Wingsallwin

I would rather to make a deal with another solid goalie instead of signing both. Osgood is now old and if both Larsson and Howard do not come up big, we definately need a consistent goalie as we also regard Nick is coming to the end of his career.

First, Lehtonen is reaching the end of his contract with the Thrashers this season so it might be a good decision to take him in the Wings and he gets 3 million so ideal deal with him as the Wings will be between 2 and 2.5. Like you said, even some professional hockey journalists say the Wings will head to the golf course earlier than we expect if we don't solve the goalie problem. I agree our defenses are not enough solid as the last season but we cannot blame only our defenses. At least, when Nick was out of his play in the beginning of the season, he said he is out and he has been improved since then although he is not back on his perfect game. What about Osgood? Not at all. We cannot blame any our defenses performaces except for Kronwall beause as I watch, Rafalski, Lilja, Stuart, and either Chellios or Lebda have not been terrific but they are improving and they have more better games than not better games. Like the Canucks, is there defenses good? Not really even the Canucks commentators say their defenses are not solid but why do they not allow many goals? Goalies. If the goalie can come up big, that makes our defenses to play more comfortable. If we see Osgood, he started around 28 games. If I remeber well, the games he played enough good were very few, almost only 3 or 4. I don't blame Osgood when he allows 3 goals. Like the Ducks game, he allowed 3 goals by out of the position but he was enough. He at least has to be like that. As Babock's interview, he is probably losing the credit on Osgood. During the PK, every coach says goalies have to be best penalty killers but Osgood has never been. Yes, we are the 2nd best in the West, which is way better than the East, but who cares about the standing if we make the playoff between 1st and 4th. There is no clear evidence we wii have a success in the playoff with this motivation and terrible goalies. I know many people here love Osgood but we have to know the truth. Osgood just has no motivation as before. Like I mean, the lists you show there like Toskala and Legace, if those goalies are COMPARABLE with Osgood, and that's the truth, then we have to think seriously. Until only this month, if Osgood plays 5 or 6 games given to him this early of the month, we have to make some deal on goalies unless Conks gets super hot.

It sucks Homer is out for that long(?) time. But we can use our potential GR. Leino, and Helm will get many starts I think. And hope we will bring up either Abdelkader or Downey again. Again, it is shadow and light..

Probably until near of the trade dead line. Babcock already mentioned Osgood is bad this season. If he keeps bad until the trade dead line, when the playoff time will only 1 month be left, we should start Conklin by lately performance.

We know Lidstrom is not playing as good as last season or his prime, but he has been still GOOD and top 5 defenseman in the league, not terrific or NO.1 in the league though. The thing about Osgood is like this. I don't know what people are gonna say to me but we are not the only guys who watch the Wings games. All NHL fans watch the Wings games. After the game thread, even my friends say Osgood is not a bad goalie, but he never be a great goalie. Just because Osgood has won two cups as starting goalies and made a good performance last season, it does not mean he is great. Luongo has never won the cup but people say he is better than Osgood and that is clearly genuine fact. We cannot disagree about that. I think people are relying on Osgood's last season's playoff too much. His save percentage was almost .940 and GAA was 1.30 something like this I cannot remember. But now 50 games are passed and he is not improved near the level we expect him to be. We probably need some changes. Get a good and consistent goalie. If I were Holland, I would choose Backstrom. People will blame me but let's see. This team's solid defenses were cored with Lidstrom but Nick is not playing as good as before. Then, even though we spend big part of our cap on defenses, can we still go on a way as the past? I doubt that. When the Nick is done with his left contract, next season, even though he resigns, I think our defenses cannot be solid as the past again. That's why I think Backstrom is a proper goalie on this team, he is good, consistent, and not very expensive. Still, just my opinion though

This coming trade line in Feb will be extremely significant for the rest of the season and the future. We know Osgood has been terrible this season and he is getting old and he seems like he cannot bounce back to his game during the contract left for him. Conklin, who was mainly used as a backup goaltending has been enough solid but if we sign with him in a big cap, that is ridiculous even though I kept saying I love Conks more than Osgood this season. We all also know Nick is coming to the end of his career. If we sign with him again and by the attitude of him, we can sign him again without as big money as now. However, we knew this team's defenses have been very solid last almost 10 years because of Nick and Chellios but both have gotten too old to play with their prime again. As I see in the league right now, there is no solid defense like Nick in the league as I compare Nick's last season, even this season, and other players performance. It will be pretty if Ericsson can provide a good performance as a young defenseman but personally, I don't expect Ericsson to be like Nick, but he will be good. So we cannot suppose this team's defenses will be going under the solid way in the future. Last few seasons, because our defenses were solid, our goalies did not have to face up those many shots when other goalies faced many shots against. However, as the season going on right now, the team's defenses are now shaking up, so we have to know the goalie should be important for this team since this season. I personally like the Wings to sign with either Backstrom or Luongo. Both are real good goalies and coming to the end of the contract. This season is Backstrom's last season and Luongo will be FA as the end of 09-10 season and the Canucks do not seem to be a cup contender. Which means, if both goalies want to win the cup with the best offenses and solid defenses, they have big possibilities to choose to come to the Wings. Let's exclude the story of resigning contract with Hossa,and Franzen. Backstrom is getting 3.1 million cap hit and Luongo is getting 6.75 million cap hit but he will get 7.5million next season. If we suppose both goalies will get a home discount because they come to the Wings, ideal cap will be 2.5 for Backstrom and between 5 - 5.5 will be dealt for Luongo. And if that, I will take Backstrom instead of adding one defense. We cannot just say Lilja will be rock next few seasons by watching his good play this season and Kronwall has been awfully bad this season. If our defenses cannot be consistent like last 10 seasons, we really need a good goalie who is around 30 years old. We know the Wings have never dealt a goalie contract with a big cap hit but no team can keep the style of their cap system for long time. We probably need changes and the core of that change should be a goalie.

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He is confident in himself that he will allow at least 3 or 4 goals every game

Not whatever reason. He is just lazy and paying no attention in the game. That's why he sucks right now

That is almost impossible by this team's motivation right now. I think you are talking about the end of the season 01-02 when we won the cup. Last 10 games, we won only one game but you forgot that team played better than this in the same time. There is no clear evidence that we will have a success in the playoff. Why are some people saying we will get hot in the start of the playoff? Just because we won the cup last season? We forgot we were brutal during the playoff since 01-02, got upset by low seeded teams.

The first game that we lost against the Leafs pretty much told us what the first 10 games would be. But you forgot some teams have been IMPROVED since their slump or bad performance on each game during the beginning or the start of the season but the Wings problems have not been solved yet at all: Kronwall,Osgood,brutal PK. I never mentioned we should shake up our whole rosters but we need some changes. At this point, 50 games are passed and Osgood is still OSBAD, there is no need anymore to watch him. Give Conklin a chance to start. Besides, according to my view, the only game that our 4th line played good was game against the Kings, 4-0. Except for that game, I kept mentioning myself that we have to test some GR. I mentioned this in the beginning of the season also but some people here said our GR are not ready to be in the NHL. What I was pointing that time was surely only testing some players. Was it that hard? That period was the time we had a long way to go but now we test our GR. It is never appropriate. The only strong part of this team right now is infinite scoring machines. Except for that, especially on some D men and Osgood, they have been queasy. The bigger problem is that they have not shown any proof that they are improving now, still remain with a terrible performance every game.

Win is a win but nothing new on Osgood again. Terrible performance since the 1st period. 2nd,3rd goals are aboslutely brutal to allow and 4th goal is kind of our defense problem but he is just an automatic door in the PK. I think our defenses overall looked to be better tonight even though not a perfect game. Conks to be a starting goalie next two games hopefully. Let's see what will happen

We have improved some of our defenses and our offenses are the best in the leauge. But when the team needs to improve itself, every position should be improved. But Osgood has never been improved. It does not matter how many some good saves he makes and some good games he make because mentioned before, every goalie has some good games. If any goalie allows like more than 3 goals many games, and with a terrible stats, how can any team go far with that goalie? I know what your point is and I am focusing on how our team is improving since last 5 game losing streak. But if Osgood is not improving at all this point, passed 50 games, it is meaningless we test him again and again.

I don't know what people are going to say about Osgood after this game again. He sucks this season. No doubt about that and we need to know the truth going on Osgood right now

PK is horrible but Osgood has to get that!! Goalie should be the best penalty killer!!

wow... another pk coming. WE SHOULD KILL THIS

Mostly yes I am impressed about our offenses and 3rd defense pairs. But if Osgood did not allow those bad soft goals like the 2nd and 3rd goal, we would be way more comfortable to watch this game. What's wrong with Osgood this season?

Well that makes us calm down but look at this game. Again, we have to score more than 4 goals to win when Osgood is in net

wow... terrible goal allowed by Osgood..

Sammy~

well I think Cleary can be on the 2nd line with Hossa and Franzen. Or we can think about that the line by Cleary,Huds, and Filp, that line worked out really well one month ago.

Agree. It is not important we get a shutout or not. The level of playing hockey is very significant, I hope we can keep up stepping up the level of hockey.

nice move by Helm there

I think Helm will be on our line up at least during the playoff, he should be. We probably need some changes on our 4th line

haha.. let's see more. We know Osgood is struggling so if two are the only goals he allow tonight, I am going to be fine with that