Red Wings Not Quite Ready to Name Starting Goalie

As it turned out, everyone is a winner in Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s “blank slate” goaltending competition.

“We’re going with three and three in a positive way,” Lalonde said. “All three guys had very good camps. Anywhere from good to some excellent at times. We’ll start with three and it’s not a real clear picture. All three had good camps and we’d be confident in playing any one of the three.”

In other words, he’s not ready to name a starting goalie for the Red Wings’ home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.

“A good problem,” Lalonde said. “We came into this talking about a blank slate. We came in hoping someone could show us they could help us win on night one and the positive is all three did.”

Ville Husso was probably the most impressive goalie, throwing up a 43-save effort against to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road, and then putting up a 30-save effort Saturday in a 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs Saturday in Toronto. But Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon also had their moments in the preseason.

Reprise Three Goalies

This is the second consecutive season the Red Wings are carrying three goalies, and are open to using all of them. Last season, Husso, Lyon and James Reimer all had time as the interim starter.

“I wouldn’t say it was complicated last year,” Lalonde said. “it was new, in finding proper reps in giving guys what they need and keeping guys sharp was a challenge. I think we learned and have some experience from it. Last year was a little different in that Alex probably came into camp as a little bit of a distant No. 3 and carried our team during a stretch there.

Husso’s preseason was probably the most important occurrence because he was coming off an injury that prevented him from playing a full game after December.

“He had a little extra load and that was by design and he handled it very well,” Lalonde said. “There were some question marks with Ville, physically coming into the preseason and within his three games he answered those questions.”