Detroit Red Wings: How Joey MacDonald Is Keeping Detroit in the Playoffs

The Detroit Red Wings inability to stay healthy this season might remind some of last season's nightmare.

With a truckload of players out of action due to injuries at some point this season, the Red Wings have not had their full NHL roster on very many, if any at all, games this season.

This has forced them to make call-ups to Grand Rapids more than they would have liked, but one can hardly complain about the results.

After tonight's crazy game against Pittsburgh, the Red Wings sit in second place in the Western Conference, three points ahead of San Jose.

But the Red Wings would not be in this second place position without some help from some depth players on the third and fourth lines.

These players have been responsible for keeping the ship afloat in Detroit; without them, Detroit would be much further down the standings.

With all the hype surrounding blossoming Red Wings' youngsters, Jakub Kindl, Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader, it would be pretty easy to overlook the stellar recent play of Joey MacDonald.

But the 31-year-old Joey MacDonald is doing some maturing of his own.

MacDonald had not been very well known by most Red Wings fans prior to this season, despite playing four seasons for the Wings' AHL affiliate the Griffins.

MacDonald only played in eight games for Detroit in the 2006-07 season, but his 1-5-1 record did not bring about much interest in Detroit, and Boston claimed him off waivers during the season.

MacDonald, however, was not done in Detroit.

In 2008-09, after his first NHL shutout with the Islanders, a 42-save effort against Detroit, MacDonald started to generate more interest among Detroit's management, although it would be a couple years before they brought him back into the fold.

Fast-forward to this season.

Chris Osgood goes to the operating table for a sports hernia surgery, and as a result, the Red Wings' Ken Holland tried to sign Evgeni Nabokov.

Nabokov fails to clear re-entry waivers, signed ironically by the forementioned New York Islanders.

Detroit brings up Joey MacDonald from the AHL to fill the backup spot and starts to put him in for a few games.

Although his current 4-4-2 record does not look that great, MacDonald has a mere 2.09 GAA and a 92.6 save percentage.

He also came up with a 37-save shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets the other night.

After going 3-1-1 in his last five games, MacDonald is quietly having a better statistic performance than either Jimmy Howard or Chris Osgood.

After playing 33 minutes in relief tonight, MacDonald allowed Detroit to come back from a 4-0 deficit and allowed them to pick up a single point in a shootout loss.

Tonight marked MacDonald's fifth relief appearance this season; and in those five games, MacDonald has a 97.1 save percentage.

Last time I checked, that was pretty good for any goalie.

Although some would argue that relief efforts are easier on a goalie because there is not as much pressure to perform, and the other team has already scored a substantial amount of goals, MacDonald's numbers are something to be respected by any team.

Despite taking the loss or the overtime loss in some relief appearances, MacDonald has looked solid in between the pipes.

Although no one can argue with Jimmy Howard's league-leading 34 wins, it's nice to know that Detroit, for the first time in a long time, has a capable backup.

As of this moment, toss the record aside because Joey MacDonald now holds the rights to be called the backup goalie of the Detroit Red Wings.