The NHL lockout has been in effect for nearly three months now, and so, with no actual games to report on, we’re going to link to a different hockey video every day until a new CBA is reached. Today: the longest shoot-out in NHL history.
It’s sort of fascinating to watch the entirety of the November 26, 2005, shoot-out between the Rangers and Capitals — the one that ended with Marek Malik’s memorable circus shot. Shoot-outs were still pretty novel back in the fall of 2005, and so, even before this thing stretched into a fifteenth round, and before the offensively challenged Malik scored the game-winner by positioning his stick between his legs and flipping the puck past Olaf Kolzig, the Garden crowd was buzzing.
The shoot-out was introduced during that first post-lockout season, and this was the Rangers fifth of the year, and just their third on home ice. Shoot-outs can still be exciting now, depending on the circumstances of the game and the quality of the shoot-out itself. But back in the early weeks of the 2005-06 season, many fans were still getting their first live look at something they’d previously only seen during the Olympics and the Junior Goodwill Games.
Of course, this particular shoot-out also happened to be a classic, assuming you’re willing to use that word to describe what amounts to a meaningful skills competition. Malik, hardly known for his offensive skills, would score a total of six non-shoot-out goals in three years with the Rangers, and he would hear plenty of boos from the home fans before landing in Tampa Bay in 2008. But he was the hero on this night, when the surprising Rangers improved their record to 16-7-3. Rookie Henrik Lundqvist was the Rangers’ goalie that night, and though there are no current Rangers’ among New York’s shooters, Steve Eminger was one of Washington’s shooters.
And so, on Day 86 of the NHL lockout, here’s what remains of the longest shoot-out in league history, as called by the very excited duo of Mike Crispino and John Davidson.