52 replies to this topic

[InKennyWeTrust]

Statistics blah blah blah...

I'm totally buying this dude's jersey after these playoffs. The playoffs, coupled with the and the f*** you, Crosby event have made me fall in complete heterosexual love with this man.

[Opie]

So...this isn't a ha ha ha you were wrong thread? This quote by the OP disagrees with you kind sir.

NO it is indeed a Ha ha you were wrong thread.

I guess my point was, he was looking for a you were right from people, and the only people he could get that from is the lunatic fringe, as opposed to people who stated rebound control was going to kill him and in turn the team or something of the like.

I think even the OP would have to admit no one, and I mean no one, saw this kind of improvement in rebound control coming. I am huge Howie fan, pulling for the Black Bear (future one too), but this is by far his best hockey of his young career, and I didn't see it coming. The guy has been awesome, a few questionable goals here or there, but that is going to happen to all goalies.

[pavelpasha13]

i knew he jsut had to get off those rookie year shakes, but not hes had time in the bigs. Hes ready to go and always ready to go. I havent doubted him all playoffs.

[evilzyme]

He's there to prove the world wrong, i'm agreeing in complete with Ken and Mikey when they said last year was probably the best thing for him. Even though he lost, he gained so much from last years playoffs. He looks cool, calm, and collective in net this post series, and that quote from round 1 still has me in goosebumps.

[matt198913]

Lets be honest he's been playing out of his mind in this series. Is he the future goalie of this franchise? Obviously

[Hockeytown0001]

Another great performance, Howie.

[Konnan511]

My leading candidate for Conn Smythe!

Lidstrom or Datsyuk would run away with it at this point

[Wing Across The Pond]

Whilst Niemi makes big, good saves, he's too much flash and not enough stability. That was kind of what Howard was like last year, but now has the experience to be a strong goaltender. Glad to have him.

[Theophany]

Howard has been huge, but it was completely justified to doubt him going into the playoffs. He had a pretty rough regular season.

[SouthernWingsFan]

If the Wings can do the unthinkable this series and then win it all this year, I think you got to give it to Datsyuk for overall performance up to this point. And you can easily make a case this series that without Datsyuk, they don't advance or at least make it back to game 7 for right now. But, this series MVP is Howard for me.

Edited by SouthernWingsFan, 11 May 2011 - 10:42 AM.

[Nev]

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]

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]

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 by eva unit zero, 11 May 2011 - 12:54 PM.