The Washington Capitals won an absurd shootout against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night where it took 13 shot attempts before an actual goal was scored. Darcy Kuemper, a 2022 Stanley Cup champion with the Colorado Avalanche, stood tall on all seven shots he faced while future Hall of Fame goaltender, Marc-Andre Fluery, made saves on six of seven, including a rare stop on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s super slow shootout move.
A defenseman ultimately scored the game-winning goal in Round 7, the Capitals’ John Carlson, once all of the most talented forwards on the ice were exhausted.
“You don’t see those types of numbers too often,” Carlson observed. “It might go six or seven shooters, but it’s not six or seven donuts.”
Postgame, the dramatic shootout was top on the minds of all the players and coaches, providing broader insight into the skills competition.
Mistakes or randomness can make shootout attempts even harder to stop.
At the end of the night when the shootout is held, the ice is chewed up and not necessarily its best after 65 minutes of play, no matter how much it’s touched up beforehand. It can cause some players, who have set breakaway moves, to lose the puck or have the biscuit roll on them. This causes chaos and unpredictability for the goaltenders.
For instance, Carlson beat Fleury with a simple shot on his forehand to the top corner of the net. But part of the reason why Carlson scored was because he bobbled the puck ever-so-slightly approaching the net. That weirdness changed the angle of his shot and caused a small, counter reaction from MAF, opening up the centimeters possible for the puck to find the back of the net.
Carly FTW pic.twitter.com/fNs4CPhKSY
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 28, 2023
“My arsenal isn’t as big as many others,” Carlson joked. “Just so happened that no one really was trying to shoot glove. If anything, I kind of bobbled the puck first and sometimes I like to try and freeze [the goaltender], but it kind of worked in place of that. It might have held [Fleury] for an extra split second.”
Fleury agreed.
“Wish I could have saved that one,” Fleury said. “I think it kind of rolled on me a bit when he went up.”
Meanwhile, Kuemper suggested that the toughest save he had to make was on the Marco Rossi in the sixth round. As the Wild forward approached the net, he lost handle of the puck as he entered the slot. Rossi quickly regained the biscuit and his composure, deking in tight before shooting on his backhand. Kuemper stayed with him and made the save with his left pad.
🧱🧱🧱 pic.twitter.com/s6s1JEkMsm
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 28, 2023
“Would that have counted? I’m not even sure,” Kuemper said. “He pretty much stopped. He actually made a pretty good move to get wide like that. They can be tough if guys make good moves like that.”
Capitals goaltending coach Scott Murray plays a big role on who shoots.
After the Capitals’ victory, Spencer Carbery revealed the process of how he picks shooters in extra innings, giving credit to less heralded members of his staff. When picking Carlson in the seventh round, Carbery explained that it was “a little bit of feel, a little bit of our goaltending coach Scott Murray.”
Despite not being on the bench, Murray gives precious insight and scouting reports to the other coaches through ear pieces.
“He’s got the numbers behind the scenes and he’s kind of radioing down who he thinks we should go with next, especially when we go that deep,” Carbery said. “We usually know our first three (shooters), but as we go along, he’s giving us some information and then asking assistant coaches.”
Carbery started getting a tingling feeling about Carlson earlier, wondering when he should go with someone other than a forward.
“Like I started thinking John two shooters before,” Carbery said. “I’m like, at what point does John shoot because he’s really talented player. He can score. So then it just lined up. The next shooter for us. We need to go with John at some point here. And Scott Murray was radioing down and he goes ‘John Carlson’s next.'”
Kuemper and MAF do not study shooters’ past attempts before games.
Carlson was asked postgame if all his experience against MAF in the past during the Capitals-Penguins rivalry aided in his shootout goal.
“No,” Carlson said smiling. “All the goalies are good. They all watch tape of everybody, the first 10 or 12 shooters before every single game. They know exactly every shootout move that I’ve probably ever done.”
Except, that’s not the case, at least according to the goaltenders of record. For example, Fleury was clueless postgame when he was told Evgeny Kuznetsov shoots to the blocker side every time he attempts his super slow shootout move.
“Does he?” MAF asked in response. “I used to watch tapes for shootouts, eh? And then you expect something.”
MAF’s point was that if he tries to guess or anticipate, that could give an advantage to a quick-thinking shooter.
“He’s got a long reach,” Fleury said. “He can go either way. He can shoot either way and you’re kind of standing still. So I was happy to make that save.”
Kuemper had a similar philosophy towards shootout preparation.
“I used to (do homework) but I’ve completely stopped,” Kuemper said. “I don’t want to freeze on a move I expect and they do something different. So I just try to go out there and react.”
Darcy Kuemper totally had confidence in his team.
Shootouts require a high level of skill from both shooters and goaltenders, but there’s a level of randomness to the skills competition where either team can win. Kuemper seemed to admit to this after the game with the verbal equivalent of The Waffling Larry David GIF. While making save after save for his team, he tried to meet the moment with optimism regardless of if it was warranted or not.
“I knew eventually we would score,” Kuemper said. Then he reconsidered.
“Or they would, I guess. Just try to make as many saves as he’s making at the other end and keep it going.”
Meanwhile, the feeling after a shootout loss is much more certain.
“It sucks,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said.
Headline photo: Pennybacker/RMNB Crashers
