MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article in which he surmises that the Red Wings will rely heavily upon goaltender John Gibson to make up for some of the team’s losses in terms of goal-scoring abilities. Khan isn’t wrong in presuming that, one way or another, the 33-year-old Gibson faces a pivotal season ahead in Detroit:
Gibson struggled through November, going 4-7-1 with a 3.59 GAA and .865 save percentage. He flourished since the start of December, going 25-15-3, with a 2.45 GAA and .912 save percentage.
“I think just for whatever reason, it took a little longer to kind of find my game this year and make sure that next year kind of put more emphasis on getting off the hot start,” Gibson said. “I’ve kind of taken pride in that throughout my career. Want to get off to a hot start and unfortunately, it wasn’t the case this year.”’
Gibson, 33, is entering the final year of his contract. He hasn’t appeared in a playoff game since 2018 with the Ducks.
The Red Wings haven’t reached the postseason since 2016, a drought that appeared would be ending when they were tied for the Eastern Conference lead in late January, only to collapse down the stretch again.
“I was just looking for a fresh start, new opportunity,” Gibson said. “Obviously, the last four weeks wasn’t what we hoped to be, but in general, I think there’s a good group of guys here. I had a lot of fun playing, playing a lot of games and that was what I wanted to do. It just ultimately came a little short but a lot of lessons to be learned a lot of things we can use to build off and hopefully come back better next year.”
The Red Wings ranked 22nd in goals and 30th in five-on-five scoring. They signed Viktor Arvidsson (25 goals with Boston) but lost Patrick Kane (16 goals) and James van Riemsdyk (15 goals) and Larkin (34 goals) has requested a trade.
Continued (paywall); whether we’re talking about Gibson, the unproven back-up in Daniil Tarasov, Grand Rapids Griffins starter Michal Postava or rookie Trey Augustine, there’s going to be flux in the Wings’ crease this upcoming season, and it would benefit from its eldest member (Gibson) leading the charge.
