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Nev

Osgood v Babcock round 2

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Ozzie has to keep his focus on the big picture.

Big picture meaning:

Our future #1 goaltender is extremely hot right now. Coming off a start of this season where many questioned if he could even make it in the NHL. For the past work/resources/money that we've invested in Howie, getting him going in a major way is paramount. Ozzie has been around long enough to (hopefully) realize that he is not the future (2-4 years down the road) and he's much closer to the end of his career than to the beginning. This is a business....a lot of our future team/cap space/drafting depends on Howie being successful. This is a business first and foremost (not to me...but to Mr. Reality and Wings ownership/management).

Point Two: Ozzie will NO DOUBT get his fair chance come last month and a half of the season, AND in the playoff's (knock on wood we make the playoffs). He needs to be focused and prepared for that time of the season when he will be looked to (as he was last year). He'd be foolish to think that the Kenny and Babs don't know who they have...I believe they fully know what Ozzie brings to the table in regards to experience, track record, playoff victories, Stanley Cups. Bottom line: He's needed, and will be looked to.

Point Three-Many a team have rode a hot, unproven goaltender into the playoff's. Columbus last year is a good example (pretty much a fail after that point, but never-the-less they wouldn't have been anywhere close to a playoff spot without Mason). Giggy a while back. The list goes on. We are fighting desperately for a playoff spot, and need to ride the hot hand.

Point Four-Let's face it, if come April we are still struggling for a playoff spot, Ozzie may see very little playing time this regular season. In this case, (unless Howie completley implodes), he'll get very few chances to get his game back in order. This is not a President's trophy team, and we don't have that luxury to stick a guy in there a bunch of times so he can "find" his game.

Ozzie has the "gift of gab" with the media, and I think if he senses this is getting out of control he'll be the professional he always has been and tone it down.

Go Ozzie!!

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I agree with Ozzie. I find it somewhat strange Babcock decided tonight to go with Ozzie against the highest scoring team in the league as well. I don't like the way Babcock has handled the goaltender situation either. I hope Ozzie gets his chance now to string some starts together at least. It would be a pretty low move for Babcock to start Ozzie against the Capitals and go right back to Howard for another stretch.

Ozzie needs some starts. People here are bitching about him and he hasn't even played in a month. How can he prove anything to the people always on his case when he is tracking face-offs on the bench for the past month? Jimmy Howard has been terrific for the Red Wings, but I still believe our playoff goalie (yes I know, they have to get there first) is Chris Osgood when the time comes.

Go Ozzie! Prove the doubters wrong for the millionth time in your career.

You've said it all for me. THANKS. :thumbup: It's almost as if he's trying to find reasons to get rid of Ozzie without even playing him enough. Beyond weird. And it's unfair to Ozzie and could be ultimately unfair to the team.

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You've said it all for me. THANKS. :thumbup: It's almost as if he's trying to find reasons to get rid of Ozzie without even playing him enough. Beyond weird. And it's unfair to Ozzie and could be ultimately unfair to the team.

The only thing unfair to the team is Osgood's inability to keep his frustration over his performance in check.

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Not a lot of love for Ozzie here right now.

I guess the Jimmy Howard bandwagon is quite comfortable nowadays..

I get it.

But it will get bumpier.

Like any goalie, the only thing Ozzie needs is a good team in front of him that will come to play every game. If he gets hung out to dry, then somebody screwed up long before the puck ended up in the net. And if you haden't noticed, this team was playing horrible in october / november and a good portion of december as well.(regardless of who was in net, mind you.)

Ozzie will come through when the Wings need him, he still is one of the top goalies in the NHL. I have no doubt in my mind.

So to all the Ozzie doubters, dont bother chanting "Ozzie" anywhere, including your own house, when he comes up with a big save or backstopping the Wings on another Stanley Cup run.

Don't chant his name or scream how great a goalie you think he is, because obviously you don't.

Jimmy Howard is a great kid and hopefully he will be able to satisfy the ridiculous expectations this city has of its NHL-goaltenders one day.

But if you think you won't need Chris Osgood down the stretch, you might be sorely mistaken..

:deal: :clap:

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When he learns how to stop a puck again, I will have a bit more sympathy for him.

And when the team in front of him starts scoring consistently again, I'll have more confidence in them.

Edited by Vladifan

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You've said it all for me. THANKS. :thumbup: It's almost as if he's trying to find reasons to get rid of Ozzie without even playing him enough. Beyond weird. And it's unfair to Ozzie and could be ultimately unfair to the team.

What if he is trying to protect the ego of a rookie and not worry about the mental state of a vet?

What if Ozzie blanks the Caps, what does that do for him mentally?

All these Babs v Ozzie, and Ozzie v Howard, and Ozzie v the World threads are all predicting gloom and doom before anything has a chance to happen.

Maybe Babs sees this as motivator for Ozzie, he has needed those recently in the regular season. An angry Ozzie goes out and plays out of his mind, do you honestly think Babs doesn't give him another shot.

Follow my logic for a second this may be a long one;

Babs has a rookie in net, one who started the year with not a lot of confidence, he has one of the mentally toughest guys in the game in Ozzie, not just in the net but in the league. Why on earth would he want to throw that away (especially when it is one of the cheapest contracts in net in the NHL)? Why wouldn't Babs (whose job relies on Det winning) want the best and cheapest(coincidence not on purpose) option to mentor his future goalie?

I love how the tinfoil hat crowd finds a way in every Ozzie thread to make the starting of Howard personal!

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You've said it all for me. THANKS. :thumbup: It's almost as if he's trying to find reasons to get rid of Ozzie without even playing him enough. Beyond weird. And it's unfair to Ozzie and could be ultimately unfair to the team.

Oh Puhlease, This is no Babcock conspiracy against Osgood. The reason Osgood is starting is simple. Washington is in the Eastern Conference and not ahead of the wings in the standings.

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And when the team in front of him starts scoring consistently again, I'll have more confidence in them.

Even if this statement wasn't total bulls***, (I seem to remember a recent 50+ shot game when Howard was in net) then you might want to ask yourself why this is so. Maybe a little problem with confidence in said goaltender. My prediction is that Osgood will get lit tonight, and the apologists will do what they best as will the critics.

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I don't think Ozzie is upset that he's the backup. None of his comments seem to indicate he believes that he should be a starter. His complaints all revolve aroudn how long between starts. He, like everyone else, feels that Babcock is playing Howard TOO much, and that it allows one of the goalies to get stagnant.

Ozzie is still a team player, he's not upset with Howard from the sounds of it, or jealous. He probably feels he can't keep sharp without the starts and is concerned about his own chances when he does start. He knows he deserves to be the backup but he also feels he should play more than once a month, which I can understand.

He just shouldn't go to the media with it.

I agree.

And what's more, i really don't think Osgood is sitting there rattling off comments: Remember, there are reporter's in his face asking pointed questions and directing the conversation to hear answers to questions and issues that they think will make juicy stories.

Possible Example:

Reporter: "Chris, you haven't played for over 4wks and suddenly you are playiing against Ovechkin and Washington, do you think it's a coincidence that your first start is against the highest scoring team in the NHL?"

Osgood: "That’s quite a coincidence. Or maybe not,'' Osgood said after the morning skate. "We’ll see how it works out.’’

Reporter: "After all this time off, are you ready to play again or will you be rusty?"

Osgood: "You practice every day, You get ready every day, so let’s play.’’

Reporter: " Are you comfortable with this new system of Howard sitting for a longtime while you play a lot of games in a row, then you sitting for a long time while Howard plays a lot of games in a row, or do yu prefer the way it was in the past years rotating in and out more frequently"

Osgood: "“At the start of the year Howie didn’t play for about a month and then I didn’t play for a month. To me that’s not a good way of doing things, to let one guy get stagnant,'' Osgood said. "You have to have both guys going, especially with the amount of games we have, especially coming back after the Olympic break we have a ton of games in March. So we have to have two guys in case something happens."

You gotta take sports media with a huge grain of salt since most comments (other than from Sean Avery) are question driven. I wouldn't make too much about it.

I thought the reason for starting Ozzie would be obvious: We always hear how he must get bored playing aginst Minnesota, Phoenix, etc after playing in the big games so often. Well, here comes Ovechkin and the Caps so tighten your jockstrap and get up for this game, Ozzie.

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I haven't read all three pages of this post, so maybe what I'm about to say is repetitious, but...

How has the Howard bandwagon grown so quickly and yet so blindly? Have all of these newbie Howard fans actually noticed that he can't stop the puck - that all he can do is position himself to let the puck bounce off him? When he actually has to stop the puck (and hey, let's try that more often than not, since we do have some stellar centers who can actually win a face-off in their own zone!) it's 50-50 at best (and I'm being nice here).

So why is his GAA so high and why does he sit near the top of goalies right now? Let's think about it...before we can answer those questions on stats, let's throw another stat question that has been bandied about out there for consideration "Why do the Wings have so many more shots against them this year?" Well, when all of your D and half or more of your forwards are trying to create a physical wall around a so-so rookie goaltender and scrape pucks out of the crease because he can't actually handle the puck, it leaves the opposition open to...uh, take more shots.

And let's be fair - none of this "talking to the media" hoo-ha would even be mentioned if Babcock hadn't sat Ozzie for so darn long. When this all started, neither goalie looked stellar. And if the goalie rotation had continued, all comments by Ozzie since then would have been taken as simply his dry wit and nothing more.

Bottom line - no matter how "well" he is playing (and I think that's a pretty subjective term), no self-respecting team with any other possible option AND with a shot at the playoffs will run a rookie goalie every night for weeks on end. (Bottom of the league teams, sure - because they have no other viable option. But not Chicago. Not Colorado. Not San Jose. And definitely not the Wings!)

Thanks for letting me vent my spleen. (And for the record, before I fire Babcock, I'd be firing Bedard!)

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And when the team in front of him starts scoring consistently again, I'll have more confidence in them.

The difference is that this team is multiple games over .500. Osgood has won 7 games, and including OT, he has lost 10.

Anything else?

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I haven't read all three pages of this post, so maybe what I'm about to say is repetitious, but...

How has the Howard bandwagon grown so quickly and yet so blindly? Have all of these newbie Howard fans actually noticed that he can't stop the puck - that all he can do is position himself to let the puck bounce off him? When he actually has to stop the puck (and hey, let's try that more often than not, since we do have some stellar centers who can actually win a face-off in their own zone!) it's 50-50 at best (and I'm being nice here).

So why is his GAA so high and why does he sit near the top of goalies right now? Let's think about it...before we can answer those questions on stats, let's throw another stat question that has been bandied about out there for consideration "Why do the Wings have so many more shots against them this year?" Well, when all of your D and half or more of your forwards are trying to create a physical wall around a so-so rookie goaltender and scrape pucks out of the crease because he can't actually handle the puck, it leaves the opposition open to...uh, take more shots.

And let's be fair - none of this "talking to the media" hoo-ha would even be mentioned if Babcock hadn't sat Ozzie for so darn long. When this all started, neither goalie looked stellar. And if the goalie rotation had continued, all comments by Ozzie since then would have been taken as simply his dry wit and nothing more.

Bottom line - no matter how "well" he is playing (and I think that's a pretty subjective term), no self-respecting team with any other possible option AND with a shot at the playoffs will run a rookie goalie every night for weeks on end. (Bottom of the league teams, sure - because they have no other viable option. But not Chicago. Not Colorado. Not San Jose. And definitely not the Wings!)

Thanks for letting me vent my spleen. (And for the record, before I fire Babcock, I'd be firing Bedard!)

MMM coincidence that you just created your account today?

You call Howard a so-so goaltender that right there (hey I bolded it for you if you can't find it) tells me all I need to know about you and this situation!

Don't be so butt hurt, every goaltender is eventually replaced by a newer younger model!

The real bottom line, the team wins more often with Howard in front of them and Mike Babcock thinks the team has a better chance of winning with Howard in net, and so doesn't most of the team (as in the org, Holland etc)!

Edited by Opie

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Being a player should mean being a team player then as well. He shouldn't be bitching about his starts and especially going to the media with his thoughts on the situation.

Sir, if there has been ONE SINGLE PLAYER (beside Steve Yzerman) the last decade who could be named a true Red Wing and a teamplayer it's Chris Osgood.

Everybody knows that.

Don't trash the guy for one single comment which is very likely completely been taken out of context.

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Sir, if there has been ONE SINGLE PLAYER (beside Steve Yzerman) the last decade who could be named a true Red Wing and a teamplayer it's Chris Osgood.

Everybody knows that.

Don't trash the guy for one single comment which is very likely completely been taken out of context.

It very well could have. The fact that Ozzie is upset is obvious though. When we play Howard we have a better chance to win lately and Ozzie should just deal with it.

All I'm saying is that if all he wants to do is play but doesn't care how his play effects the team then he isn't being a team player right now.

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Sir, if there has been ONE SINGLE PLAYER (beside Steve Yzerman) the last decade who could be named a true Red Wing and a teamplayer it's Chris Osgood.

Everybody knows that.

Don't trash the guy for one single comment which is very likely completely been taken out of context.

ummm Lids? Ummm Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Draper, Maltby you know guys who have been a Red Wing for the last Decade not a Wing, Blue, Islander. I mean that seems to make the most sense to me, if you are going to use the decade as a measuring stick shouldn't it be someone who was here for said decade?

Ozzie was gone for 3 of the 10 years you are talking about, see my sig about Yzerman and having the winged wheel on his chest. Say what you want about why Ozzie left/was sent packing/went to NYI, being a Wing means never leaving, if you are talking about the ONE SINGLE PLAYER who exemplifies what it means to be a wing, that means being a wing no matter what. Whether that means sitting the pine (Ozzie) or playing the 4th line (Yzerman).

Epitomizing being a wing is not something a player does on Thursdays only, or only when they are the starter, or the MAN, or whatever else, or for the years they are on the roster.

Example, if Yzerman gets traded to Vancouver, who hear is still saying Yzerman epitomizes what it means to be a wing? Does his number end up in the rafters?

Epitomizing being a wing is sacrificing for the team and saying 0 about it!

Being a Red Wing like Yzerman means you wear one crest, and only one crest!

By the way this is not the first Osgood has said on this "Goaltender Situation", he has made multiple comments about Babs handling of the starting minutes!

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I'm not turning on Osgood. I'm just not happy that he feels it's necessary to create controversy when the goaltending situation so far this season has been practically the only bright spot. Osgood has plenty of time to get in playoff shape down the stretch when the Wing's need a goalie to step up like Howard has lately, there was no reason for him to bring this up to the media other than his own personal ego.

If you're going to say that Osgood's creating controversy, you better put Babcock right there with him. But, if you ask me, I'd say Osgood is merely responding to the controversy that Babcock has created, plain and simple. I'm not saying I think it's great that Osgood is responding in the press, but I don't think he's wrong in what he's saying either, and I think it goes right back to Babcock's mishandling of the goalie situation.

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I love how the tinfoil hat crowd finds a way in every Ozzie thread to make the starting of Howard personal!

:lol:

nice, but I´m bewildered myself. First Howie gets to start a whole month (even back to back against dallas and chi) and now Ozzie will get the start against the hottest offensive powerhouse of the east?

I doubt Ozzie will be good...

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It very well could have. The fact that Ozzie is upset is obvious though. When we play Howard we have a better chance to win lately and Ozzie should just deal with it.

All I'm saying is that if all he wants to do is play but doesn't care how his play effects the team then he isn't being a team player right now.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

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If you're going to say that Osgood's creating controversy, you better put Babcock right there with him. But, if you ask me, I'd say Osgood is merely responding to the controversy that Babcock has created, plain and simple. I'm not saying I think it's great that Osgood is responding in the press, but I don't think he's wrong in what he's saying either, and I think it goes right back to Babcock's mishandling of the goalie situation.

Babs is riding the hot goalie. God forbid he takes winning over Ozzie's feelings. He did not start the controversy to piss of Osgood. He didn't start anything. He decided to go with the goalie he had confidence in and who the team played well in front of.

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