The Detroit Red Wings showed resilience they want to carry forward, but their immediate concern is figuring out goalie John Gibson’s status.
Todd McLellan did not have much in the way of an update on Gibson following the Wings’ 6-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, Nov. 13, which Gibson left after two periods. McLellan said Gibson had “an upper body issue,” but the coach wasn’t certain if the injury stemmed from Gibson being knocked over, or the two pucks he took off his helmet.
Either way, the Wings play again Saturday, at home against the Buffalo Sabres, and then Sunday at the New York Rangers. Cam Talbot finished the Ducks game, but it’s uncommon for a goalie to play two straight nights, and Talbot is also 38 years old.
“Wee’re confident in both goalies,” forward Alex DeBrincat said. “I don’t think it really affects us much. Obviously we want to see Gibby be all right, but we trust Talbs in there and he did a great job in the third period and really kept us in it.”
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If the Wings (10-7-0) need to call up someone, they don’t have many options. In the minors, Sebastian Cossa is recovering from an injury with the Grand Rapids Griffins and was supposed to get the coming week off. The Griffins play Friday, then not again until Nov. 21. Michal Postava, signed in the offseason out of Czechia, is also injured and out indefinitely. That leaves Carter Gylander, the Wings’ seventh-round pick out of Colgate in 2019, as an option, if needed.
At least the Wings go into the weekend off a victory. They didn’t have a great start against the Ducks, but they scored around the net, showing that two straight days of intense practices were helpful.
“It was a little bit of a wake-up call, I think,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “As we all know, Todd’s very demanding and very detailed, and maybe it was exactly what we needed to get back on track. It’s a good first step in the right direction.”
The scoring was a change from the three-game skid, during which the Wings scored just twice.
“We just needed a bounce or two, and I think that’s what happened,” Seider said. “I think we really stuck to our structure, really trying to simplify things on both sides of the ice, and it worked.”
Michael Rasmussen, a scratch on Sunday, recorded his second goal of the season in what McLellan called Rasmussen’s “best game of the season today, for a lot of different reasons.
“He looked confident, he looked big, strong, held on to pucks, was physical. So for him there, that’s a real big confidence booster.
“We’re happy for him, we’re glad that he did that. And we need that going forward night after night, because he can play that way. He’s a pretty effective player when he does.”
The Wings had a rare three-day break between games, allowing them to hold intense practices. The payoff was their first win since Nov. 2.
“You take the lesson, take the lesson, then you take the test,” McLellan said. “We scored some goals, just simple, hard playoff-type goals, really. When you think about hard, hard goals, the feeder shots that go to the net and you gotta battle. And then the other way, with some of their feeder shots, we were sacrificing in front of our net.
“We stepped into some things, goaltenders made saves. So it is rewarding, but it can’t be, we can’t just take the lesson one day and forget about it next week. That lesson’s supposed to stay with us now.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: John Gibson injury: Goalie leaves during Detroit Red Wings victory