Should Carolina Hurricanes Switch Goaltenders to Anton Khudobin for Shootouts?
As the horn sounded to end the 65 minutes of real hockey at PNC Arena on Saturday night, Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward was likely flooded with dread about the shootout ahead.
Ward, whose sharp 33 saves on 35 shots during the game itself had kept the 'Canes even with the Rangers through the end of overtime, had lost eight of his last nine shootouts.
He sported the 34th-best shootout save percentage out of 42 NHL goaltenders with 50 or more career attempts faced. He was a proven liability in the skills competition.
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And sure enough, specialist Mats Zuccarello skated right in and scored on a quick shot over Ward's blocker side. A save on Derek Stepan proved insignificant, as all three Carolina shooters were denied by Henrik Lundqvist (ranked second out of those 42 goalies) and Zuccarello's tally went down as the winner.
The Rangers had won the game, and Ward had now lost nine of his last 10 shootouts.
But Ward—even after 65 minutes of stellar play, even after that end-of-overtime horn sounded—didn't actually defend (or attempt to defend) the net in the shootout after all.
Anton Khudobin could have done it instead.
Indeed, goalie switches are allowed even after every second of actual hockey in a game has been played.
Then-Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson did it in October 2008, replacing starter Vesa Toskala (who had a woeful 46 percent shootout save percentage) for cold backup Curtis Joseph (boasting a far superior 72 percent rate) in a shootout against the Anaheim Ducks.
Nonetheless, the Leafs still lost that night, and no NHL coach has attempted it since.
In soccer, however, it's a different story.
Twice in the 2013 NCAA women's soccer tournament, Duke coach Robbie Church put in his backup netminder for only the penalty shootout. Duke won the shootout both times.
In the 2014 World Cup, Dutch manager Louis van Gaal famously used his final substitution to bring on backup goaltender Tim Krul for starter Jasper Cillessen in the 121st minute—one minute before the penalty shootout—of the Netherlands' quarterfinal match against Costa Rica.
Krul, who had studied Costa Rica's shootout win in the previous round, dove the right way on all five shots and saved two to help the Netherlands advance to the semifinals.
In similar fashion, 'Canes backup Khudobin had actually faced the Rangers in a shootout already this year.
He conceded one goal on three attempts, and Carolina lost that game, too. But he surely had that experience in mind while sitting idly for three hours on the bench this past Saturday.
In limited action, Khudobin has also appeared simply a better shootout goaltender than Ward, having saved seven of nine career attempts faced and gone 1-2. The contrast between he and No. 30 is stark:
| Home Record | 7-16 | 0-1 |
| Home Save % | .671 | .667 |
| Road Record | 4-11 | 1-1 |
| Road Save % | .533 | .833 |
| Overall Record | 11-27 | 1-2 |
| Overall Save % | .624 | .778 |
Moving forward, Carolina boss Bill Peters might want to consider taking a page out of the books of Wilson, Church and van Gaal.
Plenty more shootouts lie ahead for the Hurricanes—who are 0-3 in such events this year and an all-time 26-39, the fewest wins of all 30 franchises. Few goalies exist who have proven more shootout ineptitude than Ward, and Khudobin has shown some promise.
The radical, yet possibly brilliant, switch seems at least worth a try.
Mark Jones has covered the Carolina Hurricanes for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.
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