NEW YORK, NY, December 9th, 2025:
Detroit’s new goaltender turned Monday into his own showcase in Vancouver, Toronto’s young netminder delivered a debut shutout at home, and Calgary, Minnesota and Los Angeles all stacked statement wins as the league closed out the night with five decisive results.
John Gibson backstopped the Detroit Red Wings to a 4 to 0 road victory over the Vancouver Canucks, stopping all 39 shots he faced at Rogers Arena. The shutout was Gibson’s first with Detroit and the 25th of his NHL career. Official game reporting from NHL.com notes that James van Riemsdyk opened the scoring in the first period, extending his goal streak to four games, before Andrew Copp and rookie Nate Danielson struck in the second frame and Dylan Larkin sealed the result with a late empty netter. The win pushed Detroit to 16–11–3, gave the club points in five straight outings, and briefly moved the Red Wings into first place in the Atlantic Division, while Vancouver fell to 11–16–3 and continued a stretch with losses in eight of its last ten contests.
In Toronto, Dennis Hildeby recorded his first NHL shutout in a 2 to 0 victory for the Maple Leafs over the Tampa Bay Lightning. League and team reports describe a controlled defensive effort in front of the rookie netminder, who turned aside every Lightning shot to secure the win and complete the second scoreless result of the night.
Calgary’s offense erupted in a 7 to 4 home win over the Buffalo Sabres. According to the official recap, Nazem Kadri finished with three points as the Flames continued a recent surge, adding another multi goal effort to extend their run of high scoring performances and keep momentum within the Western Conference playoff chase.
In Seattle, Joel Eriksson Ek powered the Minnesota Wild to a 4 to 1 win against the Kraken. The Wild center registered three points in the game and, as NHL.com notes, helped Minnesota control the special teams and even strength tempo while their goaltending held Seattle to a single goal, deepening the Kraken’s current slump.
The night’s final result saw the Los Angeles Kings defeat the Mammoth 4 to 2. The league’s recap credits Joel Armia with two goals in the victory, giving Los Angeles decisive scoring from its forward group and closing out the Monday slate with another multi goal individual performance.
Across the board, Monday the 8th delivered a consistent pattern: strong goaltending from Gibson and Hildeby in shutouts, offensive stars such as Kadri and Eriksson Ek piling up points, and depth scorers like Armia turning a close contest into a comfortable Kings win. With several clubs either extending hot streaks or deepening opponent losing skids, the standings picture tightened again as the league turned the page to Tuesday’s schedule.
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Sources
- NHL.com official game recap for Red Wings at Canucks, December 8th, 2025
- Detroit Red Wings official recap, “RECAP: Gibson ‘incredible’ for Red Wings in 4–0 shutout victory over Canucks”
- NHL.com news hub listing Monday results and linked recaps for Wild vs. Kraken, Flames vs. Sabres, Kings vs. Mammoth and Lightning vs. Maple Leafs
- The Hockey Writers analysis piece on Detroit’s 4–0 win in Vancouver
- Associated Press game reports as carried by national outlets on Detroit at Vancouver and other Monday NHL games
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