Howard......

[Nev 1,085]

Where are al the "fans" that didn't think he could give us a chance in the playoffs??

If not for him, we are swept or at best, definitely done at 5 games. If not for him, we are down by 5 or 6 tonight!!

Jimmy has DEFINITELY proven he belongs as a starter for the next few years!!

If not for deflected goals, we may be UP 3-1 in the series right now!!

And what did he show us during the regular season that would make anyone think he would play like this in the playoffs? He was average at best and poor for long stretches.

But credit where its due, he's been superb, keeping us in games we didn't deserve to be in, and no wings goalie has ever really had to do that during our playoff years.

[HankthaTank 1,100]

Lidstrom or Datsyuk would run away with it at this point

False. We all know how goalies are viewed with this award and right now I think he leads the way. He isn't running away with it either but is at the top of the list I'd say.

[eva unit zero 271]

Jimmy's been huge. I haven't been very negative with him, but have continued to hold the opinion he's very streaky.

We definitely need someone (not Osgood) to compete for 1st spot who can keep him fighting through next season though.

Largely because Babcock won't realistically consider Osgood a challenger for the starting job unless he's outplaying Howard the way Datsyuk outplays Patrice Tardif. Osgood was better to start the season and was still benched. He was playing great behind terrible defense last season and got the flu, and only played a few games afterwards. Joey MacDonald would get a better shot at the job, just for not being Osgood.

Those same people, are also the ones that seem to think that we could trade Helm for Ovechkin, because they don't have a realistic grasp of hockey. They look at it from a band-wagoneer stance, where all they see is their teams strengths and flaws (And mostly their flaws). They never bothered noticing there are 30 other teams, each doing their absolute best to create a Cup winning team.

Simple fact is, Howard has been better in goal for us this year, than just about anyone we've had in a goal in a while. Given that in most of the periods of most of the games he has played, Detroit has simply been outplayed (Last night even, outshot like 40-20), he has probably done better than any playoff goalie we've had in my lifetime.

When Osgood lost, it would be like, we'd outshoot oponents 40-25, and the opponents goalie was always just clearly better than ours (No disrespect to Osgood, I'm just saying). If you're a huge Ozzie fan and are offended, then replace "Osgood" with "Joseph". Anyone who has been watching for a while can remember a ton of games where we clearly out-shot the crap out of the opponent (Calgary. Anaheim), and still lost the game because they snuck a few garbage goals in.

Howard has more than risen to this occassion. And considering he is now 2-0 this year when facing elimination.

We'd be retarded to not sign him as a starter for next year.

If we had Tim Thomas, people would still complain.

Howard is signed for next season.

As for Osgood losing, people would get upset that he gave up a deflected goal or a 3-on-1 goal and say "Well, it's Osgood. Another softie." because he had a couple of bad moments early in his career and Wings fans don't forget. Like Claude Lemieux. How many Wings fans will forever hate Claude Lemieux for that hit? He eventually owned up and fought McCarty. Yet those same fans are the "Moore didn't fight like a man, he deserved it" when talking about Bertuzzi, to justify why it's okay to have him on the team. Yet how often did Osgood really ever lose? Fourteen seasons with the Wings. 317 wins. 175 losses in regulation or overtime. 10 losses in shootout. 46 ties. If you count the shootouts as losses, that's a .620 winning percentage. If you count them as ties, it's a .630 winning percentage.

Of goalies with 200 games played or more, Osgood is 6th all-time in winning percentage (.539) as calculated by wins as a percentage of games played. Only Martin Brodeur is better in that department (.552), although Ryan Miller (.554) is just below the games played threshold and should pass it next season. Of note? Only 28 goalies have played 200+ NHL games and been credited with a win in more than half of them. Really makes you think about a 400 game winner, doesn't it.

All of that rambling aside, Howard has been very good in the playoffs aside from a few bad rebounds or mental errors. I think his form on the Boyle goals in games 3 and 4 were issues, and I hope that doesn't become a problem in game 7. But the defense seems to have that covered, so I'm not worried.

Edited May 11, 2011 by eva unit zero