Jack Hughes raced down the ice with the puck on his stick. He stared down Spencer Knight, deciding how he wanted to handle his next move. He would skate up to Knight, and try to hit the side of the net. Knight would block the shot, putting the Devils behind with the Panthers coming up with a chance to end the game (which they did). That miss put Hughes at a paltry 3-for-17in the shootout. One of Hughes' friends Trevor Zegras is literally the greatest shootout performer in history (minimum 15 attempts). He hits the net on 63% of his attempts. Hughes hits at 17%.
It's not just Hughes. The Devils shootout loss on Tuesday night was just their first shootout appearance of the season. They've been doing their best to avoid them, but it's not like they've been great in overtime this season, either. However, the recent shootout woes must have the Devils spooked.
Since 2019-20, Jack Hughes's second year in the league, the Devils are 5-17 in the shootout. That's almost impossible. The Devils are one of the most skilled teams in the NHL, but they have a problem winning in a literal showcase of skills. Let's try to make sense of this.
Last season, the Devils went 0-2 in the shootout. Paul Cotter's goal in the shootout on Tuesday night woul have led the team, as the Devils scored exactly zero goals in five attempts. Timo Meier went 0-for-2, Jesper Bratt went 0-for-2, and Hughes missed his only attempt. The season before, one of the great seasons in Devils history, they were still awful in the shootout. They went 2-4 in the shootout while scoring just three goals on 18 attempts. Jesper Bratt went 0-for-5 himself.
Of course, there is a goaltending aspect to this. The Devils goaltending has been dreadful for almost all of that time. Last season, Jake Allen and Akira Schmid combined for just one save on four attempts. Most years, the Devils goaltending could not step up to the play in the extra session.
New Jersey Devils have been terrible in the shootout for a long time.
The last time the Devils had a winning record in the 2017-18 season, and it was interesting how they got there. The Devils won five of nine shootouts that season, and it was on the back of Cory Schneider. He stopped 83% of the shootout attempts coming his way. Keith Kinkaid stopped 65%, but it was the impact Schneider had despite clearly losing his fastball in net.
It also helped that the Devils had a deep bench of scorers that season, with Brian Boyle, Drew Stafford, Kyle Pamieri, and Taylor Hall all scoring multiple goals in the parlor game. The Devils need to figure out who is that player on the team right now. A player like Cotter is the exact type of player you want to discover in those situations. Bratt has proven in the past he isn't that guy, and Hughes just hasn't figured out this aspect of the sport.
All of the typical players in this situation aren't working. Some of the forwards they might try, like Dawson Mercer and Ondrej Palat, have a terrible record in the shootout. The Devils are going to have to think outside the box to make the shootout work.
Enter the defensemen. Dougie Hamilton has a great history in the shootout. Hamilton wasn't given a shot in the shootout (outside of one attempt) until he joined Carolina in 2018. That season, he scored on both of his attempts. The next season, he went 50 percent, which he would do for the next three seasons. Overall, he's at 50 percent for his career. Yet, Lindy Ruff only used Hamilton in the shootout once in his time with the Devils. Why? We have no idea.
The other player Sheldon Keefe should put out there is Luke Hughes. The youngest Hughes brother has been incredible when going coast to coast and taking a shot. Despite his skillset, the Devils have never given Luke Hughes a shot in the shootout. That's likely due to the Devils having so few chances with him, but that should change right now.
So Paul Cotter, Dougie Hamilton, and Luke Hughes would be the three Devils who go for the shootout. Not Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, or Dawson Mercer getting the chance with the game on the line. It's unconventional, but the conventional hasn't worked for five years. It's time to try something new.