Locked in Another Goalie Battle, Alex Lyon Equipped for High Workload

Alex Lyon started last season as a third-string goaltender. By the end, he had played in 44 NHL games — more than doubling his career appearances — giving Detroit a chance to make the playoffs and earning a Masterton nomination for his underdog heroics.

Then, it all slipped away. Lyon went on a personal 10-game losing streak in March as the playoff race heated up. The Red Wings slid from the third place team in a stacked Atlantic Division to finishing one painful point out of the playoff picture.

"I think I maybe have a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth after how things kind of ended there," Lyon said Friday after a two-period shutout in Detroit's 2-0 preseason win against Chicago. "Sure, everybody would probably say that, but I just tried to use it as fuel for the fire, and I felt like I put in a lot of work this summer. (I'm) just excited and optimistic to get going."

If such a high workload surprised Lyon last season, he won't let it catch him off guard again. He hit the offseason harder than ever, preparing both his mind and body for a high workload this season. But heading into this season, getting so many NHL starts isn’t so simple as being the incumbent starter.

Over the offseason, Detroit brought in reinforcement in the form of Cam Talbot, an NHL All-Star last season who backstopped Los Angeles to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the starter who Lyon dethroned — Ville Husso — is healthy again after injury troubles. Counting Lyon, Detroit has three established starters who have shined at some point the past two seasons. So who’s going to start? To Lalonde, it’s a "clean slate" for someone to claim the net by performance.

This isn't anything Lyon hasn't seen before. He's arguably in a better position now than he was this time last year. But he's nonetheless determined to show that he can be the starter.

If last season proved anything, it's that Lyon can thrive as a starter. His 21-18-5 record, 3.05 goals against average and .904 save percentage were good on their own. There were also times last season when Lyon stole games for a woefully deficient defense in front of him. When Detroit pulled off an impressive 16-4-2 streak from January to February, Lyon played in 19 of the 22 games.

The Red Wings knew such high usage was new territory for Lyon, but they didn’t have many other options. Even when the Red Wings wanted to give Lyon the rest he had earned, cruel fate intervened. Feb. 13 against Edmonton, Ville Husso's first start coming back from an early injury didn't even last a full game. Lyon went right back into the crease.

Eventually, this overuse came back to haunt Detroit. It wore Lyon out in a similar way to Husso's own struggles a season prior, and Lyon's play declined as the end of the season neared. The Red Wings playoff hopes evaporated with his 10-game losing streak, only salvaged by a near miracle run to end the season. But this last gasp of playoff hope ended one point short.

"Competition, compete, confidence, maybe even a little mental toughness," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said Thursday about what Lyon got out of last season. "Never getting minutes like this at this level, maybe going past a threshold for him, he gets that look to him where he looks very confident. You can almost read him. You can see he lost a little of that swagger towards the end, maybe just being a little bit tired."

Tired, overworked, whatever label you use, Lyon wasn't the same goalie at the end of the season as he was at the start. That's a natural progression for a goalie facing their first real NHL workload as a starter. And now that he has experienced it, Lyon can prepare for it. It’s not illogical to think that just one improved performance by Lyon would've taken the season to a different place. So he hit the offseason preparing to meet the moment this time around.

After a pit stop at the IIHF Men's World Championship ended with a hand injury, Lyon set out to get ready for the season. He focused on recovery to start, getting his body right after such a grueling workload.

"Typically in my career, it's been like one game a week, or one or two maybe on a weekend," Lyon explained. "And so this summer, I just tried to be able to bounce back quicker mentally and physically. And I think that that's something that's really going to help me."

As much as physical abilities matter, Lyon leaned heavily into the mental preparation, too. He doesn't want to get caught up in the streaks, wins or losses, that can derail a goaltender's consistency. And that mental training could be useful in a season that projects to be similar to the previous one.

"We're going to have rough patches this year. We're going to have probably high patches, high times this year," Lyon said. "And so I think that it's important for us this year to just take it (that) we have to lay it on the line 82 times and let the chips fall where they may. And that's what's going to yield the best results."

Lyon's preparation can help him deliver those results, but he still has to win back his net. If the slate is truly wiped clean as Lalonde said, Lyon put together solid opening marks by stopping all 13 shots he faced Friday night. But against a Blackhawks lineup more akin to Rockford than Chicago, that won't be enough to win the starting job.

And even if Lyon does win the starting job over Talbot and Husso, the battle isn't going to end. He has to prove night after night that he's the best option. Lalonde's philosophy for picking a starter is to go with whoever he thinks gives the best chance to win, not necessarily the true best goaltender of the bunch. It's a gut call for Lalonde, and any starter will have to win over those instincts.

"We went through an experience where every point truly matters last year," Lalonde said. "It's going to be whatever goalie gives us the best chance."

That could be Talbot or Husso, or it could remain Lyon. Regardless of his workload, Lyon is prepared to meet the moment.

"It's kind of been my whole career, and I've had to work for every inch that I've gotten," Lyon said of battling for the net. "So my approach, for me is the same. ... Coming off last year I feel a bit more comfortable playing in the NHL and just trying to build on that confidence. And I think that everybody in the locker room feels like we're on a mission."

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