Howard the rest of the way

[Gnredwing 10]

If Detroit wants to make the playoffs I hope Osgood doesnt start another game this year. Howard is in the top 5 in goals against and has been great all year. Having Osgood in goal is like putting 4 goals to the other team before the puck drops.

Howard is the Wings only hope to actually make the playoffs and go anywhere once there in, sorry Ozzy but your done!

[Gordie Howe hat trick 110]

That is exactly what I have been screaming.

[Yak19 303]

What other choice do you have really?

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Ozzie has sucked, but Babcock dropped the ball by sitting him for an entire month.

Now Ozzie is out of rhythm and he sucks

Babcock needs to be held accountable for the whole goaltending fiasco this season. A poor bit of coaching on his part.

[Rice 42]

Ozzie has sucked, but Babcock dropped the ball by sitting him for an entire month.

Now Ozzie is out of rhythm and he sucks

Babcock needs to be held accountable for the whole goaltending fiasco this season. A poor bit of coaching on his part.

Osgood's been "out of rhythm" for two seasons now.

It's not Babcock.

[Gordie Howe hat trick 110]

Osgood's been "out of rhythm" for two seasons now.

It's not Babcock.

Amen.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Osgood's been "out of rhythm" for two seasons now.

It's not Babcock.

Sitting your starting goalie for an entire month and then expecting him to play great all of a sudden is bad coaching.

Yeah, Ozzie has sucked, but Babcock hasn't been much better.

[Gordie Howe hat trick 110]

Sitting your starting goalie for an entire month and then expecting him to play great all of a sudden is bad coaching.

Yeah, Ozzie has sucked, but Babcock hasn't been much better.

Osgood isn't the starter anymore, I know alot of you want him to be but he just doesn't have it anymore end of discussion.

[Rice 42]

Sitting your starting goalie for an entire month and then expecting him to play great all of a sudden is bad coaching.

Yeah, Ozzie has sucked, but Babcock hasn't been much better.

He's not expecting him to play great. He's expecting him to play well enough to win. He hasn't.

Edit: Why keep starting him? He hasn't earned his starts.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Neither goalie can help us right now. We've only won like 2 of our last 7 games or so. Howard played most of those games.

This team just plain SUCKS.

[TheOwl 77]

I don't think it matters. Howard isn't winning us games, Osgood isn't winning us games. The TEAM is playing badly. If you're going to go with Howard for the rest of the season, might as well trade Osgood. Osgood went from the Jennings winner to one of the worst goalies (statistically) in the past two seasons. He isn't going to be any better next season. They can surely get a good goalie in the off-season, throw 2-3 million at a guy, keep Howard as a co-starter.

Either you rotate the goalies, or you trade Osgood. I think it's utterly ridiculous to keep Osgood around just for the play-offs. Osgood won't play well next season, he's proven that. Get rid of him or give him 10-15 games down the next 30 game stretch. If he plays badly, Osgood has dug his own grave to retirement.

If Osgood isn't playing a significant number of games this season, why keep him around at all?

[gcom007 1,465]

Howard gave up 5 goals last night too and Osgood faced far more offensive chances tonight than Howard last night. Not saying anyone should be happy about Osgood tonight as he certainly didn't help us win, but this loss was not on him at all. No goalie is going to win this game for us when the team plays as bad as they did.

[gcom007 1,465]

Even Babcock doesn't seem too down on Osgood, noting that a goalie has no chance on some of those goals.

[rage 24]

Just admit it. We need Kovalchuck.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Is Giguere an option for this team?

[b.shanafan14 733]

I agree. Osgood has no rhythm.

But anyone who thinks its purely "Osgood sucks forever" and has nothing to do with sitting a professional goaltender for the past two months is a bit delusional. Osgood played like s*** tonite, but how great were the other players on the ice? I don't think Osgood is the guy anymore, but that is entirely Babcock's fault. Explaining it away as two terrible seasons when it was one bad season and one aborted season is silly. Look at the starts Osgood has gotten since the end of November, all of them were the second of back-to-backs with a team that hasn't played well, period, tired from the night before. How did Howard do in all of the first nights of the back-to-backs, the real night that HAS to be won? Losses.

Osgood is no longer "the guy", but that is because of Babcock entirely. Who was the last 36yo goaltender to sit a month at a pop and come in and play stellar for a team who can't win with great goaltending, let alone despite it? Anyone?

[Doc Holliday 1,888]

Howard has lost 4 of his last 5 if I'm not mistaken.

How is Detroit better off with Howard in net if they can't win with him in net? Riddle me that please.

[rage 24]

Howard gave up 5 goals last night too and Osgood faced far more offensive chances tonight than Howard last night. Not saying anyone should be happy about Osgood tonight as he certainly didn't help us win, but this loss was not on him at all. No goalie is going to win this game for us when the team plays as bad as they did.

Good point.

For me anyway, if the other team scores 2 goals I get real worried and wonder if we can even get a point.

[rage 24]

Is Giguere an option for this team?

No.

His cap hit is way too large, I think close to what Kovalchuck makes. Plus he is playing for a Western Conference foe.

[gcom007 1,465]

Neither goalie can help us right now. We've only won like 2 of our last 7 games or so. Howard played most of those games.

This team just plain SUCKS.

Yep.

This is kinda what I feared as well. I really liked the way this team was looking for awhile when more guys were injured! We got a system going and seemed to have a more complete team with better lines and pairings than we've had recently. I just think there's a real lack of balance on this team in a lot of ways that isn't helping us at all as we get regulars back that are used to playing a certain way. Remember October when we were healthy and we had ABSOLUTELY NO CHEMISTRY AT ALL!?!?!?!?

That scares me more than missing the playoffs. Still not worried down the stretch about that, but as far as chemistry and gelling goes, I've got some worries. Our 2nd line is worthless and some and our 4th line has no bite at all. Our defense, I don't know. So strong for awhile, looking lost like mofo's latley...

[Doc Holliday 1,888]

Btw I'm not here to say that Howard has been playing bad.

I'm here to say that the defense needs to focus because this is getting ridiculous. The offense needs to be consistent. The coaching needs to COACH.

The goaltending is but a minor blip in this entire big clusterf*** of bad.

[Guest zackmorris]

This whole "he sat for awhile" thing is a f***in bulls*** excuse. Save it. The man has played goalie, according to his smart ass remarks, his whole life. If he can't come off the bench and play well, that's his problem.

When he makes a nice save? It's "ZOMG OZZIE RULES-SEE! WE WERE RIGHT ABOUT HIM!"

When he flops? It's "well he can't play well without playing time!"

Well guess what? The reality of it is, he had his chance earlier, with consistent playing time and sucked then. It comes down to having to make one of these two choices...

1) Try our best to mix in a goalie who hasn't earned a regular season start in two f***in years. While we're doing this, we'll be in 11th place.

2) Play the goalie who is giving us a chance to win every night.

Ozzie apologists need to get their goddamn priorities straight. You're clearly more of a fan of Osgood than the team, or you'd see this glaringly obvious fact in all it's light.

Ozzie blew the game tonight. You can't blame the defense for every single goal and at some point, your starter has to make some game changing saves in moments where it changes momentum-Ozzie does NOT do that, Howard does. I'm not a Howard fan, I'm just a fan of whoever the f*** plays better.

I personally hope we've seen Osgood's last game in Detroit. I can't take his s*** anymore. He's never confident, he's always wobbly and looks like he's flailing his limbs hoping to God the puck hits him. He doesn't try to make the save anymore, he's not good enough. He just tries to flail and f***s up. C'mon, you can't tell me you don't get nervous when he's in there. You do. His idea of making a save, is butterfly super quick, flail either arm in the vague direction the puck went, hope it hits you and get up super qiuck, only to have to butterfly again just as fast. He doesn't react to the shot anymore.

He's 37 years old. One day, he won't flick this magical switch in the playoffs (which sorry, only happened twice and in the big picture, that's a small sample size) and we need to cut him loose before he costs us more games. We can blame our D until we're blue in the face but it's quite the coincidence that our D is somehow always the reason Howard does well and always the reason Osgood doesn't.

We were in this game and too often we judge the whole thing by the end of it, when bad looks worse. We were in this. We almost had it tied. That's the story of Ozzie-we're in games and he just blows it. We weren't good in the end but he wasn't very good minus a couple of saves that looked like, sorry to say, pure flukes anyway.

I supported Ozzie when he didn't get picked for Canada in the beginning of the year. I said he should've gotten MVP last season. I defend him against people who say his career has been overrated. But right now, he's not earned an ounce of sympathy from me.

Edited January 28, 2010 by zackmorris

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

We need to deal Osgood and Ericsson for Marty Turco.

That man loves playing at the JLA.

[gcom007 1,465]

I agree. Osgood has no rhythm.

But anyone who thinks its purely "Osgood sucks forever" and has nothing to do with sitting a professional goaltender for the past two months is a bit delusional. Osgood played like s*** tonite, but how great were the other players on the ice? I don't think Osgood is the guy anymore, but that is entirely Babcock's fault. Explaining it away as two terrible seasons when it was one bad season and one aborted season is silly. Look at the starts Osgood has gotten since the end of November, all of them were the second of back-to-backs with a team that hasn't played well, period, tired from the night before. How did Howard do in all of the first nights of the back-to-backs, the real night that HAS to be won? Losses.

Osgood is no longer "the guy", but that is because of Babcock entirely. Who was the last 36yo goaltender to sit a month at a pop and come in and play stellar for a team who can't win with great goaltending, let alone despite it? Anyone?

I've been saying it since December. Babcock's goalie management is s***ty and it has been for as long as he's been here. I don't know what he's thinking, but he gets it wrong a lot. He's been letting Osgood rot on the bench and giving him a single start here and there. I don't care if Osgood even played great in some of these games, it means nothing if he doesn't get more games so he can actually get a RHYTHM going. He's had absolutely no opportunity to do that since early November.

And Nick Lidstrom: "I don't think we helped Osgood out tonight at all."

[gcom007 1,465]

This whole "he sat for awhile" thing is a f***in bulls*** excuse. Save it. The man has played goalie, according to his smart ass remarks, his whole life. If he can't come off the bench and play well, that's his problem.

When he makes a nice save? It's "ZOMG OZZIE RULES-SEE! WE WERE RIGHT ABOUT HIM!"

When he flops? It's "well he can't play well without playing time!"

Well guess what? The reality of it is, he had his chance earlier, with consistent playing time and sucked then. It comes down to having to make one of these two choices...

1) Try our best to mix in a goalie who hasn't earned a regular season start in two f***in years. While we're doing this, we'll be in 11th place.

2) Play the goalie who is giving us a chance to win every night.

Ozzie apologists need to get their goddamn priorities straight. You're clearly more of a fan of Osgood than the team, or you'd see this glaringly obvious fact in all it's light.

Ozzie blew the game tonight. You can't blame the defense for every single goal and at some point, your starter has to make some game changing saves in moments where it changes momentum-Ozzie does NOT do that, Howard does. I'm not a Howard fan, I'm just a fan of whoever the f*** plays better.

I personally hope we've seen Osgood's last game in Detroit. I can't take his s*** anymore. He's never confident, he's always wobbly and looks like he's flailing his limbs hoping to God the puck hits him. He doesn't try to make the save anymore, he's not good enough. He just tries to flail and f***s up. C'mon, you can't tell me you don't get nervous when he's in there. You do. His idea of making a save, is butterfly super quick, flail either arm in the vague direction the puck went, hope it hits you and get up super qiuck, only to have to butterfly again just as fast. He doesn't react to the shot anymore.

He's 37 years old. One day, he won't flick this magical switch in the playoffs (which sorry, only happened twice and in the big picture, that's a small sample size) and we need to cut him loose before he costs us more games. We can blame our D until we're blue in the face but it's quite the coincidence that our D is somehow always the reason Howard does well and always the reason Osgood doesn't.

Umm, no.

Even Babcock, who has had no problem hanging Osgood up after games this year, didn't have s*** to say about him after this game, noting that a goalie has no chance on some of those goals and the defense and TEAM was terrible, noting that they were getting into a habit of losing as opposed to winning.