A Tampa Bay Lightning shootout that demands to be taken seriously

Let us begin with the obvious: a shootout of any sort involving any players is a ridiculous way to decide any hockey game. That the NHL allows playoff spots to be awarded and ordered based on games that are or may be decided by shootouts is nothing short of asinine.

It’s like deciding baseball games with home-run derbies.

It’s like deciding basketball games with shoot-offs.

It’s like deciding football games with field-goal kicking contests.

Every time an NHL game is decided by a shootout, a great sport is reduced to something akin to arena football or indoor soccer.

To analyze an NHL shootout, therefore, is to make a concession to folly. It’s a sign of an imbalance. It’s saying yes, yes, I know I’m going to die one day but I’m willing to expend some of my precious time on this earth thinking about silly things.

And here I go.

Tampa Bay Lightning lose 2-1 against the Flyers in shootout

On Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning found itself in a shootout against the Philadelphia Flyers. That the Lightning did not win this game in regulation — they were playing at home against one of the worst teams in the league and leading 1-0 until 15:44 of the third period — would be worth an article in itself and, perhaps, a more salient one. (We might, for starters, ask why the lone Flyers goal occurred at all.

It was another one of those moments, circa 2024, when a goalie — and, to be sure, Tampa net-minder Andrei Vasilevskiy otherwise played very well — flops to his knees before the shot is taken, opening space over his shoulder that otherwise would have been fully covered if he had just stood there motionless, on a tight-angle shot that shouldn’t go in, not then, not ever.)

That said, what took place in the shootout was really quite hard to believe.

For his team’s first shooter, Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper went with Gage Goncalves. You might be wondering, what is a Gage Goncalves? Because that sounds like a small island nation or maybe a rash that requires a prescription ointment.

Gage Goncalves is a forward who, at that moment, was playing in his fourth-ever NHL game. He has not yet recorded a point as an NHL player. In a recent AHL call-up following an injury to star center Brayden Point, Goncalves apparently had some success in the minors at shootouts. The statistic that was quoted by Tampa Bay Times reporter Eduardo Encina on X after the game is that he was 7-for-16 on shootouts in the AHL.

Seven-for-16 against AHL goalies. Not even fifty percent. In his first NHL attempt, Goncalves did not score, and, in fact, as he tentatively approached Philadelphia rookie goalie Ivan Fedotov and fired the puck into the thick part of the goalie’s leg pad, he really didn’t look like he had a plan for how to score. Maybe shootouts are different in the AHL. Maybe you’re required to skate backward or something.

Travis Konecny then went first for the Flyers and, without hesitation, fired the puck by Vasilevskiy.

At this point, Cooper called on Victor Hedman to take the next Lightning shot. Yes, Hedman is a defenseman. And, yes, Hedman missed.

Owen Tippett went next for Philadelphia and ended the game as quickly as a shootout can end a game with a goal.

To summarize, the Lightning could have used the leading scorer in the NHL last season (Nikita Kucherov), could have used the red-hot Brandon Hagel, could have used any one of several established NHL forwards — men paid millions of dollars annually to put pucks in nets — and instead the Bolts went with a not-ballyhooed rookie and an aging defenseman.

I’m generally of the mind that NHL shootouts are little more than a crapshoot. They are events like visits to the dentist — part of life, moments to be tolerated, not scrutinized. Yet there are decisions so striking on the eye-brow-raise scale that those decisions prompt larger concerns. Cooper’s choices in this shootout meet that definition.

Speaking about the game in general and without any sense that irony is a thing, Cooper told the media post-game: “We’re over-complicating an uncomplicated game.” Lament the loss if you want, Lightning fans, but at least we got that howler.

Oddly, the Lightning do not have another game on its schedule until November 14. During this interregnum you have to hope two things occur: First, that Point, who missed this and the previous game with an injury not described in any detail in the media because of course it’s not, heals. Second, that general manager Julien BriseBois hosts a closed-door meeting during which the coach gets asked to please review a copy of the current roster.