Gibson allowed four goals on 23 shots in the Ducks loss to the Blues on Sunday. Gibson had a tough two-game stint vs. St. Louis and has now lost three in a row while allowing a combined 10 goals on 63 shots (.841 SV%). Tonight he faces a Kings team that Gibson has gone 1-2-0 with a .929 SV% against over the last two seasons.
The Penguins defence continues to be decimated by injuries with Dumoulin joining Michael Matheson, Marcus Pettersson and Juuso Riikola on the injury report. With Dumoulin out, Pierre-Olivier Joseph is expected to be on the top-pair with Kris Letang.
Fabbri, who has missed the last two games in COVID-19 protocol, will miss at least two more games as he remains in quarantine while the Red Wings head to Chicago for a two-game trip vs. the Blackhawks.
Gibson allowed two goals on 33 shots in the Ducks loss in Vegas on Saturday. Gibson opened the season with back-to-back losses in Vegas but stopped 55 of the 61 shots that he faced (.902 SV%), so he’s off to a decent start to the season. Tonight he faces a Wild team that he was 1-1-0 with an .898 SV% in 2020.
Fabbri was added to the COVID protocol list prior to Monday's game, so he will be replaced by Michael Rasmussen on the second line. There is no indication of how long Fabbri will be sidelined.
Gibson started 50-plus games for the third time in 2020 but set career-worts in GAA (3.00) and SV% (.904) behind a Ducks team that finished with the fifth-worst record in the NHL. Anaheim didn't too much to improve this offseason, so it could be a similar storyline in 2021 and he should especially be avoided tonight in Vegas. Gibson was 1-2-1 with a 4.48 GAA and .878 SV% in four games vs. the Golden Knights a season ago.
With Stalock sidelined with an upper-body injury, Kaapo Kahkonen will start the season as the No.2 netminder behind Cam Talbot. The Wild also brought in Andrew Hammond to serve as a No.3 until Stalock is ready to return.
