gcom007

Wow.

Babs or Wings management have never said that about Flip. Just ask Flip's little fan-base around here...

Yes and yes.

I think that's a really conservative estimate. I think he's capable of 30 goals easily. The guy does more with his ice time than just about anyone on the team. Considering he logs a lot of PK time as well, his goal numbers playing on a 3rd/4th line are nothing short of impressive.

Patrick motherbeeping Eaves. Wing. For. Life. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We definitely need to get 1 off this 5 on 3 if we're going to be in this game in the 3rd. They kill this and it's just more momentum going towards the Flames.

I have a bad feeling about this...

You know what they say, when it rains it pours. I have a bad feeling we'll see Osgood tonight...they're on the cusp of 4.

Wow.

Bad news for Howard is that those goals were significantly worse goals to give up than he gave up in the last game when he got pulled and given a game off. Not the worst goals against, but really two goals he could have and should have stopped. He had no chance in the last game and again, I was surprised he was pulled at that point, but it's been worse tonight already.

Howard is cursed in the last minute. Seriously, someone tally up the last minute goals. It's just shocking how often it happens.

Not jumping on Howard. Noting that it's not the type of goal you'd like to give up right now after getting a slight break to work on his game with the goalie coach. It's more on his end that I made note. He needs a strong start to get his confidence going, not more reasons to believe that he's simply not going to get anymore breaks.

Not the start Jimmy needed, but we'll see how the rest of the game goes. If he bounces back it's no big thing.

Hero is certainly over the top as he still needs to keep it going, but a return to form is excellent for the Wings because as we've seen in he past, there aren't many who are better than Osgood in the playoffs lately if it comes to that. But again, you can't just go solely on the stats; you've got to look at the games too. As said, in Osgoods efforts he's been praised in the press by those ever-anxious to tear him down even in losses. Why? He's making the big saves, he's not giving up more than a soft goal a game which in my mind is right on par with what you want from your goalie as every goalie tends to give up a soft one a game. The defense is absolutely a bigger problem, I agree. I won't argue that and I've been harping on it for almost 3 years now since...that new one...ugh...took over the defense coaching position. It's been a mess. Last year Howard played well despite it. This year he's taken their hits all while beginning to struggle personally as well. His bad habits have gotten worse and guys are figuring out how to better exploit them. I've said again and again that he's not playing as poorly as some suggest, but he's simply not playing well enough, and Osgood is outplaying him on the ice, and his recent stats are better as well. Personally, i think we should be happy that Osgood's getting his game back because again, when he's on, we've seen what he's capable of when it matters most. And this is just Howards 2nd year. If we can say anything, we can say that it's clear that he still has more to learn. Watching Osgood actually do his thing will be good for him. I guarantee you Osgood's not as down as Howard after this game despite having a comparable 2 defense/1 softie situation to deal with. He shook off the 3rd goal and came back with some really big saves in the end to hold the lead. Howard was losing it after the 2nd goal let alone the 3rd on Sunday. This is a big trial for him personally, make no mistake. What better way for him to learn how to deal with it then by getting a chance to relax a bit and observe how a 400-win goalie with 3 Cup rings does it?

Well, if you went back and looked at the last GDT, you'd see my response to Howard getting pulled as "Why the hell is Osgood in? This isn't on Howard." I thought it was an odd time to dump on Howard as he'd played far worse in other games, though i guess it was the straw that broke the camels back. And he hasn't been winning so well lately. Not only that, at the very least, Howard is playing particularily below the level he showed last season and it'll be going on 2 months now real fast if something doesn't change. His record, GAA and sv. % over that time are brutal. Meanwhile, despite coming off injury and not getting many games, Osgood has had nothing but strong outings even in losses. Look it up in the recaps and write-ups if you don't recall. Even in the losses, Osgood was praised for playing solid and doing all he could far more often than not. He's been on the way up despite not getting much work while Howard's been on the way down, perhaps getting overworked. He hasn't looked impressive more often than not while Osgood has looked impressive and closer and closer to his old form. And again with Howard, you can clearly see his own frustration mounting and I think if anything, thats why he got pulled in the last game. Despite it not being his fault on those 2 tips, he was just losing his composure over it, probably because not much has been going right for him lately. With Osgood playing well and Jimmy struggling, it just makes sense to balance things out again and see how it plays out down the stretch. Simple as that.

Nearly every goalie gives up a bad goal a game. I don't hold 1 bad goal against a goalie. I always give them that one soft one before I get upset over it. Everybody on the ice is going to make bigger mistakes from time to time, including the goalie. Their mistakes are just a bit more obvious unless they get lucky and another player helps them out.

Great to see Bert get going. He'll probably be able to get himself a descent streak going if history has anything to say about it. Good to see Flip keep it going. He needs to keep it going. Osgood played well sans that crap 3rd goal. Nothing he could do about the other 2 and those saves at the end were big. I think I'm over trying to give any grace to Hudler. Halfway through the season and he's still just terrible out there. That 2nd goal was on him in so many ways. I hope he's gone at the deadline, even if for picks. I don't want to waste $3 million on him next year again. 60 minutes? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

2 real nice saves there by Osgood. Making up for that bulls*** 3rd goal...

Darren Helms best shot of the year and some for a goal!!!!!! Nice. Now shut this s*** down.

Was just wondering this myself. You, it's not that we can't win without them, but we're far more likely to really put teams out early with them. Datsyuk helps out so much in our end as well as generating offense and this year Cleary's having a career year. Again, not that we shouldn't be winning these games, but It'd absolutely be easier with Datsyuk in particular. That 2nd goal wouldn't have happened with Datsyuk on the ice because he would've stolen it and gotten the puck cleanly out of the zone as opposed to all that rinky dink backhand crap that we saw from the guys on that play. And those players should've been better. But...GOAL!!!!!!!! Nice to see Bert get going.

That's on Osgood. Deflected or not you gotta keep those pads closed even on a clumsy play like that. But I'm not surprised right now with the way the Oilers are pushing while we let up.

Maybe you missed him because he's so small and lackedazical out there, but Hudler actually just failed miserably to cover his man while Osgood was playing the shooter. Every goalie's going to get burned more often than not on a fast one timer from point blank because a guy was left wide open. It's real hard to hold crap plays like that against a goalie.

I've always really wanted to like Hudler and I've tried to not be overly negative about him this year despite his frankly terrible play, but for the love of all, it just isn't worth trying. He's just such a frustrating player. I'd have no problem with us trading him. None. At. All. Even if he got better somewhere else, I just don't care anymore. He's not doing it here and sometimes that's the way it seems to be. Not every team or every system is perfect for every player. So be it.

Okay, it's cool. I just wanted to be clear because I do give certain fans of other players a hard time from time to time because I'm less than satisfied with a player. It's just not the case with Howard. I really like the guy as said and I just want to see him be given the best chance to get a solid career going. You're dead right about the 70 games thing. It's just nuts if you're not one of the handful of goalies that can maybe (???) handle it. My ideal setup for Howard for his first three years would've looked something like this. Rookie: 25-30 games, Osgood starts playoffs 2nd year: 40-45 games, Osgood starts playoffs 3rd year: 50-60 games, best goalie starts, but ideally and almost certainly it'd be Howard at this point. They could still easily get back on track with this and I really think it'd be good for Howard's long-term development.

Larry Murphy, while praising Flip's recent play, telling it how it's been historically: "He's been a good two-way player but he hasn't put up the numbers the team wants from him." I note this for those who try to suggest that the team hasn't been disappointed with his offensive output the last few years, despite the fact that it's mentioned in the press almost every other month it seems. He's been playing well the last few games, it's a good streak. Let's see if he can do what he's yet to do and turn it into something that doesn't end up being just another streak. Here's hoping.