Lyon Leads Red Wings to Victory over Islanders

Alex Lyon has seemingly started the past two seasons on the bottom looking up in the Red Wings goalie rotation. Out of training camp last year he sat behind Ville Husso and James Reimer, but unexpected circumstance had the former Florida Panthers goalie eating up the lion’s share (I won’t apologize) of the time in net by December. By the end of the season, signs of wear and tear were showing as the team rode Lyon for extended durations in 44 games. This year, Lyon has made that jump from third to first within the first two weeks of the season.

Consecutive Wins

Against the Predators, Lyon was a solidifying force in goal with an especially impressive stick save. In tonight’s game against the New York Islanders Lyon made several impressive stops. Lyon plays the goalie position in an especially physical way, and tonight had that on display. The Islanders had nearly triple the amount of shots on goal as the Red Wings and Lyon let none of them through. During the Islanders first power play, Lyon used his leg pad to shove the skate of an Islanders player and kick the puck out of the crease in one motion. Patrick Kane would score the deciding goal in the second period off an assist from Vladimir Tarasenko. Despite the Red Wings being out shot by a margin of nearly 3:1, Lyon posted his fourth career shutout as the Red Wings beat the Islanders 1-0.

Said Dylan Larkin, “It was everything for us.”

Getting on Top

Lyon, despite his .904 save % and 3.05 GAA last year was not in net opening night. In fact, he wasn’t in the building. Coach Derek Lalonde had Husso starting and Cam Talbot as the backup. That lasted all of a period and a half before Husso, who hadn’t seen true NHL action in over 10 months got pulled after letting in 4 goals on 14 attempts and Talbot was sent in. Husso got assigned to Grand Rapids in order to make room for Justin Holl and Marco Kasper. Talbot posted a shutout the next game and then got shelled in a 5-2 loss to the Rangers that saw him pulled halfway into the second period.

Defensive woes still showing

Lyon’s performance tonight was one of few bright spots on the team. As mentioned earlier, the Red Wings were outshot by a margin of nearly 3:1, with New York getting in 29 shots to the Red Wings 10. That was the fewest shots in a Red Wings win since 1960. Detroit didn’t do anything this game to drag itself from 2nd-worst in the league in terms of shots allowed. The continued development of Simon Edvinsson, who had a good night playing top pairing minutes, will help relieve some of the pressure on Mo Seider. Meanwhile, Marco Kasper was second on the team in hits with 2.