shadow47

I have had this on my Comcast for a month and a half and it's free.

You might want to check your stats...you are forgetting DH's 41/43 3OT win in the Finals in your tallying of 30+ shot games. Somewhat convenient I think. As for making an argument about stealing, anyone can invent a trivial criteria for "statistical stealing" and apply it. If you must use such criteria, you ought to say Osgood only "stole" one game against Dallas after handing them that OT game with the winning goal from the redline. Not sure you can consider a 5-3 win a "stolen win" for the goalkeeper, similarly a 3-2 game with the shots 30-23. You are being pretty loose with your terminology here. 05/24/98: W (60m, 14/14) 2-0 victory at Dallas (Det SOG: 23) 05/26/98: L (59m, 20/22) 1-3 defeat at Dallas (Det SOG: 28) 05/29/98: W (60m, 31/34) 5-3 victory vs. Dallas (Det SOG: 20) 05/31/98: W (60m, 28/30) 3-2 victory vs. Dallas (Det SOG: 23) 06/03/98: L (60m46s, 33/36) 2-3 OT defeat at Dallas (Det SOG: 20) 06/05/98: W (60m, 26/26) 2-0 victory vs. Dallas (Det SOG: 31) Edit: Osgood wouldn't have had to prevent the Wings from going down 3-1 in that series if he hadn't allowed a Stephane Fiset-like 7 goals on 28 shots in Game 2.

It's easy to say that, let's examine: He hasn't won a playoff series in 7 1/2 years. Let's look at his most recent late series game performances: 2004 St. Louis vs. San Jose SJ wins series 4-1 Game 4: 20/24 4-3 L Game 5: 17/20 3-1 L 2003 St. Louis vs. Vancouver VAN wins series 4-2 St. Louis had a 2-1 series edge, then... Game 4: 30/35 5-3 L Game 5: 22/26 4-3 L Game 6: 28/32 4-1 L 2002 NYI vs. Toronto TOR wins series 4-3 Game 5: 11/15 (pulled) 6-3 L Game 6: 31/34 4-3 W Game 7: 26/29 4-2 L 2001 Detroit vs. LA LA wins series 4-2 Detroit had 2-0 and 2-1 series edges, then... Game 4: 27/31 4-3 L/OT Game 5: 22/25 3-2 L Game 6: 25/28 3-2 L/OT 2000 Detroit vs. Colorado (second round) COL wins series 4-1 Game 4: 18/21 3-2 L/OT Game 5: 21/25 4-2 L 1999 Detroit vs. Colorado (second round) COL wins series 4-2 Series tied 2-2, then... Game 5: 23/26 3-0 L Game 6: 26/31 5-2 L 1998 won Cup obviously, had some good games and some not so good 1996 Detroit vs. Colorado (third round) COL wins series 4-2 Colorado scores at least 3 goals in all but one game 17/20, 15/19, and 13/16 are examples of Osgood's save totals over the series. 1994 Maybe I'll just ignore this year Overall, this data would suggest just the opposite of your assertion, and in fact in line with what most hockey people will concur, that Chris Osgood has great regular season numbers, and overall strong numbers in the playoffs, however, when the games are on the line, late in a series, when the team needs a save...it may not be there. He's won a Cup but hasn't done much else.

The only problem with this is that every method of goaltending teaches you to back up into your net. You come out to challenge when the guy is far out and back up with him at his speed, staying close to the shooter...perhaps you perceive the shooter taking a shot rather than deking as the goalie doing something (standing his ground), but only appears that way because the man has shot instead of deked. People call Hasek "sloppy" but he is one of the better skating goalies in the league. If you "stand your ground" as you suggest, the guy deking will just go around him and have a wide open net. Goaltending is predominantly the goalie constantly trying to have the best angle of blocking to open net ratio, maintaining the angle, so to speak. That is the concept of flopping, when Hasek flops, it looks like there is tons of net because he is flat on the ice, however, he is so close to the puck (or at least, how this is successful) with his paddle, blocker, glove, pad whatever, that he has in fact maintained the angle because the puck distance to blocking area has been decreased, for those that wonder about the whole idea behind flopping. 2 of the goals the other night were between the legs so it wouldn't have mattered if Hasek was 10 feet out of the net (goal #2) or right on the goal line (goal #1), that hole is the same.

Actually, yes, 2 bad nights. If you exclude the games against Anaheim and St. Louis, DH's stats: GP: 7 ...... W-L-T: 5-1-1 ...... GAA: 2.10 ....... sp%: .896 Those are fine if not good numbers, if anything it should show how insanely low the shot totals have been. You can do this with any goalkeeper but it does indicate that his season is not quite as bad as people might think at a glance. BTW the Wings have the second best record in the league, Osgood's playing tons, is there any reason to complain?

"Dom Drops Ball, Ozzie Answers Call(?)" ---In his relief time, Osgood faced 4 shots. C'mon people. ---DH has had two lousy games, the Anaheim game and this one. It's easy to have a low sp% when you aren't facing a lot of shots, why doesn't anyone recognize this? ---Brodeur's save percentage is under .900 in more games. Should he retire? ---Some memorable Hasek off-nights vs. the Blues: 11/13/07.....8/12 4GA in 35 minutes 12/4/03 ......14/18 4GA in 65 minutes 10/29/03 .....9/13 4GA in 25 minutes 5/4/02.........11/16 5GA in 50 minutes 4/14/02.......23/28 5GA in 60 minutes 1/13/99.......26/30 4GA in 60 minutes 1/27/98.......16/19 3GA in 65 minutes Keeping with a trend, the Blues are one of the those teams Dom can serve up a stinker against now and again. ---Anyone remember 8GA vs. the Sharks last year? ---97-98 with Buffalo was particularly bad start, see here: 10/01/97 33/34 3-1 W STL 10/03/97 28/34 6-2 L WSH 10/05/97 30/31 1-1 OT T TB 10/07/97 26/30 4-2 L DAL 10/09/97 29/31 5-2 W WSH 10/15/97 34/37 3-3 T CAR 10/17/97 37/42 5-1 L MTL 10/19/97 31/35 5-2 L CHI 10/21/97 17/18 4-1 W CGY 10/26/97 24/30 6-1 L PHX 10/28/97 16/19 3-2 L COL Stats after 11 games 97-98 (oh the second Hart Trophy year): GP: 11 ......... W-L-T: 3-6-2 ...... GAA: 3.28 ......... sp%: 894 Stats after 9 games 07-08 GP: 9 ........... W-L-T: 5-3-1 .......GAA: 2.76 ......... sp%: 869 In case any math experts are lost here, the difference in save percentage means that on every 100 shots compared to 97-98, Hasek will give up 2.5 more goals. Sour, sour Osgood fans stirring things up not worth stirring.

Let's be realistic here people: --Hasek's play so far this season has been so so overall, his game against Anaheim wasn't good at all, I believe I may have said it was 'awful' to a friend of mine. --The Dom is not the goalie he once was, injuries and age have slowed his reflexes considerably, he is still capable obviously but no one should think he is a spry 37 year old anymore. Dom's last invincible year was early 1999-2000 season. Those who've followed his career have seen it peak in around 1998-99, then drop off slightly every year, even in '02. His time in Ottawa was like a renaissance, to me he seemed finally to be a dominant force again, it was 2001 again the way he looked, unfortunately we know what happened. The guy is only human and is trying the best he can is the point. --Osgood has looked fine, even good in games this year. Not stellar by any means, but less shaky than DH. That said, we are 7 games in as has been mentioned. The Wings are going to make the playoffs guaranteed so regular season is just glorified preseason and should be treated so by fans who can actually tie their belt on correctly. Does it matter if Hasek is flaky in early games as long as he's going at the end? --Anyone who watched the Vancouver opener last year will not be concerned with DH's lack of quality playing at this point in time this season. --I know it seems easy to slag Hasek because he's not the perfect technical goalie, the young people just getting into hockey in the last 5 years or so are not going to figure it out that it just makes you sound ignorant, Hasek has had more success and prominence than Luongo, Kipprusoff, all your favorites, all those you perceive to be "perfect goalies". Brodeur is the only one in Dom's league and he plays basically the same style. Hasek gets the press for his flopping but both of these guys play an old-school one knee down/half butterfly/pad stack/flop type game, so get off the Dom for his style, it is plenty effective overall. --There is no precedent for Hasek leaving a team if reduced to backup, no reason to even think that would happen. Dom is totally professional to a fault and if that was what was being asked of him I'm confident he would be fine with it. He would practice his hardest everytime he got on the ice to win back his job (see 1995 season for evidence of this), but if he couldn't he would support the team and respect the contract he signed with Holland and Detroit.

Keep in mind that the pads pros wear are more often than not NOT what you will find labeled as the "Pro" version found in stores. Ozzy uses the 9.8 graphic, that much is for sure. What the internals are made up of is quite likely built up from the retail version to compensate for the frequency and speed of pro shooters. Osgood has added thigh rise length, and I know he has been using the cheater on the inside thigh rise that Hasek adopted for last season as well as this year. Also, comparing the outside rolls, he has modded the break above the knee rolls to make it a solid roll, just just two breaks in the outside roll instead of 3 on the retail. He appears to have his boot shortened as well to get maximum height out of the pad. They are also obviously 11" wide pads, all the retail 9.8s you will find are 12" or wider. My advice, don't buy pads based on the graphic pros use, you will look like them but it will not be the same pad.

I have Comcast digital cable in Northern California and have the channel. It is just color bars at the moment but it is on the menu and shows the schedule of shows (classic SCF, classic NYI vs Bruins, etc.). It is called "NHLTV" and is up by the NFLTV NBATV channels. I'm hoping it will be free at first rather than part of the annoying $10 a month "sports tier" with like 6 extra channels.

The Good 1. Washington (these jerseys just look great, admit it) 2. Islanders (sharp duds that look better on, these ARE pretty nice looking) 3. Detroit (could be #1 easy but how boring would that be? No real innovation) 4. Florida (they are pretty nice but they need to lose the dark stripe that divides the two red areas) 5. Boston (still very sharp with the update) Honorable: Atlanta, precious few others The Bad and Ugly 1. San Jose (It is hideous, same shoulder patch as chest a rarity) 2. Philadelphia (on the players these look so much worse than not on a player) 3. Ottawa (logo is big step back, just look cartoonized) 4. Tampa (not a bad jersey at all, the logo is the worst in the league) 1b. St. Louis (wowser those are ugly...you can move this up mentally if need be) Honorable: Calgary is bad, not TOO bad. A lot of jerseys just look too similar with the stupid RBK templates, ex. Pittsburgh/Ottawa/TB have the exact striping shape. Los Angeles has that wordmark as does Van but at least the LA is stylized...Toronto's jerseys are too plain, they need the shoulder colors to do justice. Buffalo, still a very ugly jersey with an awful logo...at least make the damn Buffalo white!

As someone who is especially familiar with the Glass Domino's career, I rate this video merely average, and I'm not being overly critical. Way way waaaaaaay too much "filler" video from the 2002 playoffs. If this vid is made to impress this is not the way to do it with so many non-highlight type saves. Dominik's main career was with Buffalo, and then he came to Detroit to win the Cup b/c he couldn't do it with Buffalo, a la Bourque to Colorado from Boston. The difference is, Hasek stuck around a lot longer than Bourque did after he did it, and Bourque was a lot younger when he entered the league. So, it's not really accurate to force people to judge the Dom on his senior years in the league (which this video is probably 80% comprised of or more) despite the fact that he has delayed retirement longer than most. With all of the 2002 footage, this guy left out the best save Hasek made that season, in that 3-2 Philly game early in the year when he made the save from in front and then did the split and caught the puck off I believe it was Recchi. And there are countless other saves from his Buffalo career that are neglected. What about some Ottawa footage, he was really great for Ottawa before being hurt, anyone watching those games knows this. What about some clips from Chicago/Pittsburgh '92 which are readily available (just like most of the footage in this). An OK vid but not very comprehensive.

With Hasek and Chelios setting the new bar for defying age in modern hockey, plenty of players are saying things like "I'm going to play into my 40s". Unfortunately, these two aren't simply your everyday stars, these are two immortals of the position. While nearly everyone would LIKE to play as long as they can, the will of teams and the ego of the individual player to decide what lessened role he is content in playing is ultimately the deciding factor, along with whether that guy can still play at a high age. I can't predict the future but I'm guessing there will be better options than Chris Osgood in 2-3 years.

I think one guy out of all the predictors thinks Buffalo will have home ice in the first round of the playoffs...that gives you a pretty good sampling of the level of hockey knowledge on this board.

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I predict they will eventually make the secondary logo (the one with just the bolt and Florida) the main logo. Edit: the old TB logo was somehow better. This may have just beaten the new Sharks for worst logo in the league.

Who's LOLing at Roloson?...he is great.

I doubt this could be the real logo b/c it is just too awful to be real. Wild Wing Ducks sweaters circa 1995 or whatever have some competition...not exaggerating that the Sharks will have the worst logo in the league next year if this is right.

I feel like I've read this article before...multiple times. I wish these so-called writers would come up with semi-original material.

They've already confirmed burnt orange will be a main color along with teal/black/silver. Ugly ughs if you ask me...why change the logo, too, it's a mistake.

Thought this from Mlive.com was interesting. It either supports the idea that Hasek wants to give Kenny flexibility, or...well we know the other possiblity: Wings general manager Ken Holland said Dominik Hasek's agent, Ritch Winter, told him he wanted to wait a day or two after July 1 before signing, but there's no cause for alarm. "We're close in a lot of areas ... I'm hoping to finish this off in a day or two,'' Holland said. "We've made progress. We have the nuts and bolts of something in place. They told me there's no reason to be concerned. They just want to sit for a day or two.'' Todd Bertuzzi is also exploring the market, looking for a long-term deal. The Wings are only offering short-term.

Who the hell on DET wants Smyth when Holmstrom plays in all his situations and is BETTER anyway? Smyth is going to be overpaid, getting someone the likes of Kariya/Nolan/Peca would be the move to make--let Bertuzzi go he is a head case since Steve Moore and injury prone, even moreso than Hasek amazingly...resign Hasek for whatever and you'll still have some dollars left. Let Hudler go and bring up Kindl.

Prediction: Shanahan to the Sabres.

True this thread is purely theoretical. I find it funny that people seem to think Dom negotiates his own deals...Rich Winter is a hardline agent who made Dominik holdout in 1995 after his Vezina season. You can hear Dominik discuss that situation in his semi-biography "Dominator". But that right there should give you an idea of the guy who's probably behind this. I doubt Dominik cares much at this point...you think you can get us a little more Rich, go for it?

And Detroit was the better team in the Conference Finals last season to the Ducks, so Kenny probably wouldn't give him 2 years in the deal or some such thing.

If you're going to pay one of your D-men 6 million bucks, why not just reup Schneider for 2 years? You like the job he does, he obviously works for your club, just sign someone else in 2 years when he retires. Why take the chance on Rafalski when you have a proven commodity in Schneider, who is old but has proven he can play?