Red Wings announce goaltending change for Wednesday

Despite outshooting the Toronto Maple Leafs by a near 2 to 1 margin during last night' game at Little Caesars Arena, goaltender Ville Husso had a rare subpar performance that led to him getting pulled in the second period in favor of Alex Nedeljovic. 

And according to head coach Derek Lalonde, it will be Nedeljkovic making his first start in nearly two and a half weeks tomorrow night when the Red Wings host the Buffalo Sabres. 

"Just another game," said Nedeljkovic. "It's been a while, but that's the nature of this position. Sometimes you go through spurts of playing a lot of games in a short period of time, or go through playing a few games in a long amount of time. It's all right, it comes with the position.

"You're always read to go at any moment and (Monday) was no different, and (Wednesday) will be no different again."

After Nedeljkovic relieved Husso midway through last night's game, he stopped all 12 shots that he faced, including a sharp save on sniper Auston Matthews on a one-timer from the right face-off circle.

"Ned was going to get one of these next two games, we had planned (it) for a while," Lalonde said. "It was good for him to get in there and get a rhythm. It was perfect."

Husso will likely make his return between the pipes on Saturday night when the Red Wings host the Vegas Golden Knights. 

"We're in a different situation here with these two goalies, neither of them have really played a 65-game schedule in a season, and this is something we keep evaluating through the year," Lalonde said. "We were on that fine line (Monday) playing Ville six (games) in a row. Nedo will get the net (Wednesday) and we'll reevaluate from there. Hopefully Nedo will put some performance in where we want him back in there sooner rather than later."