Before this season, Christopher Gibson has had little opportunity to show what he can do. How did he handle a bigger role with the Islanders this year?
The time is early March and there is an outside shot of the New York Islanders making the playoffs. Enter Christopher Gibson.
Before this season, Gibson’s claim to fame was that he went to Washington D.C. and defeated the Capitals to help the Isles clinch a playoff spot in 2015-16. This year, after Thomas Greiss was put on injured reserve, Gibson had the chance to lead them to a playoff berth again. Ultimately, he came up short, but he didn’t play all that bad.
Overall, Gibson had a record of 2-3-2 this season in eight games. In one game he didn’t get a decision against Tampa Bay. Of his eight games, the 25-year old had two poor outings. One of those came where he gave up five goals on 12 shots to Washington. The other was six goals on 24 shots to Tampa Bay. He was pulled both times.
Yeah, those games are far from pretty. But Gibson faced over 30 shots in every game he wasn’t pulled in. Don’t forget about the 47-save overtime loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions Pittsburgh Penguins, and a 50-save win in Calgary on March 11. Overall, the defense was a mess and left Gibson out to dry.
There was more than just the stat sheet that Gibson contributed to, though. Although he is rarely seen gloating or celebrating, there were times when the Finnish goaltender electrified the team because of his play.
However, according to Corsica.hockey, Gibson had a 91.3 save percentage for the season. His high danger save percentage was only 77.1 percent. This is lower than ideal, but with an average medium danger save percentage and strong low danger save percentage at 88.89 and 98.06 percent respectively, they canceled out. For more on these percentages, check out an analysis on the Jaroslav Halak-Greiss tandem, here.
Final grade: B-
For what he was working with, Gibson didn’t do all that bad. There were times where the team could’ve used him to make a save or he let in a bad goal, but that happens. Given the expectations, however, his performance earned him a solid grade.
