About two and a half hours before Tuesday night's game against the Colorado Avalance, the Detroit Red Wings summoned their top goaltending prospect—2021 first round pick Sebastian Cossa—to Denver under emergency conditions.
Dec 9, 2024; Buffalo, New York, USA; Detroit Red Wings goaltender Sebastian Cossa (33) looks for the puck during the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig, Imagn Images)
Cossa's recall suggests that, without him, Detroit wouldn't have two healthy goaltenders to face the Avalanche. If the Red Wings did have two healthy goaltenders, they wouldn't have brought Cossa out to Colorado for the final game of a road trip.
In Monday's 5–1 Detroit win over the Utah Hockey Club, starting goaltender Petr Mrazek had to exit due to injury before the game was two minutes old. That sent Alex Lyon (Monday's back-up, originally intended to start Tuesday against Colorado) into the game, where he backstopped the victory.
After the game, coach Todd McLellan ruled out that Mrazek would play against the Avalanche. "Alex's [opportunity] was supposed to come tomorrow, but that's how things work sometimes—you get it the day before you expect it. He handled himself real well," he said of Lyon's relief effort.
Then, when asked about the possibility that Lyon (who only faced 17 shots) might start again the next night in Denver, McLellan said, "We're playing at elevation that's a little bit higher. The building was cooking tonight, at least it was down below. Ice conditions were tough. It's taxing on him. We can talk about it, but I don't think that'll happen." In suggesting Lyon was unlikely to be an option to play (just short of) both legs of a back-to-back, McLellan perhaps offered an explanation as to why Lyon also would be unable to back up Tuesday.
UPDATE: Per reporting from The Athletic's Max Bultman, it's actually Cam Talbot (along with Mrazek) who is unavailable for the Red Wings. With Talbot out, Lyon will start Tuesday night, despite McLellan's stated preference against that the night prior.
