“Why did I use him in the shootout? For a few reasons. One, he’s very good in Worcester. He scores and that’s part of the development process. Two, the day before in practice, we had a shootout and he was very good. Three, very few goaltenders know him.

“Those were the reasons why. The negatives on the bench, when we were deciding, were that he was a little bit cold, he hadn’t played the last part of the game. But sometimes it’s good to show confidence in those types of players and let them know you believe in them.”

So yeah, pretty much the practice thing and the fact goalies don’t know what to expect.

McGinn-Couture-Malhotra
Staubitz-Nichol-Ortmeyer

Gives the kid some better looks and keeps the fourth line solid defensively. I doubt it happens with the whole “earn your spot” manifesto management currently has in place, but a blogger can dream right?

Jussi Jokinen 24 of 44
Vyacheslav Kozlov 24 of 41
Ales Kotalik 20 of 38
Erik Christensen 17 of 31
Wojtek Wolski 17 of 30
Joe Pavelski 14 of 25
Patrick Kane 11 of 22
Patrick O’Sulliven 11 of 22
Jamie Langenbrunner 11 of 22
Jonathan Toews 9 of 15

That’s all the guys with 15 or more shots that maintain above a 50% shootout average. Lots of superstars in that mix.

I hate when we pick Seto or Heater to shoot, they’re terrible at it. I’d rather see what some of the newer guys can do frankly because they stink.

Seto is 1 for 6 all time and Heater is 4 for 21. Marleau is no wonder boy at 5 for 17.

Your horses are anemic in the shootout.

Why not find out what some of our less known guys can do? Considering some of the best shootout shooters out there are guys like Jussi Jokinen, Joe Pavelski and Wojtek Wolski, you don’t always get shootout wins from your normal go to guys. Like you said, you wouldn’t put Joe out there, why would you put Heater out there? Nobody is going to pass it to him in the slot where he can get a wicked one timer off before the goalie can react. Thats where most of his goals come from.

I wouldn’t have anchored the line-up with Vesce either, I would have put him second. Pavs is an excellent lead off guy and go with somebody you trust as the anchor, put new guys in for the 2nd shooter. I’d like to see McGinn, Couture, Malhotra, Ferriero, etc. See what they can do, because frankly we don’t know… and neither does their goalie.

Oh, our superstars aren’t the only ones that suck at the shootout. Ovechkin is 12 for 40, Lecavalier is 12 for 39, Malkin is 5 for 25, Gaborik is 1 for 13, Kovulchuck is 7 for 30.

They may be superstars in hockey, they’re AHL candidates in the shootout. Scoring in the shootout has absolutely nothing to do with the way most goals are scored.

http://theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1006277

Evil: In my brilliant baseball analogy (Mike’s true favorite sport) I never mention salary. It’s not like I’m calling for Joe Thornton to shoot. It has nothing to do with who’s the highest paid, Pavs sure isn’t (well…this year). It’s about who could have gotten us two points and I would have picked Clowe or Marleau, even Seto and Heater, every single time over Ryan Vesce and twice on Sundays…and three times on Easter Sunday….is this joke wearing thin? It’s true, we don’t know who rules the shootout in practice, but we sure know Clowe’s near 50% conversion rate – whether people know his move or not, he still scores. Go down with your horses, not a hunch. GO SHARKS!

Also, Shelley is out for at least 2 more games…

We have an opening in the forward lines, who’s coming up?

Could it be Mitchell?

Speculate!

Mostly I just hate the shootout and get some what annoyed when people think we should just put the highest paid players in there despite the reality of the situation.

My big gripe is that he was cold and would have rather seen Clowe take the shot. I don’t like Heatley in the shootout at all, despite his very recent success. The numbers just aren’t in his favor. But even then, I’m sure you’ve seen all the whining about Clowe taking shootout attempts recently because he only has ‘one move’ and every goalie knows what he’s going to do.

I think Vesce had an opening but lost the puck, it happens.

The only problem I have with the Vesce choice was that he was cold, I don’t care what his apparent spot in the roster is because making a shootout goal has nothing to do with actual hockey skills ability. Heatley’s best ability is his one timer and getting to the open spots, not applicable. Joe is that he can see the ice probably better than 99.9% of the league, not applicable. Patty is fast as hell (and probably should take more shootouts) but that rarely helps in the shootout as well. Clowe is excellent at cleaning up garbage, don’t think you can play rebounds in the shootout.

Vesce’s knock is he’s too small for the NHL. That’s not a problem in the shootout. The guy might have a great wrister, could deke really well and we just don’t know because even Marcel Goc can muscle him off a puck.