What do you do with a struggling goaltender?

[shoe 165]

Its no secret Osgood is having trouble this year so what do you do with him or any other goal tender struggling?

Play him more till he works his way out of his funk?

Play him less let him work out his problems on the bench?

Benching the guy could wreck his confidence but leaving him in to let in more and more goals in could also do damage?

What would you do?

[TheOwl 77]

Send him down to the minors, get Howard up here to back up Conklin. It won't be nice, it might not go well, but something must be done.

[Guest Shoreline]

Matt is a webmaster right? Put him in.

[12Newf 0]

******* shoot him.

[maltbymaniac 13]

take him out back and put him out his misery.

[Booster313 138]

I just don't get it. I remember Osgood being hot and cold during his first tenure with the Wings. I am not one to be negative about a team member. I have always supported Osgood, he is stellar at times and terrible others. Since coming back to the Wings I thought he had played consistantly well and last year when Dom faltered he was down right awesome. But his play this year makes me feel like he is the same old Osgood. Capable of greatness but never sustained. For what it's worth I hope I'm wrong. If he doesn't turn this season around he'll never be remembered as one of the greats like he wants to be and probably deserves to be.

[Jocu 0]

[Never_Retire_Steve 35]

It's tough to say because Conklin hasn't been much better and we don't have a viable trade option so it's a really sticky situation. The best thing is that it is December.... so it's not a huge worry yet.

[Guest Shoreline]

take him out back and put him out his misery.

Take away his Bigguns'.

[Wingfan191 2]

You trade his ass with Stuart to Florida for Vokoun, bring up Ericsson.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Trade him for an enforcer.

[digitaljohn88 4]

Play JUST ONE ******* GAME without hanging him out to dry on a horrible turnover/defensive lapse/breakdown in the first ten minutes?

I don't see how he can build anything when we start every game like that.

I hope we do better against SJ.

Edited December 16, 2008 by digitaljohn88

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Pray the defense decides to play before April.

[miller76 463]

Not exactly a good night to start this thread. lol.

Of course everyone is pissed off tonight about the game. Especially being he pretty much sucked tonight, along with some of the guys in front of him. I honestly hope the braintrust of this organization can come up with some type of plan to get him back to the goaltender he was. s*** always works itself out, and will eventually change for the better. Fortunately, nights like this where there are no points scored are few, even though the team is not performing to their potential.

[dats13owns 157]

Play JUST ONE ******* GAME without hanging him out to dry on a horrible turnover/defensive lapse/breakdown in the first ten minutes?

I don't see how he can build anything when we start every game like that.

I hope we do better against SJ.

So, if every defensive breakdown is supposed to result in a goal, what is the point of even having a goalie?

I could see if he were getting shelled every game, but this unacceptable. The Wings are constantly playing in a deficit from the first 2 - 3 minutes a game, making them play the other teams game. Hell, they might as well have just kept Manny Legace, this is the same s*** as 2005-06.

He's always been as good as defence is, when his defence struggles, he sucks. Hence he didn't do so hot in other uniforms.

[Jocu 0]

Play JUST ONE ******* GAME without hanging him out to dry on a horrible turnover/defensive lapse/breakdown in the first ten minutes?

I don't see how he can build anything when we start every game like that.

I hope we do better against SJ.

I'm with John:

CUT OSGOOD!

[HOCKEY MATTERS 167]

yep, defense is the problem. picture this....you go into work everyday and for 3 weeks the people responsible for getting the report on your desk fail. epic fail. you need the report to counter the competitions advance in your industry. epic fail for you. unemployed cuz your support team blows. yeah, folks are grumbling about how everyone is lazy and they suck, but you are out the door cuz they scored. not saying for a minute that it's NOT still up to ozzie to stop the puck, but how demoralizing to have yor support crew stand around with thier heads up thier ass, acting like pylons.

that said....i hope they get it together before flying out west.

edit: left a pretty important word out the first time

Edited December 16, 2008 by HOCKEY MATTERS

[WingsZR2 1]

The best thing is that it is December.... so it's not a huge worry yet.

The same thing was said at the end of October and November.

Edited December 16, 2008 by WingsZR2

[YoungGuns1340 1]

You play some good defense to give him some confidence.

Osgood goes into every game bearing the brunt of giving up 3 goals a game even before hes given up 3 goals. I played goalie for 2 sports competitively (neither hockey, but the mentality is similar), and it doesnt matter whos responsible for the goal OR the loss, you still feel like its you. Thats Osgood right now. Great skills, no confidence. Same thing happens with forwards - the puck stops goin in for him, and he starts to look worse and worse. The only reason we're picking on Osgood is because he basically the only one at his position.

[Grim 5]

just boo Ozzie at home. the slappies will no doubt love that...

[edicius 3,269]

He's always been as good as defence is, when his defence struggles, he sucks. Hence he didn't do so hot in other uniforms.

Except that he did just fine with the Isles and the Blues. Carried those teams on his back, in fact. If I remember correctly, wasn't Ozzie the goaltender that carried the Isles to their first playoff berth in over a decade?

[Red Crazy 201]

Ozzie has been struggling all year and tonight it looks like it is only getting worse. We can't blame ozzie for all the problems but he needs to get his s*** together. I say they play Conks for 10 games and see what happens. Conks has not been hot either but he looks like his confidence is in tact not like Ozzie's

[rage 24]

HASEK!!!

I kid, I kid!

Edited December 16, 2008 by rage

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Except that he did just fine with the Isles and the Blues. Carried those teams on his back, in fact. If I remember correctly, wasn't Ozzie the goaltender that carried the Isles to their first playoff berth in over a decade?

And as osgood's #1 fan has mentioned many times over on this board, he was also nominated the Isles MVP one year by the Isles org.

[TheOwl 77]

You can blame the defense for a few goals, but hell, you think Anderson or Thomas or Luongo have great defense behind them? Sure the D isn't as good as last year (for some unexplainable reason) but maybe the great D before was just covering for the Osgood? Now that the Defense can't bail him out, we see the true goalie he's become. It's not going to get better. It's just November has turned into it's just December, what's next? It's just March? It's just April?

Detroit has the worst goalie in the league, by far. He hasn't bailed us out once. It's time for a real #1 goalie. Either stick with Conklin for a month or two, or make a trade. We have tons of players we could easily trade to get a 2-3 million dollar goalie.

Versus brought up a very telling visual of shots blocked. The Av's blocked everything in the middle zone. As far as I can tell, Detroit rarely blocks anything. And when they do block a shot, it's usually by accident.