Gibson was strong between the pipes in his season debut, stopping 38-of-40 Columbus shots and pulling within 12 wins of matching J.S. Giguere for the most in Ducks history.
"He was great," Cronin said. "He hasn’t played in a long time. I think in the first period, his movement was a bit sloppy, then you could see as the game went on his movement got more precise."
"[I felt] pretty good," Gibson said. "I kind of played catch up a lot of training camp and the last few weeks, but I got to give credit to the guys. There were guys coming on early, staying after, shooting on me, helping get the work to prepare to get back into game speed. I felt pretty good as the game went on and it was a good team effort."
Despite a Columbus goal cutting Anaheim's lead back to one later in the third, Gibson and the Ducks felt encouraged by the group's effort to defend in the game's final moments.
"I think they did a really good job clearing the rebounds out when there was rebounds and not letting anything back door," Gibson said. "[Columbus] has some big guys, so just kind of blocking out in front and making a clear lane for me to see the puck."
"Every time we had a long zone time, Gibby stood in there really well and I thought the guys handled it well," added defenseman Jackson LaCombe. "When we had our opportunities, we struck too, so I thought we handled it great."
Now looking for consecutive wins for the first time this season, Anaheim's lineup will include some changes tonight after the club announced a series of roster moves Wednesday morning - recalling center Jansen Harkins and defenseman Drew Helleson, while placing Cam Fowler and Robby Fabbri on Injured Reserve.
Harkins, who made his Ducks debut in October at Colorado, co-leads the American Hockey League in points and assists this season.
Meanwhile on the other bench tonight at Honda Center is a Golden Knights team right in the thick of the race for the Pacific Division crown, but coming off a pair of setbacks to Seattle and Carolina.
“Some of our veteran guys didn't have the 'A' game in terms of transition and execution. I thought they were fumbling some pucks,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy told NHL.com's Paul Delos Santos after Monday's loss to the Hurricanes. “So they could have been better and would have needed to be better. But again, I think it was a team loss, to be honest with you.”
Anaheim and Vegas met once already this season, the Ducks' second game of the year, back in October at T-Mobile Arena. The Ducks tied the game at one late in the first period that night on Troy Terry's breakaway goal, but could not hold find the go-ahead goal in what became a 3-1 defeat.
"The first period was terrific," Cronin said of that game. "That’s the way we are supposed to play. In the second period, we kept turning pucks over. Over and over again. When that happens, you end up defending most of the period. Then you get tired legs. Then you can’t really counterattack. We got caught in that spin cycle the whole second period.”
Vegas (9-4-2, 20 points) sits second in the Pacific Division.
