How to Increase Shootout Success: Discussing The Best Shootout Routes
How to approach the goalie in a shootout
We’ve been studying shootouts since the start of the Hockey IQ Newsletter.
What we’ve noticed is much of the conversation continues to gradually progress to discuss the preferred routes of the best shootout attackers.
Shootout Routes
The particular element we continue to harp on is the approach route players are taking from the dots and in.
Almost all players arch in on their approach, but most continue to go straight at the goalie once they hit the dots. The players that continue to go across or down are having a ton more success at converting those attempts into goals.
In the Red Wings dramatic 7-6 Shootout win over the Flyers, we saw this play out. There were two goals scored during the shootout and both were on across routes.
Shootout Goal #1 (Lucas Raymond)
Lucas Raymond: “That move I feel like you have a lot of options when you come in—I can go low, I can go high, or I can take it on the backhand. So I feel like it has a lot of different options.”
He added that there is also a benefit to disrupting a goaltender’s rhythm with a wide route, “It’s also preventing [the goalie] from back movement. He has to stop and then just move sideways. He can’t really go back.”
Raymond routinely works on different shootout options after practice, but he doesn’t tend to determine which move to deploy until it’s his turn to shoot: “When [I] come in, I let my reflex and intuition take over, so it’s usually not something I decide before. It’s what I see when I come up there.”
Shootout Goal #2 (Patrick Kane)
Patrick Kane scored the goal to clinch the shootout and game for the Red Wings, and he explained that he finds a benefit to being the third shooter up for his team.
"I think going third you have a little bit of an advantage," he said after the game. "You get a read from the other two guys. And so Raymond had a nice move there, so I almost tried to replicate it a little bit as a lefty, but sometimes you come in on a different angle and you go a little bit slower you have some more options."
"I think it just gets the goalie off his angles a little bit, especially when you come in a little bit slower," Kane added, when asked about the benefit of the move he settled on.
"Just talking to goalies over the years, that seems to be when they have a tougher time. I think Raymond pretty much did the same move coming wide and coming in on an angle, so you have a couple of different options when you come in that way."
Shootout vs. Los Angeles Kings… just two weeks later
Two weeks later, both used the same approach… and scored again! Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Kings shooters both went straight at the goalie and failed to convert.
The more you watch… the more you’ll notice that players the do not skate at the goalie have a much higher success rate. Check out the difference:
Why This Is An Effective Approach Route
There are a few key reasons why this approach route toward the net is so effective:
Unsettles goalies feet
Forces constant micro adjustments from the goalie
There are multiple options a goalie must respect
Opens up holes due to lateral threats
All of these elements are to the advantage of the attacker attempting to score. We will continue to see this route get wider adoption as players/coaches/consultants read this and spread this effective strategy.
Further Reading