Alex Nedeljkovic has been on the other side of the equation, where he was the goaltender in demand juggling a heavy workload.
Now in his second season with the Detroit Red Wings, Nedeljkovic is the one trying to increase his workload. Slated to start Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres for the first time since Nov. 12, Nedeljkovic had only six starts to his credit the first seven weeks of the season. Nedeljkovic and Ville Husso alternated games the first two weeks, but when Husso surged and Nedeljkovic struggled, Nedeljkovic was left to use practices to hone his readiness.
“It’s mostly mental,” Nedeljkovic said of what it has been like to go through. “Nothing changes physically or anything like that, it’s just mentally sticking with it, practicing, making sure you are staying sharp and working on the details and fundamentals of the game so that way when you get the opportunity or chance, you are ready.”
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Nedeljkovic relieved Husso midway through Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, making 12 saves. That left Nedeljkovic with a 4.01 GAA and .880 save percentage in seven games.
“We’re all professionals so your routine doesn’t change that much, you always have to be ready to go in,” Nedeljkovic said. “If you go in and you are not prepared and you get lit up, it doesn’t look good on you.”
Lalonde had planned to start Nedeljkovic this week even before the Leafs doused a four-game winning streak, but hadn’t decided which game. With Nedeljkovic making 12 saves against the Leafs, it was natural to give him the next game. That it was the Sabres wasn’t really a factor, though it was Nedeljkovic who was in net when the Sabres hung eight on the Wings in a blowout on Halloween. Neither that night, nor when the New York Rangers hunt eight on the Wings on Nov. 10, did Lalonde make a goaltending change during the game. Monday was a season first for that.
“In those two games, where we took it on the chin, versus the Rangers and Buffalo, you could tell we had hit a wall as a team,” Lalonde said. “Whether it was the workload coming up to it, whether it was just energy — you could feel that it was going to keep going. I didn’t want to do that to the goalie starting the next game.”
Nedeljkovic, 26, joined the Wings in the summer of 2021 on a two-year deal and played a key role in stabilizing the goaltending situation last season, when he started 52 of 59 appearances and posted a 3.31 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. Parting ways with Thomas Greiss, Wings general manager Steve Yzerman traded for and then signed Husso to a three-year deal. Earlier this month, the Wings claimed Magnus Hellberg off waivers to add to their depth. Lalonde said that Hellberg “is probably insurance right now,” and noted that having a third goaltender helps ease Husso’s workload in practices.
Ideally Nedeljkovic and Husso share more of the workload. Neither goalie has much history as a go-to guy — Nedeljkovic played 23 games for Carolina in the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, and Husso played a career-high 40 games last season with the St. Louis Blues. Balancing goaltenders is something Lalonde is learning to navigate after spending four years as an assistant coach with Tampa Bay, where Andrei Vasilevskiy ruled the pipes.
“I think there’s a lot to that,” Lalonde said. “Coming from having a true No. 1, arguably the best goalie in the league in Vasy — it was the balance of playing him versus tiring him out and having enough in the tank for the playoffs. We are in a little different situation here with these two goalies. Neither of them have really played a 65-game schedule or workload in a season. So this is something we’ll have to keep evaluating throughout the year. We were in a fine line with playing Ville six in a row, but the schedule kind of played out a little bit.
“We’ll re-evaluate from there. Hopefully, Ned will put some performances in where we want to get him back in there sooner than later.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.