worried about ozzie?

[3chrisosgood0 7]

so far ozzie has struggled a little

i do think hes played better than his stats indicate but not much better

i did not watch last nights game but ive watched every game previous

and he hasnt had that one great game yet it seems, and he had plenty last year

im not sayin start Conklin tho he seems a very reliable goalie

im just voicing some slight concern

is ozzie noted for slow starts? his last season as a starter in Detroit was 00/01 so its been awhile since ive paid great attention to Ozzie as an out right starter

[CenterIce 83]

so far ozzie has struggled a little

i do think hes played better than his stats indicate but not much better

i did not watch last nights game but ive watched every game previous

and he hasnt had that one great game yet it seems, and he had plenty last year

im not sayin start Conklin tho he seems a very reliable goalie

im just voicing some slight concern

is ozzie noted for slow starts? his last season as a starter in Detroit was 00/01 so its been awhile since ive paid great attention to Ozzie as an out right starter

If I remember correctly, he started a lot of games early last year and did well. Hence, his All-star selection.

[Doggy 130]

If I remember correctly, he started a lot of games early last year and did well. Hence, his All-star selection.

In the beginning of last season he was starting 50% of the games max.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Not worried at all about him, still too early in the season to be throwing up alert flags about goaltending or the defense when it is an 80+ game season.

[BigWinston 15]

I'm a little concerned over the whole defense to be honest.

Conceding way too many goals, and they are certainly not all the goalie's fault.

However, at the moment our offense is sh*t hot which is carrying us.

The defense (inc. goalies) needs to get their act together and I think they will...

[VM1138 1,921]

You know, I was concerned about Ozzie for a minute, but then I looked at the goals from a different perspective. If he had made some of those saves I would have been like "Wow! THat was an amazing save!", so in that perspective, I don't really think he's struggling. He hasn't been helped by defense that can't seem to play together and position right, and a lot of the goals have come off of crazy redirections or rebounds.

[Spinner 6]

It's still pretty early in the season, plus, there have been a lot of turnovers and the D still isn't up to their usual awesome norm. With that, we are still 7-1-1. Can't wait until everyone is at the top of their game.

[3chrisosgood0 7]

You know, I was concerned about Ozzie for a minute, but then I looked at the goals from a different perspective. If he had made some of those saves I would have been like "Wow! THat was an amazing save!", so in that perspective, I don't really think he's struggling. He hasn't been helped by defense that can't seem to play together and position right, and a lot of the goals have come off of crazy redirections or rebounds.

i do agree with u there id be more concerned if he was given up easy slop but if i recall correct i beleive it was the OT loss to vancouver where 2 of VANs goals were like triple deflections

ozzie hasnt been given to many break thats for sure

[egroen 384]

There really have not been a lot of soft goals let in - I agree with the posts above that the defense has definitely not been up to snuff and Ozzie has had the misfortune of seeing a lot of crazy rebounds and redirects.

Oh, and he was sweet in that shootout last night -- just super cool and calm... I love to see that!

Edited October 28, 2008 by egroen

[jenova0 0]

Goaltending is NOT the problem. Our defense has been horrid, including Norris Lidstrom.

[OsGOD 3]

Not worried at all... 2pts is 2pts... its all good.

[wingsfan40 0]

Not worried at all... 2pts is 2pts... its all good.

Lets start to worry when there is actually a problem...

[union drone 0]

Lets start to worry when there is actually a problem...

IMO, Ozzy looked like money in the bank in the shootout vs the Kings.

A lot of the regulation goals that he has given up he's had no chance on (e.g. deflections, unlucky bounces, D-man mistakes). When the D starts playing like they should the GAA will start to drop.

Is it just me, or does it seems like scoring is up so far this season (in general)?

[Gordie Howe hat trick 110]

If both he and Conklin continue/start to suck up the ice we need to bring Howard up for a bit to scare em'. That being said...I don't know why we felt the need to pick up Conklin, but that is a different story.

[Opie 308]

Not worried at all... 2pts is 2pts... its all good.

Lets start to worry when there is actually a problem...

What is this Calm rationale thought??? Surely you jest!!

OK on the serious side, you guys and others have it right, what is always the most important is wins and losses. Yes certain elements (not goaltending) are not up to par (otherwise known as our standards) the good news is that other aspects are picking up the D right now. And as happens in most sports there will come a time when the offense hits a snag, and true champion caliber teams find a way to win whether it be O or D that is struggling. Currently that is what they are doing, Ozzie plays great in the SO, the O does its best to score, this team may not be firing on all cylinders, but hey they are winning, for now good enough in my book, as long as they find a way to win.

Now if they were 3-4-2 or 1-7-1 something along those lines than yes I see it as a problem, because the team is not finding a way to win and therefore relying on the D to win them games. Right now they are winning as a team and hopefully the D will right the ship.

[imawingnut 0]

If both he and Conklin continue/start to suck up the ice we need to bring Howard up for a bit to scare em'. That being said...I don't know why we felt the need to pick up Conklin, but that is a different story.

Ozzie is fine and the wings are rolling so why don't you think of other things to whine about.

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

how was osgood's overall performance from last night?

[Guest mindfly]

If they will win against san jose, anaheim, montreal with the same tight games, bad defense, mediocre goaltending, 1goal games, OT/SO wins im all pleased... but if they continue to win only against bad teams then i'm really worried

Edited October 28, 2008 by mindfly

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Its hard to say he's struggling, or at least to blame him for it for a few reasons.

1) Our defense has been horrid.

2) He has seen a TON of point blank shots from the slot and other spots where 80% of players will score from.

3) Our defensive positioning - and I think this is key - has been so erratic and the communication between our Dmen has been so poor that I really think its affecting Ozzie. There are plenty of times where if a goal is scored, it looks like Ozzie wasn't ready for the shot, and I think that has everything to do with how our defenseman have performed in the past. If Lidstrom is covering a guy in the slot, Ozzie probably isn't going to be ready for that guy to break free of Lidstrom and get the shot off - yet that kind of s*** has been happening every night. So I think we need Ozzie some leeway for now. This is a guy who has played with the Wings in a communicative, tight checking, puck possession defense environment that is so off-kilter right now its like being thrown in net for a team hes only played a handful of games with before. Like Hossa, its almost like Ozzie has to get accustomed to our way of playing in our own zone right now, because it is so un-Red Wing like that hes probably as lost as we are.

[Torless 0]

how was osgood's overall performance from last night?

I thought he was great - proved himself in the shootout... stuffed both with no problems. 1 of the 3 goals was a lucky bounce off of Lidstrom's skate so you can't blame him for that one... he was following the puck well before the weird redirect. 1 of the others was off a bad penalty...of which there were several... I think the skaters were really sloppy half of the game until they started playing RW hockey in the late 2nd and 3rd... tons of bad passes until they got their act together.

Course it's the Kings, so they should have had no problem... still... one of the goals on Osgood was because 3 of the Kings' forwards were allowed right into the crease and got free access to the rebound.

This is where we should be glad he doesn't really care about stats if they're winning...

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

From what I've seen, Ozzie's been fine. He's given up a few more juicy rebounds than I'd like, but that's about it.

And that's a bigger problem lately because the Wings opponents can pretty much come to the net at will. It's crazy how many times I've seen the Wings outnumbered in front of their own net.

[wingsgirl001 983]

Not worried at all... 2pts is 2pts... its all good.

Exactly.

[Lamothe 5]

I'm a little concerned over the whole defense to be honest.

Conceding way too many goals, and they are certainly not all the goalie's fault.

However, at the moment our offense is sh*t hot which is carrying us.

The defense (inc. goalies) needs to get their act together and I think they will...

I agree whole heartedly. The defense, aside from Lidstrom and Rafalski, is scaring me slightly. I feel Stuart and Kronwall have come on as of late, however not to the point they were at in the playoffs last year. Our third pairing looks horrible, and Lebda, although definitly not the worst player in the NHL, is not exactly achieving as much as I'd hope he would have thus far. Overall, our entire defensive game needs to step up. that goes for forwards, too.

As far as Osgood is concerned, I was happy to see him go to New York and St. Louis back in the day because I felt he really was terrible, but since returning to Detroit, I feel he honestly has worked on his game significantly, as the playoffs showed last spring. He is starter material, even if hes not the best goalie in the league. I also believe his stats don't exactly show how well he's played. He's only let in a few bad goals. Conklin has been just fine as well, although he has made some mistakes that have been covered up by lucky bounces or defensive saves.

Another thing to point out is how well both goalies faired in the past 2 shootouts. I was particularly impressed of Osgood and his patients on Brown last night. He followed him the whole way.

I'm not worried. Our defensive game in general should be better, but all in due time.

Edited October 28, 2008 by Lamothe

[The Noodle 39 14]

Way to early in the season for this stuff lol plus yea our D has been shaky. Also remember we have two quality backup goalies. Prob the two best backups in the league so you put them together and add up our Defense and we should be fine!

[PuckFace 1]

Ozzie will be fine, yea he has made a few mistakes here and there but that IS Ozzie. I am inclined to agree that it is more of a D issue as a whole. Way too many times this year players are crashing the net w/out being picked up. I have seen players standing in front of Ozzie w/out a Wings player even looking at him. With that being said I don't really think it's something we will have to worry about as this season progresses. The Wings will fix everything, when everyone starts working together its like we have 5 D-men and 5 O-men out there. To be honest, I was more worried about how Hossa was going to fit in w/ the Wings but he seems to be fitting in to the works fine now.