United States forward T.J. Oshie became the talk of a nation after going four-for-six in a shootout to lead America past Russia on Saturday.
It was a stunning performance, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. Oshie has historically been superb in shootouts. That’s one of the reasons he made the team in the first place. In fact, there’s not many in the game that can hold a candle to Oshie in that regard, but Chicago Blackhawks captain and Team Canada forward Jonathan Toews is one of them.
He’s one of the few people that can claim to have done something similar to Oshie as Toews scored three shootout goals in as many attempts in the 2007 World Junior Championship semifinals. Of course, there’s a big difference in the level of attention, pressure, and talent between the Junior tournament and the Olympics.
But is also Toews the best Canada’s got. He’s the best almost anyone in this tournament has. Among active skaters that have taken at least 30 career NHL shootout attempts, Toews ranks second with a 50% success rate. Naturally Oshie is first at 54.5%.
So if a Team Canada game gets to that point, there’s a fair chance Canada will attempt to ride out Toews. So can he do what Oshie did at this level?
“It’s scary to think about, but who knows?” Toews said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Lazerus. “I’ll be ready for whatever.”
Who knows, he might even be asked to compete in a shootout duel with Oshie before this is done.