We’re still a bit away from Groundhog’s day, but even in February, the Red Wings’ problems in still feel a bit like a game of whack-a-mole as they keep getting tripped up by old shadows.

They’ve had a rotating cast of netminders over the past few years and almost ten people sit between the pipes. Yet every year, they find themselves facing the same issues with different faces popping in and out as they try to squash down inconsistent play and injuries as the trade deadline looms and rosters are frozen for the foreseeable future.

This year, they may have a bit of regret looking back on who they might’ve been able to keep to backstop their net.

This again?

John Gibson is looking like one of the better netminders in the league right now while wearing the winged wheel, and there have even been some very quiet rumblings of him getting votes for the Vezina Trophy. Steve Yzerman traded for Gibson in the offseason, sending Petr Mrazek to the Anaheim Ducks after acquiring Mrazek at the trade deadline last year to aid a floundering duo of Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot. After a shaky start to the season, Gibson has taken over as the true no. 1 netminder for Detroit this year with Talbot as a clear no. 2 behind him.

The Red Wings approach to the goaltending situation the past few years, however, had been to ride the proverbial hot hand, and hope that the backup was good to step in when the other guy needed a break for the next week and a half.

That worked to mixed results with Lyon and Talbot. Before that it was Lyon and Ville Husso, (with 25 games from James Reimer in the mix too) and even before that, it was Alex Nedeljkovic. Injuries and inconsistent play marred all of their times with Detroit, and all of them walked in free agency after spending an average of two seasons in Detroit.

Talbot, meanwhile, in the second year of his contract with Detroit, hasn’t been bad in every game for the Red Wings, but he hasn’t been winning games for them either with a .892 sv%. Since Nov. 29, Talbot has started in only nine games, and appeared in ten.

He’s won only two of those games, both decided in overtime. In fact, almost all nine of those start went to the extra frame.

Never wrong, Just early

Gibson may be looking the best he has in a while wearing a Red Wings uniform, but that isn’t true for two former netminders who donned the winged wheel. In Detroit, both Lyon and Nedeljkovic struggled to establish a consistent pace in net and while the two Alex’s certainly had their moments with the Red Wings, it’s looking like they play their best hockey in blue.

After leaving the Red Wings after the 2022-23 season Nedeljkovic established himself as a regular part of the rotation in net for the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing in 30+ games in both seasons in the steel city. This year, he’s been splitting time in net with Jaroslav Askarov, going 10-9-2 with the team in his starts with a .899 sv%. He recently made headlines for duking it out with Sergei Bobrovsky.

Lyon meanwhile, after leaving Detroit, is having a very good season in Buffalo with the Sabres. The team had been cycling through a three man rotation Lyon, Colten Ellis, and Ukko-Pekka Luokkonen earlier this year. However Lyon has emerged as the presumable 1A, with 25 games started and a .913 sv% through it, better than either of his seasons with the Red Wings (.904 and .896 respectively). He’s 14-8-3 on the year and he and the Sabres have been one of the hottest teams in the NHL over the last month, battling to climb the standings in the Atlantic as Lyon has won eight of his last ten starts.

What’s next for Detroit?

Detroit could’ve probably used a few of those performances over the last month as they lost ground in the playoffs standings as Gibson cooled and Talbot has failed to secure a win since the end of December. As the playoffs approach for the first time in nearly ten years, the only netminder Detroit has right now behind their starting duo is the (largely) unproven Sebastian Cossa, with one NHL start to his name.