The Detroit Red Wings are lucky that goaltender John Gibson turned his fortunes around. They may have scored five times in Monday night's win over the Ottawa Senators, but they can't expect to find the net so many times with just 20 shots on goal.
Here's a sickening stat for you: The Wings have logged over 27 shots on goal just once in their last eight games. That came in a win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 28. Over those past eight contests, Detroit has averaged an unacceptable 23.25 shots on goal.
In that same span, they're allowing 30.5 shots on goal, a full 7.25 more than what they're putting up. Despite the three-goal outing in the first period in Monday's win, the Wings found themselves outshot 17 to 8. It was poor play from the Senators defensively, more than it was the Wings forging a high-octane scoring unit.
John Gibson is rightfully the shining star these days
The Red Wings have fixed John Gibson. He took the First Star on Monday night with 35 saves on 38 shots on goal. On Saturday, when the Wings mustered just 12 shots on net, Gibson single-handedly kept them in the game with 29 saves on 31 shots.
Gibson's recent efforts have dropped his GAA to a 2.94 across 14 wins, with a 0.897 save percentage and two shutouts to show for it. But what happens when he struggles through the inevitable bad game or if he goes on another bad stretch like we saw throughout the first two months of the season?
It's not feasible for the Red Wings to average 23.25 shots on net and expect Gibson or number-two netminder Cam Talbot to keep bailing them out. In the final frame of Monday's win, the Senators outshot the Wings 11 to 3 and came within one goal of tying the game before Michael Rasmussen put the game out of reach.
Gibson is firing on all cylinders, but the Red Wings are playing with fire. This is the kind of trend that has plagued them in the new year over the last two seasons. They would win games, but their play would stagnate, before that stagnation caught up to them with nightmare scenarios in March. If they want to avoid another meltdown, they need to start shooting the puck more.
Other Red Wings tidbits
Bob Heyrman wrote a piece outlining the three biggest Olympic snubs on the Detroit Red Wings. Heyrman pointed to Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, and Simon Edvinsson. What made them deserving of a trip to Milan? Heyrman has the answers.
I got one up about head coach Todd McLellan switching up the lines at Sunday's practice. Those lines looked similar to what McLellan dished out on Monday, with John Leonard returning to action following a brief stint in Grand Rapids.
Patrick Kane has been a good playmaker this season, but he hasn't been the scorer the Red Wings were hoping he would be. Ben Oswald explored why that was, and how Kane can break this slump to score his 500th career goal.