Detroit Red Wings: Finding a Reliable Backup Goalie to Jimmy Howard Is Critical

The Detroit Red Wings are leading the NHL with 72 points.  The team is very solid across all four lines. 

Offensively, they are led by Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula.  They have great defenders in Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall and Ian White.  Then, they have perhaps the best goalie in the league in Jimmy Howard.

The concern for the team comes with backup goaltending.  Howard has logged a considerable amount of minutes already this season.  Conventional wisdom dictates that the team will look for more opportunities to rest him over the second half of the season.  That only works, though, with good backup goalie play.

Howard suffered a broken finger, and although initially there was talk of only missing two games, it appears he will likely miss a couple of weeks now.  Ty Conklin was set to start in his place. 

His first attempt was horrible, as he gave up three goals on only six shots and was pulled after the first period.  His numbers this season have been bad.  He has a 3.40 goals-against average and is only stopping .878 percent of shots.

It is painfully obvious that the Red Wings do not have much faith in him, as they have not allowed him to start a game at home during their 17-game home winning streak.  Now, it appears that they will be looking for another backup goalie. 

Joey MacDonald appears to be the next short-term answer, but unless he has improved from last season, the results will be the same.

Many look at MacDonald's stats from last year and see a 2.52 goals-against average over the 15 games he played and think that he could be a viable option.  The problem is that when looking deeper into those numbers, we see a disturbing trend and the reason why the Red Wings only signed him as a third stringer this year. 

In games he started, his goals against ballooned up to 3.20.  This means he did great in games where the starter was pulled and he had to jump into action, but when he was being counted on to start, he could not handle it.

In the Edmonton game when Conklin was pulled, MacDonald came in and played strong in net.  He stopped 22-of-23 shots and allowed the Red Wings to come back from Conklin’s 3-1 deficit to force a shootout. 

Mike Babcock opted to play MacDonald in the next game against Phoenix.  He played well, stopping 20-of-22 shots.  He is likely to start the next game as well.  How he plays in that game will go a long way in deciding what the Red Wings will do next.

The NHL trade deadline is only a few weeks away.  It is time for the Red Wings to go goalie shopping. 

Goalies such as Evgeni Nabokov and Nikolai Khabibulin have been rumored to be on the market, but one would expect the asking price for them to be much too high.  A player such as Antero Nittymaki may be more what they are looking for.

Regardless, it is obvious that Conklin is not the answer to back up Howard in net.  The Red Wings need to act fast to find a replacement.  The team is too good this year not to have someone more solid to back up Howard.  

They have already lost both games since Howard went down injured.  While he should not be out long enough to do much damage to Detroit's place in the standings, if an injury were to hit Howard in the playoffs, they would be doomed with the current backups.