IRVINE, Calif. — On the precipice of his first game with the Anaheim Ducks in nearly seven months, John Gibson felt like indulging a question that had an admittedly pseudo-cosmic bent to it.
Is he a believer in the timing of things in one’s life and any potential meaning attached to them?
“I think it kind of depends on the scenario,” Gibson said, chatting with The Athletic after practice on Saturday. “Some stuff kind of falls into place and is meant to be. But then other stuff, it’s kind of out of your control.
“You ask most professional athletes, you play a high-paced sport, it’s one bad bounce, one unlucky break and you can be out the whole season or next season with a bad injury. I think to a certain point, yeah, but then there’s a lot of luck involved, too.”
The randomness of life can be something to marvel at or feel bewildered by. And in the Ducks’ case, perhaps Gibson’s return to the net, after an emergency appendectomy on Sept. 25, was a perfect coincidence for a flagging club that needed a jolt.
Sunday was Gibson’s time to show he’s got game left, after a delayed start to his season. The Ducks, who have not won consecutive games all season, came into Sunday’s home game against the Columbus Blue Jackets with four consecutive losses. Lukáš Dostál needed a break, having started all but two of their first 13 games. After a celestial October, the 24-year-old was coming back to earth following a tough week.
When the final seconds elapsed and Anaheim grabbed a 4-2 victory, Gibson recorded the 194th win of his career with a 38-save effort that included some of the vintage moments that made him the Ducks’ unquestioned main man for years.
The Ducks, the NHL’s lowest-scoring team, provided some offensive support for the veteran. Their four goals were their second-highest total in 14 games this season.
The Ducks have only generated 24 goals in Dostál’s 11 starts, which included a five-goal burst in their home opener. When Dostál was no longer letter-perfect last week, the Ducks couldn’t overcome their erratic and often shoddy play in most of his outings. After losing to Chicago, Vancouver and Minnesota to open their longest homestand of the season, the punchless Ducks needed a spark. It takes a team to win consistently, but someone had to lead them out of the dark. Anyone.
A goalie can’t solve a team’s scoring issues but he can lift up teammates. Gibson had some rust to knock off early and was caught swimming when the Blue Jackets made things hairy around his crease. But he’s long had a simple approach to his craft. See the puck, stop the puck. And when he foiled a strong chance by Sean Kuraly with the game still 0-0, that sent a message to his teammates.
“I thought Gibby did a great job,” Jackson LaCombe said. “Every time we had a long zone time, he stood in there really well and I thought the guys handled it well. When we had our opportunities, we struck, too, so I thought we handled it great. We were good in the o-zone too, so it was good.”
It wasn’t a perfect first game for Gibson.
But it was a perfectly good start for a goalie who is now challenged by Dostál for playing time. Gibson was big when he needed to be. Ask Zach Werenski, who had multiple shots end in Gibson’s glove. Ask Cole Sillinger, whose short-handed chance was turned away. Ask talented scorer Yegor Chinakov, who blew a slap shot by him in the second period on the power play but watched Gibson deliver a sprawling save that he shouldn’t have made with 12.6 seconds left.
It was the kind of save Gibson used to make at least once per game. Often more than once, even during this ragged multiyear team rebuild, during which his numbers have taken a major hit. The goals allowed in spiraling one-sided losses made him look worse than he really was.
Then came the challenges before the start of this season. Nothing during a routine session in training camp gave him any indication that his appendix would become an issue. “Realistically, I left that practice because I got hit in the balls,” he said. “And then I started getting pain. I think it was like 15 minutes or whatever and they were just like, ‘Take it easy.’
“And then I went home. I tried to eat something. I didn’t feel great and then I just started getting sick. Everything snowballed really fast.”
Gibson said he felt violently ill every 30 minutes. A few hours later, he was in urgent care and then was admitted to a hospital for surgery. By the end of that night, he was back home and starting a lengthy process toward getting back to the good place he was in when he reported to camp.
“Just coming back, I felt like I had to build my whole core back up,” he told The Athletic. “The bruising and everything. I lost 15 pounds in two days. It was just kind of multiple things. And then I think it was more frustrating like three or four weeks after — my body starts feeling better but then when I get on the ice and do stuff, I’m pulling scar tissue and jut little stuff that I had no idea that went into it.
“Definitely a longer process than I thought, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, I’m still lucky because they caught it before it ruptured. If it ruptured, I wouldn’t be here talking to you still. I probably wouldn’t be on the ice yet.”
Six weeks later, Gibson has his starting point. With Dostál turning a strong end of 2023-24 season and his star turn in the IIHF World Championship into a terrific opening month, the Ducks could have a true competition for the net. Gibson’s 44 starts last season were his lowest in an 82-game schedule since 2015-16, when he split the net with Frederik Andersen.
There isn’t any question that Gibson paid attention to Dostál posting a .945 save percentage over his first eight starts while he was out. And the two converse. Dostál has tapped into Gibson’s brain about what it takes to play nearly every time out.
“Once you’re playing a lot of games, there’s not much practice time,” Gibson said. “It’s just about when you can get out there and work and all that. He’s a young kid. He works hard. He knows what to do. And he showed it. It’s awesome for him. He put in the work. He deserved it.”
To the question of how he anticipates Cronin dividing up the workload between the two, Gibson smiled and said, “I’m just going to play. I can only control so much. There’s no point sitting here worrying about things I can’t control. I’m older now. I got kids. You know how it is? You get wiser with kids.”
Time has provided additional layers of perspective to someone who has never been big on ruminating about himself in interviews. It has also made him more comfortable with digging into a question touching on life — filtered through the prism of hockey.
Appendicitis isn’t anything Gibson could have foreseen. But perhaps that random event was a necessity within the Ducks’ cosmos. “He’s been around a long time,” coach Greg Cronin said. “He’s a leader. You get a player with his history in the lineup – certainly Dos has been outstanding but there’s just a different resume with Gibby (that) gives you a sense of stability.”
“I’ve been trying just to put my work in because it’s a new experience for me,” Gibson said. “I haven’t played games in a while. I didn’t get the reps in training camp. I felt like I was playing catch-up a lot. Hopefully, I can provide a spark. Play well.
“Obviously, I’ve been here long enough. I know what I got to do. It’s just about going out there and getting to game speed.”
(Photo of John Gibson: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
