BREAKING: Surprising Goaltending Decision

Through the first few games of the 2016-2017 regular season schedule, it appeared as though the Detroit Red Wings could count on arguably the National Hockey League’s best goaltending duo in Jimmy Howard and Petr Mrazek. Despite their combined salaries counting towards nearly $10 million against the salary cap, solid performances in light of losses gave Red Wings fans hope that a playoff berth for the 26th consecutive season was not a farfetched idea.

 

Unfortunately, the entire team has been struggling with offense and are giving up the 20th most amount of goals every game.

 

Petr Mrazek’s numbers are slightly below his career average thus far. His 2016-2017 regular season record of 4-4-1 with a 3.06 goals against average as well as .908 save percentage are inferior to Jimmy Howard’s 4-3, 1.80 GAA and .943 SV%. With that in mind, it’s clear that Howard is slowly emerging as the team’s number one goaltender for the time being.

 

He was pulled against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday evening and made way for Mrazek, and head coach Jeff Blashill has surprisingly announced that Mrazek will get the nod against the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night.