Wings’ Lyon: Life as goalie ‘torment and torture’
Dependable netminder gets philosophical about position
Alex Lyon acknowledged he sounded like an existentialist as he delved into his ascension, at age 31, to a job as the No. 1 goaltender in the NHL.
The Yale-educated (but not quite graduated) native of Minnesota is one of the key reasons the Detroit Red Wings head into their week-long break positioned within the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Lyon has given the Wings the sort of dependable goaltending a team needs in order to have a shot at playing past April, and when he has faltered a couple times within games, he has demonstrated the secret of his resilience with immediacy.
“It speaks volumes of who he is and the competitor he is,” coach Derek Lalonde said this week.
Lyon goes into the break having started seven straight games and 14 of the last 15. He was given a chance when Ville Husso left Dec. 18 with an injury, and performed to such a level that Lyon kept getting the nod, even when Lalonde deemed Lyon looked tired.
“The amount and work load I’ve played is not typical in any situation,” Lyon said. “I just prepare the way I prepare and it’s really about preparation at the end of the day, and then you kind of just have to live in the moment in the game and whatever the end result is just what you have to live with.
“That’s the coach’s job, to evaluate and assess, but as a player, I think that you can’t really get bogged down. You’re going to have good games and good periods, and you’re going to have bad periods, and you just really can’t expect to be A-plus all the time. That’s just not reality.”
To wit: Lyon didn’t look sharp Jan. 23 against the Dallas Stars, but he responded with a shutout the next game. He didn’t look sharp in the first period Jan. 25 against the Vegas Golden Knights, but as Lalonde put it, “his bounce-back in that second and third, that was some of his best hockey of the year, and that’s a mouthful with how well he has played for us.” To Lyon, it’s a matter of mindset.
“It’s like, all right, I can either just be angry and wait till after the game to start getting better, or it’s like, let’s just start the process now,” he said. “Wipe the slate clean, be good now. So then instead of looking at it as one game, it’s like, I was great after the first period.”
What makes Lyon’s story remarkable is that his resume is that of a career minor-leaguer. When he signed a two-year, $1.8 million last summer, he had played 39 NHL games total dating back to 2017-18. After leaving Yale after his junior year in 2015-16, he spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers; each season, he spent the majority of time with the AHL affiliate.
That hasn’t been the case with the Wings: They brought him in to be No. 3, didn’t give him a start until Nov. 17, when Husso left Stockholm to be with his wife and newborn baby, but with James Reimer struggling and Husso injured, Lyon is learning how to apply what he learned in the minors to the highest level of hockey.
“In 2024, you have to live your life as a goalie,” he said. “It’s 365 days, 24 hours a day. So I’m just living as a goalie all the time. In my free time, my personal time, and so if you approach it that way — you don’t have to get ready if you just stay ready.
“Unfortunately I’ve just learned that, I don’t know how much time I’ve got left, nobody knowns, in terms of a hockey career. So it’s like, why not just spend the rest of the time — like, even after the season, I like skating. The season is the season. There’s a level of torment to it all the time. Once you accept that, your life gets way better.”
Lyon considered retiring from hockey after the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, when he appeared in just 10 games in the NHL and AHL combined. But then the Hurricanes called, and the Panthers, and during his time in Florida he briefly served in a starting role that lasted three games into the playoffs.
“I think the life of a goalie is somewhat existential,” Lyon said. “You live in reality, it gets difficult sometimes. You have to live in unrealistic terms.”
Lyon arguably needs the break — the Wings’ next game is Feb. 10 — more than anyone else on the team. He is going away — but with a tempered readiness.
“I’ll enjoy it as much as I can,” he said. “It’s going to be a little more enjoyable than unenjoyable, which is what a goalie’s normal life is: Torment and torture.”