Ted Kulfan

The Detroit News

Detroit — It's a new season but the Red Wings are again having difficulty winning shootouts.

Never mind they have accomplished offensive players, crafty goal scorers such as Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist, who seemingly should dominate in the one-on-one battle against opposing goaltenders.

But once it gets to a shootout — the NHL's way to decide tied games after a five-minute four-on-four overtime — the Red Wings don't win. They've lost all three shootouts this season, after going 5-9 last season and 2-5 in the lockout-shortened 2013 season.

Something about the shootout just doesn't suit the Red Wings.

"You have to be comfortable with it and right now I don't think any of us are," said goalie Jjimmy Howard, who is 0-3 this season and is below .500 (19-24) in his career. "It's one of those things where you can do it in practice but once you get 20,000 people watching you it might be a little nerve-wraecking.

"I'm not a shooter, but I can only imagine it's probably not one of the best feelings."

The Red Wings spent time during Monday's practice — they had an day off Tuesday — working on the shootout, going one-on-one against Howard and goaltender Petr Mrazek.

"If you don't take care of shootouts, there's a lot of lost points," Nyquist said. "Every point is so important. You know those shootout points are going to matter. You have to find a way to get them."

Thus far, in three shootouts this season, the Red Wings have been ineffective on both ends.

They've scored on only 1-of-8 shots (Nyquist goal), while allowing five of seven goals.

It's early, but those three lost points thus far could have vaulted the Red Wings (19 points) into second place past Montreal (21 points) in the Atlantic Division.

"It's obviously points on the table you'd like to have," assistant coach Tony Granato said. "That's something, moving forward, we can get better at. We've got good shooters, good goalies, so hopefully we can take advantage of that."

But will the Red Wings and the rest of the league need to worry about the shootout beyond this season?

There's been plenty of speculation the league will abandon the shootout to decide a winner, instead focusing more on a three-on-three concept that would surely produce nightly highlights.

The NHL instituted the shootout after the 2004-05 lockout as a way to end ties and give something back to fans, who loved the idea of a shooter-against-goalie confrontation.

But while fans appear to still enjoy the shootout, players are getting bored.

"A lot of guys are getting sick of it throughout the league," Howard said. "It was fun at the beginning, but I think how we're deciding (these) games is a tough way.

"Sometimes it's not indicative of how you played. You get in a shootout and the pucks go in and all of a sudden you didn't have a good game."

The league could increase the length of overtime from five to about seven or eight minutes, with the first half being four-on-four and the latter half three-on-three.

Or, possibly, maybe go directly to three-on-three, which many players wouldn't mind seeing.

"That's going to end a lot of games," said Nyquist of the three-on-three action. "You're going to get chances. The crowd likes shootouts, but three-on-three sounds pretty interesting."

What bothers some players is the fact meaningful and important points are being decided by a skills completion — similar to a home-run hitting contest in baseball.

Settling on a winner or loser in more of a hockey manner — even in the seldom seen three-on-three — seems much more palatable.

"If they want to get rid of the shootout, just go straight to three-on-three. Someone is going to score," Stephen Weiss said. "You're settling it in a game atmosphere, not so much a skills competition. I don't make those calls, but that would be pretty cool.

"You'd see a lot more games ending in three-on-three. The players would love it, fans would love it."

But it's because of fans' enthusiasm toward the shootout that Granato, and some players, don't want it to see it disappear just yet.

"I like it because the fans like it," Granato said. "It's their game. They are what makes our game. If they want a shootout, they should have a shootout.

"I don't think it's lost its pizzazz. No matter where you are in the standings, when a shooter is coming down and you see 17,000 fans come out of their seats, they still like it."





Red Wings' year-by-year record in the shootout

2014-15: 0-3 (1 goal, 5 against)

2013-14: 5-9 (11-14)

*2012-13: 2-5 (5-8)

2011-12: 9-3 (15-8)

2010-11: 4-4 (6-4)

2009-10: 6-9 (19-21)

2008-09: 6-4 (13-10)

2007-08: 5-5 (12-11)

2006-07: 2-8 (10-17)

2005-06: 4-3 (12-9)

Overall: 43-53 (104-107)

*NHL lockout