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Shanahan's 500th Goal Hard To Come By - April 12, 2002 - Volume 55, Issue 31 - Nick Costonika 

After scoring his 499th goal March 2 at Pittsburgh, Detroit Red Wings forward Brendan Shanahan said No. 500 didn’t matter to him.

Bad move.

“I think I jinxed myself,” Shanahan said.

After that, Shanahan had eight assists in eight games - but not a goal. Oh, he had chances. Glorious chances. But the puck slipped off his stick, struck iron or found a path with a dead end. Goaltenders were making ridiculous saves; Shanahan was skating back to the bench shaking his head.

Thirty-eight shots on net, and nothing.

Shanahan had to laugh. What else could he do?

“Usually when you’re not scoring, you’re really frustrated and you want to change things and you’re down,” Shanahan said.

But, Shanahan said, any time he looked at a teammate, the teammate would say, “Don’t change a thing.”

He didn’t change a thing.

And March 23 at Colorado, Shanahan returned to the good graces of the hockey gods. He finally scored No. 500 - and it was the winner in a 2-0 victory.

In his next two games, Shanahan scored with 1:59 and 2:05 remaining in regulation, respectively, as the Wings earned back-to-back 3-3 ties with Nashville.

“I always say these things have a way of evening out,” Shanahan said.