Thursday’s clash also concludes a back-to-back set for Detroit, which is roughly 24 hours removed from a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome. Although there was a little bit of frustration with allowing the Flames to score three unanswered third-period goals, the Red Wings know how crucial every win is with the Atlantic Division as well as Eastern Conference standings as tight as they are.
“A win’s a win,” Andrew Copp said after Wednesday’s game. “Stacking wins at this point of the year, you’re never going to turn down two points, but our process needs to be a lot better. After the first 10 minutes, we stopped skating. We didn’t have that much O-zone pressure and kind of got some rushes and scored, but our execution coming out of our zone wasn’t good.”
With goalie John Gibson standing between the pipes last night in Calgary, Talbot is likely to start against the Oilers. Talbot believes his time in Edmonton, where he posted a 104-95-19 record in 227 games for parts of four seasons (2015-19), was very formative in his development.
“It’s kind of where I really established myself fully, so until you are really given that opportunity you don’t know if you can take it and run with it,” Talbot said. “But they gave me the opportunity, and I just tried to grow my game. There were some growing pains along the way in the first year or two, then after that I feel like I really settled into that role and mindset.”