallant were able to use players a second time. Ovechkin, Jokinen, Nicklas Backstrom and Nick Bjugstad got an extra chance. Bjugstad finally put the puck past Holtby to end the game, which lasted 3 hours and 3 minutes.
The previous record was 15 rounds when the New York Rangers defeated the Capitals on Nov. 26, 2005.
Ovechkin has scored the most goals in NHL history after breaking Wayne Gretzky's record, but he's not in the top 10 in the shootout as this season opens.
Patrick Kane leads the way with 53 goals and has also gotten the most attempts with 132. Jonathan Toews, who won the Stanley Cup alongside Kane in Chicago three times, is next with 52 and both players are still active. T.J. Oshie — who famously went 4 for 6 for the U.S. against Russia at the 2014 Olympics — is tied with Frans Nielsen with 49.
Among players who have gotten at least 50 attempts in the shootout, Erik Christensen has the highest shooting percentage, converting 52.7% of the time. Longtime Florida captain Aleksander Barkov is second at 48.5% and Toews third at 47.3%.
Brad Marchand's 21.6% success rate is the lowest among qualifying skaters, with Vinny Lecavalier (22.6%) and Henrik Zetterberg and John Tavares (24.6%) next.
In net, Marc-Andre Fleury leads all goaltenders with 66 shootout victories, followed by Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist at 61 and Ryan Miller at 60. Jonathan Quick of the New York Rangers leads active goalies with 51 victories.
Semyon Varlamov's .729 save percentage is the best, decimal points better than Pekka Rinne's, with Antti Niemi's .727 ranking third. Among active netminders with at least 30 shootout games, Andrei Vasilevskiy's .773 save percentage is the best.
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