Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson had a shorter game in net than expected during Tuesday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, and it wasn’t because of the score.
Gibson, 30, was ejected midway through the third period of the game after crossing center ice to engage with Blackhawks goaltender Petr Mrazek in a line brawl.
The line brawl erupted as Mason McTavish and Jarrod Tinordi started shoving each other in the Blackhawks zone, and the end result was all of the players scrapping. After Mrazek had attempted to jump into a couple scrums to double-team the Ducks players, Gibson skated over from the Ducks end of the ice to engage and even up the players involved in the scraps. It resulted in 70 penalty minutes between the two teams, including 12 to both Gibson and Mrazek, although Gibson was the only goalie of the two that had to leave due to crossing center ice.
It’s not as if Gibson and the Ducks had a lot to lose with the goaltender getting ejected, as they were already down 6-2 in the game at the time of his departure. He had allowed 6 goals on 20 shots for a .769% save percentage, with Lukas Dostal replacing him and allowing 1 goal on 5 shots to finish off the 7-2 loss for Anaheim.
Gibson has had another season to forget with the Ducks, as he has a 13-21-2 record and an .893% save percentage through 41 games, although with 5.31 goals saved above expected, some of that falls on the team in front of him. He had entered Tuesday’s game without any penalty minutes this season, so the 12 he ended up with are his only of the season, and match his totals from the previous two seasons.
Gibson is a second-round pick of the Ducks in the 2011 NHL Draft, and after three seasons mostly in the minors, with the latter two seeing him play some games in the NHL, he finally established himself as a consistent NHLer partway through the 2015-16 season. He’s since spent the past eight seasons as their starting goaltender.
Gibson is currently in the fifth year of an eight-year contract with a $6.4 million cap hit, one he signed as an extension before the 2018-19 season.
The Ducks currently sit in seventh in the Pacific Division with an 23-39-3 record, which is the third-worst record in the league behind the Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks. Anaheim will look to end a three-game losing streak that’s seen them get outscored 19-5 when they visit the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.
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