Devils not focused on improving shootout record

The New Jersey Devils went 0-13 in the shootout last season, a woeful record that, in hindsight, negatively impacted the team's playoff chances, as they finished five points out of a wildcard spot.

As the offseason progresses and additions have been made to the roster, general manager Lou Lamoriello contends the skills competition has not been a focus.

As per Tom Gulitti of Fire and Ice:

I look at how we play during the 60 minutes because that’s what you have control of,” he said. “The shootout is an individual thing and if you look at the history of the players who were on our roster last year and the sort of history of their success you would say, ‘How did this come about?’ But in saying that, it’s not a focus. 

The focus was how can we make us better offensively and we acquired in my mind one absolutely pure scorer as far as where he’s at in his career [Mike Cammalleri] and he’s scored everywhere he’s been, especially the last couple teams.

Then, we took what you might call a very up-side risk on a player [Martin Havlat] who has tremendous talent who we saw first-hand in a seven-game series against Ottawa [in 2003], who was in my opinion their best player on the ice. And I believe that with the Czech teammates he will have, they will get him to play at the level he can play.

The Devils GM also cited "the improvement of an Adam Henrique, the maturity and a fully-healthy Travis Zajac, who came off an Achilles [tendon] injury [three] years ago, and Ryane Clowe" as positives towards improving the team's overall offense.

The complete passing of the torch in net to Cory Schneider will also serve as a boost to the team's chances night in and night out. 

As 2013-14 shows, even a modest improvement in the shootout could potentially go a long way to help get the Devils back into the playoffs, where games are decided in a more traditional way.