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!)
