Goalie John Gibson of the Anaheim Ducks played a shorter than usual stint in net on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks, and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game.
Gibson, 30, was sent off the ice halfway through the third period of play after getting into a line fight with Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek over center ice..
Mason McTavish and Jarrod Tinordi began pushing each other in the Blackhawks zone, sparking a line brawl that ended with all of the players scrapping. Gibson skated over from the Ducks end of the ice to engage and even up the players involved in the brawl after Mrazek had attempted to leap into a few scrums to double-team the guys. The two teams combined for 70 penalty minutes, with 12 going to Gibson and Mrazek. Gibson was the only goaltender of the two who had to leave the game because he crossed the center ice line.
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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