Goalie switch in shootouts not on the table for Blackhawks, despite Lehner’s struggles

Lehner’s loss Saturday dropped his career record in shootouts to 8-22. Corey Crawford, meanwhile, is 31-23 all-time. But history shows switching goalies just for shootouts to be an unwise idea.

Among all NHL goaltenders, Robin Lehner currently owns the best regular save percentage — and the second-worst shootout save percentage.

Lehner has allowed four goals on five shootout attempts against him this season, including two goals on two attempts by Joe Pavelski and Tyler Seguin in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against the Stars.

He’s been a terrible shootout goalie throughout his career, in fact, with an 8-22 record and .521 save percentage in the skills competition across his stints with the Senators, Sabres, Islanders and Blackhawks. The league average save percentage in shootouts, by comparison, is .683 over the past six years, and .707 so far this year.

The always-honest netminder is fully aware of those woes.

“I’m not very good at them,” he said Saturday. “I don’t know what’s tough about them or not tough about them. I just don’t seem to make the save in the shootout, and I do on the breakaways. It’s a little bit different in speed for me. I’ve tried to do a bunch of different things. But it is what it is.”

Corey Crawford, meanwhile, has above-average shootout results over his career, even though he was tagged for two goals on three attempts in the loss to the Penguins earlier this month. Crawford is 31-23 all-time with a .719 save percentage.

With the team clearly struggling in the shootout lately — they’re now 0-3 in them this season after going 3-1 last season and 52-40 dating back to 2009 — the Hawks must consider all options to gain those valuable extra points moving forward.

At least their shootout scoring should improve over the long run. Jonathan Toews (boasting his excellent 47 percent career scoring) and Patrick Kane (a solid 37 percent) will both convert more often than their 1-for-3 marks so far.

The shootout goaltending is a bigger question, though.

One obvious but drastic possibility would be subbing Crawford in for Lehner for the skills competitions, regardless of how Lehner plays in the preceding 65 minutes of real hockey (and in both of Lehner’s shootouts this year, he’s played incredibly beforehand, making 40 saves on 41 shots against the Stars and 33 saves on 34 shots vs. the Golden Knights Oct. 22).

But Jeremy Colliton said Saturday he’s thoroughly opposed to that idea.

“That’d be tough,” the coach said. “Listen, Robin played really well. I don’t think it’s fair to talk about the shootout, as well as he played for the rest of the 65 minutes. He was really good.”

NHL rules do allow for pre-shootout (albeit not in-shootout) goalie changes, and it has been tried at least a few times before, but history is on Colliton’s side.

In October 2008, then-Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson switched starter Vesa Toskala, a horrendous shootout goalie who had already lost two other shootouts that month, for backup Curtis Joseph, a good shootout goalie, in a game against the Ducks.

But Joseph allowed goals on both Ducks attempts and the Leafs lost anyway.

Three years later, in an Islanders-Penguins matchup in October 2011, Rick DiPietro replaced Isles starter Evgeni Nabokov for the shootout. An explanation was never given, but DiPietro finished his career .730 in shootouts while Nabokov finished at .645, so it may well have been strategic.

Yet the Isles also lost, despite DiPietro stopping two of three attempts.

The obvious challenge of a goalie entering the game cold, with only a few minutes to prepare, and immediately facing uncontested breakaways with the game on the line apparently overrides goalies’ overall shootout tendencies.

So the Hawks will likely ride with Lehner in future situations and hope for the best.