Detroit — Alex Nedeljkovic has been around pro hockey and played the goalkeeper position long enough that he was even-keeled about the entire situation.
Nedeljkovic will start Wednesday against Buffalo, his first start since November 12 in Los Angeles. But there was no added excitement or relief from Nedeljkovic, who understands how goaltending can work at times.
“Just another game,” said Nedeljkovic, who relieved Ville Husso Monday after Husso was pulled in the 4-2 loss against Toronto. “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.”
Nedeljkovic stopped all 12 shots he faced against Toronto. It wasn’t ideal that Husso was pulled from the Wings’ perspective, but it was beneficial to get Nedeljkovic some work before he got his next start.
“Ned was going to get one of these next two games, we had planned (it) for a while,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “It was good for him to get in there and get a rhythm. It was perfect.”
With Husso on a hot streak, Nedeljkovic sat an inordinate amount of time, making practice that much more important. That ability to stay sharp was apparent after replacing Husso against the Leafs.
“We’re all professionals,” Nedeljkovic said. “You have to be ready because obviously like when a situation like (Monday) arises, and you’re not prepared and you get lit up, it doesn’t look good on you. Nothing changes physically, or anything like that. It’s just mentally sticking with it, practicing like a game, and making sure you stay sharp and working on the details and fundamentals of the game.
“So, when you get the opportunity, you get in and you’re ready to go.”
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Monday’s game was the first time Lalonde made an in-game change. Nedeljkovic had allowed eight goals in a game to both Buffalo and the New York Rangers earlier this season, but with Husso scheduled to make the next start, Lalonde didn’t make a change.
But Monday’s game played out differently.
“You could tell we had hit a wall as a team, whether it was the workload coming into it or some energy, you could feel it was going to keep going,” Lalonde said. “I didn’t want to do that to the goalie playing the next game, it made no sense putting Ville in Buffalo to face a barrage and playing the next game.
“This (Monday) felt different. We weren’t giving up much, we were controlling the game positionally. This was different. We were still in this game.”
Monday’s start was the sixth consecutive game in net for Husso, who stopped nine of 13 shots before being pulled.
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Having been on the Tampa coaching staff the past several years and seeing goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy regularly play over 60 games per season, this is a different situation for Lalonde. Neither Husso or Nedeljkovic have come close to that type of workload in an NHL season.
“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.”
Line shuffling
Lalonde shuffled the lines for Tuesday’s practice, with Dylan Larkin centering Dominik Kubalik and Lucas Raymond, while Michael Rasmussen was between Tyler Bertuzzi and David Perron. Andrew Copp centered the third line between Adam Erne and Oskar Sundqvist.
The Jonatan Berggren, Joe Veleno and Pius Suter line remained intact.
Switching Rasmussen and Copp was the main change, and Lalonde insisted it was mainly due to wanting a different look.
“(We) trust both of them, basically just flipped them, different wingers and different look, maybe change some things around,” Lalonde said. “Just looking for something different, a little spark. There’s not a whole lot of difference between the four lines, the numbers will say that.”
Ice chips
… So, do the Wings remember the fact Buffalo scored eight goals in their earlier game?
“There’s definitely some mistakes I don’t think, I hope, we are over those, but we’ll see how it goes,” Perron said.
… The Wings had a spirited practice Tuesday, something Lalonde was hoping to see after the disappointing loss.
“We’re sitting in a 4-1-1 stretch, and even the loss we played pretty well, it was different than the couple of losses through the season,” Lalonde said. “A good team will bounce back from that and that’s our goal going into (Wednesday).”
Sabres at Red Wings
▶ Faceoff: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Little Caesars Arena
▶ TV/radio: TNT/97.1 FM
▶ Outlook: The Sabres (9-12-1) are coming off a tough 6-5 overtime loss Monday to Tampa…The Sabres defeated the Wings 8-3 on October 31…C Tage Thompson is having a breakthrough season with 14 goals and 14 assists (28 points). Thompson had six points in the Sabres’ victory over the Wings earlier this season.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan