This was the one Alex Nedeljković would've wanted back:
That's Dougie Hamilton. That's not, however, the Devils' winning goal of the seven-round shootout that wrapped up an official 3-2 outcome in their favor. That'd come three rounds later off the blade of Timo Meier.
But this was the one that stung. Because this one, coming right after Anthony Beauvillier's conversion in the fourth round, would've clinched it in the Penguins' favor.
Also because of this ...
"When he and I were teammates in Carolina, he'd always make a move," Nedeljković recalled for me of his shared time in Raleigh with Hamilton and their shootouts in practice. "So when he started drifting over to his backhand side ..."
Yeah, no. Hamilton just flicked it. Five-hole. Right along the ice.
Yuck.
So by the time the ultra-talented Meier's turn came, after other Devils had already tried picking on Nedeljkovic's glove side, I'm guessing 15,916 knew where this was going:
Wow. Curl of the wrists. Roof of the U.S. Steel Tower.
The hockey culture at all levels tends to allow shootouts to come and go without much emotion. It's not really the game. It's not really an indication of how the team as a whole fared. And that's all right in the intangible sense.
But for these Penguins, every point's precious, as Nedeljković would acknowledge.
"Came back from two goals down," he'd say of his team's regulation rally. "We played a pretty good game from start to finish. I thought in the first period we were the better team, and they just got a lucky bounce there right at the end. Second period, they made a nice play off the faceoff. But we stuck with it. Kept going. Clawed our way back. ... We'll take the one point. It sucks not getting the other one, but we got to be happy with how we played tonight. Just move on and get ready for the next one."
Repeating: Yeah, no. Not for him, anyway. He's bemoaned his own shootout performances all season, and not without cause: He's now 1-3 in these, stopping only 11 of 19 attempts. And combined with Tristan Jarry's 2 for 6, that's 13 for 25 for the team and a 1-5 record that'd be the league's worst such winning percentage if it weren't for the Sharks at 0-4.
In this one, of the Devils' seven attempts, he gave up three goals, he saw two players fail to register shots at all -- Jack Hughes fanned, and brother Luke Hughes whiffed wide -- and he made two saves.
"It's me vs. whoever. It's just me," Nedeljković would say of the shootout. "And it sucks, because there's like five or six extra points that we've kind of given away just because I haven't been very good in a shootout, quite frankly. And the one win we have in the shootout was against San Jose, and I still gave up two in that one. The guys are doing an unbelievable job of putting the puck in the net in these, I had a chance to shut them down tonight ... and I'm not getting that job done."
And what can he do about that?
"Just be more patient. Treat it like the rest of the game. Stop thinking. Just react."
OK, well, full context: He also made 19 of 21 saves, giving up one goal when a teammate kicked the puck by him and another one a blistering one-timer, and he did this in the final seconds of overtime to New Jersey's most gifted player ...
... to draw a thunderous standing ovation.
In my best Homer Simpson voice: Stupid shootouts.
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THE ASYLUM
Dejan Kovacevic
8:03 am - 02.05.2025UptownDrive to the Net: Shootouts kill
This was the one Alex Nedeljković would've wanted back:
That's Dougie Hamilton. That's not, however, the Devils' winning goal of the seven-round shootout that wrapped up an official 3-2 outcome in their favor. That'd come three rounds later off the blade of Timo Meier.
But this was the one that stung. Because this one, coming right after Anthony Beauvillier's conversion in the fourth round, would've clinched it in the Penguins' favor.
Also because of this ...
"When he and I were teammates in Carolina, he'd always make a move," Nedeljković recalled for me of his shared time in Raleigh with Hamilton and their shootouts in practice. "So when he started drifting over to his backhand side ..."
Yeah, no. Hamilton just flicked it. Five-hole. Right along the ice.
Yuck.
So by the time the ultra-talented Meier's turn came, after other Devils had already tried picking on Nedeljkovic's glove side, I'm guessing 15,916 knew where this was going:
Wow. Curl of the wrists. Roof of the U.S. Steel Tower.
The hockey culture at all levels tends to allow shootouts to come and go without much emotion. It's not really the game. It's not really an indication of how the team as a whole fared. And that's all right in the intangible sense.
But for these Penguins, every point's precious, as Nedeljković would acknowledge.
"Came back from two goals down," he'd say of his team's regulation rally. "We played a pretty good game from start to finish. I thought in the first period we were the better team, and they just got a lucky bounce there right at the end. Second period, they made a nice play off the faceoff. But we stuck with it. Kept going. Clawed our way back. ... We'll take the one point. It sucks not getting the other one, but we got to be happy with how we played tonight. Just move on and get ready for the next one."
Repeating: Yeah, no. Not for him, anyway. He's bemoaned his own shootout performances all season, and not without cause: He's now 1-3 in these, stopping only 11 of 19 attempts. And combined with Tristan Jarry's 2 for 6, that's 13 for 25 for the team and a 1-5 record that'd be the league's worst such winning percentage if it weren't for the Sharks at 0-4.
In this one, of the Devils' seven attempts, he gave up three goals, he saw two players fail to register shots at all -- Jack Hughes fanned, and brother Luke Hughes whiffed wide -- and he made two saves.
"It's me vs. whoever. It's just me," Nedeljković would say of the shootout. "And it sucks, because there's like five or six extra points that we've kind of given away just because I haven't been very good in a shootout, quite frankly. And the one win we have in the shootout was against San Jose, and I still gave up two in that one. The guys are doing an unbelievable job of putting the puck in the net in these, I had a chance to shut them down tonight ... and I'm not getting that job done."
And what can he do about that?
"Just be more patient. Treat it like the rest of the game. Stop thinking. Just react."
OK, well, full context: He also made 19 of 21 saves, giving up one goal when a teammate kicked the puck by him and another one a blistering one-timer, and he did this in the final seconds of overtime to New Jersey's most gifted player ...
... to draw a thunderous standing ovation.
In my best Homer Simpson voice: Stupid shootouts.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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