March 15th, 2013 – that’s the date the New Jersey Devils last won a game in the shootout. For those keeping track, that’s 18-straight losses in the skills competition over the course of one full season and parts of two others.
It’s a stretch of futility for the Devils that’s been mocked around the league, even inspiring some websites to ask “Has New Jersey Won a Shootout Yet?”.
Well, that website can now be updated, because tonight (fittingly on Halloween Eve) the Devils defeated the Winnipeg Jets in the shootout, by a score of 2-1. Jacob Josefson played the hero, as he scored the only shootout goal and Cory Schneider stopped all three Jets shooters to preserve the victory.
#NJDEVILS WIN IN A SHOOTOUT! Goals by Ryder and Josefson lift the #NJDevils to a 2-1 victory over the Jets! pic.twitter.com/3xuU5g4OhU
— New Jersey Devils (@NHLDevils) October 31, 2014
It was a curious situation for the Devils, to lose so many shootouts in a row, when you think about some of the talented players at their disposal. Coach Peter DeBoer has been spoiled for choice when looking down his bench and choosing his forwards. Jaromir Jagr, Patrick Elias, Michael Ryder, Travis Zajac, and Adam Henrique are all dangerous scorers, yet Jagr was the only one of the five to net a shootout goal in 2013-14 (and none have through two shootouts this season).
It gets even more curious when you think about the goaltenders New Jersey has been able to use in the shootout. Martin Brodeur is easily one of the best goaltenders of his generation and that performance carries over to the shootout, where he is one of the winningest shootout goaltenders in history.
Yet in 2012-13 Brodeur was 0-4 with a .455 save percentage and last year he went 0-5 with a slightly better .500 save percentage. Both numbers are well below his career average and it can be argued that his skills in general greatly diminished over his last few seasons with the Devils, helping to explain some of the cause for the Devils shootout ineptitude.
But then there’s Schneider, a goaltender entering the prime of his career who, despite a slightly better shootout save percentage that Brodeur last season (.552) wasn’t able to buy a victory in eight opportunities. Prior to joining the Devils, Schneider had a career record of 6-4 in the shootout with the Vancouver Canucks and had never posted a save percentage less than .625. He should have been able to coax at least a few victories out of the shootout.
Compounding the frustration Devils fans were feeling during the losing streak was the fact that prior to 2012, the Devils were actually one of the most successful shootout teams in the entire NHL.
Ultimately though, the streak was indicative of two things: luck and regression. The Devils were extraordinarily unlucky for an admittedly unsustainably long period of time. The bounces were eventually going to have to go their way, as they did last night in the Prudential Center when they defeated the Jets (although playing against a hapless Jets squad with Ondrej Pavelec in goal certainly helps).
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