Could the Shootout Be a Mini-Game Next Season?

1st and 2nd place in the hockey pool this year was separated by only 7 points this year and the two teams swapped spots in the last week of the regular season, Dale B. cruised past Brian to take the title and get his name on the trophy.  Brian was watching the title slip away from his grasp last week and asked in the middle of the week, whether or not shootout goals counted and no, of course they don't.  Does anyone like the shootout?

I miss the good ol' fashioned tie to finish up games, not the skills competition to decide games.  Nevertheless, it may make for an interesting mini-game next season, since the NHL does post shootout numbers.  How would those numbers look this season, if it were a mini-game?

First, it's important to note that team numbers published would be with the 14-player team they finished with, this would include the numbers from players they dropped and it would include goals scored before they were activated on their team.

If shootout goals were the only point in this mini-game, then we'd have a 4-way tie for 1st place, as Benson, Dale B., Scott and Stuart's teams all racked up 14 shootout goals in the season.  By this computation, Brian's hope that shootout goals would have counted, Dale would have actually pulled away.

Now, if we added game-deciding goals, John S. would jump to the top of the heap, as his team had 13 shootout goals in the season and out of those, nine were game-deciders, lifting his total to 22 points, 1 point better than both Benson and Dale B., who only had 7 game-deciders.

All 25 teams in the hockey pool saw some action in the shootout, but some way more than others.  Benson and Dale B. had the most shots in the shootout in the season, both teams finished with 40 shots taken, while Grant and Jeremy were at the opposite end of the spectrum, with only 9 shots among their team.

What if we did the goalies as well?  Just looking at the data, it would be neat to have saves minus goals allowed for them.  Eric and Brian's goalies saw the most shots this season in the shootout, both taking 47, while Brenda & Seward's followed closely with 46 shots, Stacey C.'s saw 43 shots and Marcie's team saw 40 shots this year.  Stacey C.'s team only allowed 7 goals out his team's 43 shots, giving him 36 saves and 29 points to lead the way.  Brenda & Seward was 36 saves against 10 goals for 26 points to be 2nd place.

Kristy & Don's lack of goaltending starts, albeit not last place in that category, didn't see their goalies get to the shootout very often.  Jonathan Quick of the Kings and Juuse Saros of the Predators only saw one shootout each, five shots in total and 3 goals and 2 saves for 1 point, when it was all said and done.

Hold the phone!  Jeremy's team saw 22 shots in the shootout, 11 goals and 11 saves, which would have made him last place in this game, with no points.

The shooters and the goalies could each make a pretty good mini-game next season, but for Brian, it likely wasn't enough to win him the hockey pool, if it was a statistic worth counting in the overall totals.