The Free Press’s Helene St. James focuses on Alex Nedeljkovic’s steady play in the Red Wings’ crease this morning
Nedeljkovic made 35 saves total against the Blues, improving his season numbers to a 2.76 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. He and Thomas Greiss (3.41 GAA, .901 save percentage) have taken turns starting games, and are key reasons the Wings sit at 9-9-3.
“It’s hard to win in this league without good goaltending,” Blashill said. “The reality is you need to need have upper-level goaltending to win, and we’re certainly in that boat. We don’t want to give up the number of chances we’ve given up over the last little bit, so we’ve got to get better in that area to help them maintain their steady play, but then ultimately then they’ve got to do their job and continue to play at that level.”
Improving team defense has been a focal point, but the Wings needed Nedeljkovic to bail them out especially the last 20 minutes against the Blues. Like every goaltender, Nedeljkovic said he wants to give his teammates “the confidence to play with some swagger, knowing that if something slips up, I’ll able to make the save for them.
“As a group we’ve gotten better at being more consistent. Chemistry is there, everybody is comfortable with each other. Just some nights, we’re having too many miscues and we’re not as consistent as we’d like to be. Coming into December, we’ve got to tighten up and really start to hunker down.”
