Ville Husso judged his first two weeks of performances as having been OK.
The Detroit Red Wings’ No. 1 netminder doesn’t have great stats five starts into his season, with a 3.38 goals-against average and .893 save percentage. Those numbers put him in the bottom third among goaltenders who have played at least four games, though it’s a tightly packed group overall given how early it still is.
“I haven’t been my sharpest at times, but it’s hockey, there are good goal scorers,” Husso said. “But if you can keep it to one or two goals a game, that’s probably something where you want numbers wise. But I just go day by day. I would like to have a couple back, but I just have to be ready for the next game.”
Husso was earmarked to serve as backup Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets, as James Reimer was scheduled to get the start because of a compact schedule. Lalonde said during training camp that Husso was No. 1, and that hasn’t changed.
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“His numbers are not great — probably in the bottom of the league in both save percentage and goals-against, but you look at the body of work, and his ability to give us an opportunity to win, it’s been really good,” Lalonde said. “He was excellent in his previous two starts (vs. Pittsburgh and at Ottawa), and was probably a big reason why we won. Tuesday, he probably reflected our team where he was good, not great. And we probably have not been good enough in front of him, too.”
The Wings play at Atlantic Division rival the Boston Bruins Saturday, and at the New York Islanders on Monday. Husso is expected to play against the Bruins, which would be his sixth start. He has, as is the norm with No. 1s, faced the tougher opponents, including the New Jersey Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, Penguins and Senators. His losses have come against the Devils in the season opener and Tuesday in overtime to the Seattle Kraken.
“Not the best, but 3-1-1, and the team is doing pretty good, so I would say OK, but I want to be better for sure,” Husso said. “Not my sharpest at times, but it’s hockey, there are good goal scorers. But if you can keep it to one or two goals a game, that’s probably something where you want numbers wise. But I just go day by day. I would like to have a couple back, but I just have to be ready for the next game.”
The Wings also have Alex Lyon available, and Lalonde said he’d like to get him into a game at some point — though sending Lyon to Grand Rapids for a conditioning stint with the Griffins is also a possibility.
“We still want to get him in, it’s just kind of an evaluation,” Lalonde said. “The level of play from James Reimer has kind of changed some of the plans for that, which is great. It’s a good problem to have. We’re going to go game to game here.”
The Wings wanted to carry three goaltenders this season to avoid what happened last season, when they had to scramble to find someone to help out Husso when designated backup Alex Nedeljkovic struggled to the point he ended up in the minors. Magnus Hellberg wasn’t up to the task, which led to overburdening Husso in the second half. Husso finished his first year with the Wings with a 3.38 GAA and .893 save percentage in 56 games.
“Even Ville last year, it’s tough to take his numbers on a whole, because he struggled so much at the end of the year when he was injured and we overplayed him,” Lalonde said. “The first 30 games of the year, he was by far MVP, he was as good as anyone in the league. We’d love to get him back to that form. You look at his season so far, it’s easy to see him at the bottom of the league in statistics, but he’s given us two excellent performances, and two solid performances. We have a lot of points because of it.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her @helenestjames.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings’ Ville Husso knows he has to be sharper as No. 1
