Ugly game last night, eh? Never a nice thing to get shutout on home ice, especially to a team that has already given you a nice ass-whooping already this season. Yuck.
Let’s address the “elephant in the room.” I wonder about John Gibson. It’s hard to judge a goalie when your team scores precisely zero goals in a game, but the cold-hard truth is that Gibson has been a disappointment so far this season. It’s early, but I can’t say the guy has inspired any confidence for me. I’m not going to sit here and play “what if” and “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” There’s always risk when you take on a goaltender in their 30s (let’s call Cam Talbot an outlier), but trading for Gibson was a risk worth taking. It’s not entirely his fault, let me be clear about that. Gibson gets very little help from the team in front of him when he is in net, but this is also a team that is going to need its goalie to bail them out more often than not. That’s reality, not criticism. Talbot has been a stud to this point, but how long until that starts to slip? What then? It’s one of those issues that could seriously hurt this team in the long run.
The encouraging news is that the Red Wings no longer have a coach that has zero sense of accountability. Todd McLellan doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t put lipstick on a pig. He calls it like he sees it. A good example were his post-game comments, published on the official Red Wings site:
“’Very disappointing,’ Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. ‘We had a lot of momentum coming into the game, and we were outexecuted. The puck was foreign to us. Anything that we did get away clean, we seemed to bobble it or double clutch it. The scoring opportunities that we did have, we did nothing with. We gave up two goals on face-off coverages. That epitomizes the night, really.’”
ENOUGH DOOM AND GLOOM. The Red Wings are still atop the Atlantic Division despite last night’s de-pantsing. The Red Wings play five games between tomorrow and next Saturday, including games against Tampa and Boston. Huge opportunities as we enter the week of Thanksgiving.
I think it’s pretty cool that Moritz Seider is so durable. Seider broke a 40-year franchise record of skating in 346 consecutive games to begin a career, previously held by the great John Ogrodnick.
The Grand Rapids Griffins simply refuse to lose a game in regulation. The franchise continued the best start to a season ever with a win over Rockford on Wednesday. John Leonard has been a huge addition for this team, currently on a 10-game point streak to start the season (and achieved his 100th pro goal!), which is a franchise record. Sebastian Cossa also made his return to the lineup in this game. Doesn’t look like he has lost a step. His 1.60 GAA through five appearances leads the AHL. Amadeus Lombardi is playing at over a point-per-game and looks to be ready for the next step. Just an overall finely-tuned, well-oiled machine head coach Dan Watson is operating here in GR. Griffins are back at it tonight at home against Charlotte.
Speaking of the Griffins, the beloved “Teddy Bear Toss” game is a week from today at Van Andel Arena. It’s always a cool event to witness, it’s for a good cause, and who doesn’t love $2 beers and hot dogs? Make the trip if you can.
Not much else to say. Have a great weekend. Go Wings. Go Pistons. Go Lions.
…and most important of all: Go YOU. You’re doing a great job!
