John Gibson looks set to get the crease back when the Red Wings face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, and his last outing offered another reminder of how he tends to handle the chaos in front of him. Against the San Jose Sharks, Gibson stopped 31 shots in a 4-3 shootout win, and two pucks even rang off his goalie mask along the way.
“For some reason, it seems like my head gets hit with a lot of pucks,” Gibson said. “So, I don’t know if that’s good positioning or what, but if you keep it out of the net, I’ll take it.
I just try to make the saves, and I have belief that we’re going to get the goals. So it just doesn’t really matter about technique as long as you can keep the puck out of the net and score more than the other team.”
Moritz Seider was right back in the middle of everything again, which has become pretty much the norm. In Tuesday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken, the defenseman was on the ice for a team-high 28:28 as Detroit pushed to the finish, blocking shots and grinding through heavy minutes. He had another monster workload in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Sharks, logging a team-high 29:46 and getting in front of four shots.
“He’s a machine,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “He plays heavy, hard minutes.
I’ve said this before, he’s like a diesel truck. He never gets tired, he just keeps going.
He sells out for his team, blocks shots, then goes out and does it again, then goes out and does it again. It’s pretty inspiring.
Alex DeBrincat also had a milestone night while helping Detroit salvage a point on Monday. His tying goal was his 300th in the NHL, and it put him in a pretty select group among American-born players.
The Michigander reached 300 in 705 games, making him the fourth-fastest American-born NHL player to hit that mark. Only Auston Matthews, who got there in 482 games, Kyle Connor in 648, and Jake Guentzel in 670 did it quicker.
In Other News...
Red Wings Suddenly Have Two Core Roster Questions Fans Cant Ignore
A week that was supposed to bring some clarity for the Red Wings instead left the front office juggling a pair of sensitive roster conversations. General manager Shawn Horcoff recently sat down with Simon Edvinsson and his agent to talk through both contract and trade possibilities, a sign of how far the negotiations have drifted and how much attention the young defenseman is suddenly drawing around the league.
Edvinsson's situation is only part of the concern in Detroit, where trade discussions involving Dylan Larkin have also picked up in recent days. The combination puts the Red Wings in an awkward spot, with key pieces of the roster now tied to uncertainty at a time when the organization would rather be building momentum than answering questions about who might still be around when the dust settles. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Insider Just Added New Tension To The Dylan Larkin Standoff
Jim Devellanos latest comments offered a familiar mix of patience and urgency around the Red Wings rebuild. The senior vice president and alternate governor pointed to the teams defense as a source of optimism, while also acknowledging the heavier lift up front, where Detroit still needs more impact scoring to keep the rebuild moving in the right direction. He also leaned on the franchises past draft success and previous turnaround efforts as proof that this kind of reset can work, even if the current NHL makes it a tougher road than it used to be.
The part that will stick with Red Wings fans, though, is the unresolved Dylan Larkin situation. Devellano addressed the lingering trade-request storyline in the same conversation, and while the relationship appears to have been smoothed over on the surface, the larger question around Larkins status remains hanging over the roster picture. For a team trying to build around a core while adding the right pieces, any uncertainty involving its captain only adds another layer to an already delicate stage of the rebuild. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Suddenly Have A Goalie Question Fans Will Notice
A fresh wrinkle has turned up in the Red Wings goalie picture, with Grand Rapids netminder Postava joining Detroit on the clubs west coast trip. The move leaves the Griffins reshuffling in a hurry, where backup Jamie Phillips was signed to a professional tryout in the wake of Postavas departure, a sign that the organization needed another body ready to step in at the AHL level.
The reason for the call-up is still a little murky, which is part of what makes it worth watching as the trip unfolds. It is not yet clear whether Detroit is responding to an injury issue in its crease or simply rewarding Postava for how he has handled himself in Grand Rapids, but either way the Red Wings now have a goaltending situation that could change quickly depending on what happens next. [Read more 🡒]