Today in NYR history: A dubious overtime record for the Blueshirts

What happened on December 5 in the history of the New York Rangers

One of the rarest plays in hockey is the penalty shot.  A penalty shot awarded in overtime is even rarer.  Scoring on an overtime penalty shot is even rarer. On this date in 2002, the New York Rangers took that rare play and doubled it.  In a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers became the first team in NHL to lose two games in overtime on penalty shots.

The first time it happened was on December 23, 2000 when David Legwand of the Nashville Predators scored to win the game 3-2 in overtime. This time, it was Michal Handzus of the Flyers.

The game was at the First Union Center in Philadelphia and the Blueshirts lost by the same score, 3-2. The penalty shot was called when Handzus was tackled by defenseman Tom Poti with only 36.7 seconds left in OT. Handzus beat goalie Dan Blackburn with a backhand over the goalie’s shoulder. This came seconds after Flyers goalie Roman Cechmanek had stopped Petr Nedved on a 2-on-1 break-in with Pavel Bure.

Blackburn was in goal for the 13th straight game after Mike Richter had suffered a concussion.
There were six penalty shots involving the Rangers in 2002, two for them and four against them. Pavel Bure scored on both of his attempts, while the Rangers stopped only one of the four penalty shots they gave up. Bure, along with Alex Shibecky, are the only Rangers to score twice on penalty shots as Blueshirts.

How rare are overtime penalty shot goals?  There have been only 17 successful overtime penalty shots in NHL history.  Nashville and Buffalo are the other NHL franchises to lose two games on overtime penalty shots.

But wait, the Rangers had to know that their dubious record would be equaled so they decided to go one better.  On April 12, 2014, Brian Gionta of the Montreal Canadiens beat Cam Talbot just over two minutes into overtime and the Rangers became the only team with three penalty shot overtime losses.

The numbers

The Rangers have played 36 games on December 5 in their history. It’s been a good day for them with only 11 regulation losses.

Regulation wins: 17
Regulation losses: 11
Ties: 7
Overtime losses: 1
Points percentage: .597

Today’s birthdays

19 NHL players have been born on December 5 including one well-traveled NHLer who made a pit stop in New York and is remembered for a costly failure.

Olli Jokinen was born on this date in 1978 in Kuopio, Finland. The center played for 10 different NHL teams in a 17-year career. That included 26 games at the end of the 2009-10 season for the Rangers.  He was traded to the Blueshirts from Calgary along with Brandon Prust in exchange for Chris Higgins and Alex Kotalik.  He was productive, scoring four goals and 15 points, but is best remembered by Ranger fans for taking the final shot in the shootout loss that ended the Rangers’ season.  The Blueshirts were playing the Flyers with the last playoff spot at stake.  The game ended in a 1-1 tie and after a scoreless overtime, they went to the skills competition.  P.A. Parenteau matched Daniel Briere’s successful shot, but it was up to Jokinen after Claude Giroux beat Henrik Lundqvist.   He missed. As a result, Ranger fans were happy to see him re-sign with the Flames that summer.  That was the only time the Rangers missed the playoffs in 12 seasons.