Loss Candy: Chris Osgood earns 399.93rd career win
FINAL SCORE (Hi Dad!)
4-3, Stars in Overtime. Of course it was.
OBSERVATIONS OF A FORMER HOCKEY PLAYER
The only reason I was excited to see that Chris Osgood was starting today was so that we could — FINALLY — move on with our lives as he gets his two years-overdue 400th win. And in true Chris Osgood fashion, there the man was to snatch defeat from the jaws of certain victory.
Yeah, I know two of those goals were deflected, and the winner came on a three-on-two rush, but very few things deflate a team like dropping a two-goal lead with goals from a combined six and a half miles away. Brian Rafalski, what — with his atrocious game, is going to get blamed 100% more than Chris Osgood will. You know… status quo. No one’s allowed to be frustrated with Osgood’s stellar record “improving” to 10-11-6 the last two seasons. With four minutes left in the game and 20,000 fans chanting his name, we watched as he gave up a tying goal and the rest of the team shat the bed in overtime.
I’m going to get lit up and be called names for not supporting this particularly Red Wing, but I’m just sick and tired of knowing the outcome before the puck is dropped. He’s played relatively well all season. He didn’t play POORLY tonight, but he allowed the Stars to creep back into the game at inopportune times — times at which an actual Hall of Fame goalie would take over and find a way to make saves — even the kind you don’t expect them to make. I’m prepared for your barbs — in fact, I probably deserve them — but I’m absolutely done with talking about this milestone that will apparently NEVER come.
There’s going to be a lot of “the players could have played better — especially after sticking their neck out for Osgood” chatter, and it’s 100% correct. I agree with it, because the team didn’t win for Ozzie tonight. But on the other side of that coin is “Osgood could have willed this win after his teammates stuck their neck out for him.” And he didn’t. He made some big saves. But he didn’t make the ones he needed for a W. The end.
Chances are good I’m overreacting because I’m angry. I had a handful of other game notes, but I’m in no mood. On to the candy.
LOSS CANDY: TRON EDITION (as suggested by @crperreau)
Ok. I will give you two of those goals. And guess what people, sometimes the D has to pinch to score goals, so I’m not going to go all apeshit on Raffi on this game, fucking rotate over wingers…der. Now, my older sister finally called so I missed Franzen’s goal, but I haven’t been too impressed with his play this week. It’s like he’s just waiting around to score some Crosby like goals. Not cool dude. Come on Mule, I’ve been considering making you my next jersey. That’s like getting a no strings attached, once in a lifetime handjob from a super model since my last Wings jersey is a Fedorov jersey. (Any Fedorov haters out there want to go toe to toe with me better be prepared to visit a whole new level of pain). And please, for the love of Crom, (or whatever deity you worship), Helm, could you please learn how to finish. I have mad bro love for you. I would like to carry you around with me wherever I go in a designer satchel like a Paris Hilton novelty pet, but you’ve gots to put the biscuit in the basket. I don’t want to see any more loss candy until mid January. Seriously, I’ve got bookmarks galore to console me when I’m in a post loss doldrum. I want to be buried in mountainous heaps of Curly Fries. I want it to be the toughest decision of my life as to who’s number to text in as the player of the game. I don’t want a string of one goal nail biters. I want to see you drop the hammer. I want to see some 5 goal differential curb stomps. I want you all to hear the Mortal Kombat announcer in your head when the third period starts….”FINISH HIM”. And this is the only thing I want for Christmas this year.
Giving up 15 goals in 4 games is simply unacceptable. I think we need to lay the blame on the defense at some point. Raf’s bad turnover, the defense moving up and getting caught on a 3-1 break in OT. We need to put teams away early like macrostie said, we can’t let teams like Dallas hang around because it will bite you in the ass.
I expect the Wings to win every game. I know that is not logical or possible and it would make for a dull season but that is the way I feel. As for Osgood, he was not bad last night but he needed to be better. There are a lot of hot shot goal tenders out there now that can keep their teams in the game but alas Osgood is no longer one of them. I also agree with MacRostie that Helm needs to take some lessons from Pavel as to putting the puck in the net and there is a general lack of goal scoring from most of the forwards. Dallas has the Red Wings number this season for sure but the Wings I have seen the last few games are not a cup contender.
Since seeing tron this weekend I’ve been faced with a very difficult decision. Do I replace Scarlett Johansson, on my list of the famous person I get to nail if the opportunity ever arrises with no consequences, with Olivia Wilde. Olivia pretty much wins, except for the fact that Scarlett is married to Ryan Reynolds, who is my girlfriend’s famous person she get to ride till the cows come home if the opportunity ever arrises with no consequences. So that makes for a nice little fourgy possible in this imaginary scenario. Hmm.. Decisions decisions.
Scarlett is back on the market son
I have a problem with both sides of the Osgood camp on this game.
Pro Osgood:
Do you really think that Osgood was that great in this game? That 5 hole goal from Morrow and the OT goal should have been saved. Where else was Morrow gonna go? He was too close to elevate the puck so take away the bottom of the net and close the 5 hole you’ve had open for your whole career. On the 3 on 1 please take the shot the whole way. At least put us in a position where we think you had no chance rather than letting the guy who was your responsibility simply put it home.
Con Osgood:
So covering guys in front of the net isn’t a big deal right? Morrow was posted up there all night and had multiple chances. The fact that he didn’t score before then was quite fortunate. The rest of the Wings were terrible with the puck all night. You’d think given our current streak we’d focus on our defensive assignments and not turning the puck over, but apparently we wanted to see how turnovers and odd man rushes would turn out. Osgood made his fair share of big saves through out the game, Osgood kept the Wings in the despite some significant lapses and stretches of poor play.
Really my whole problem with the argument boils down to this, Osgood is a known quantity at this point. Did either side get anything other than what they were expecting last night? The Pro crowd got some big saves and goals on poor plays by the rest of the Wings, the con crowd got a questionable goal or two. To me that’s exactly what you get with Osgood, some good and some bad. When Osgood is in net I’m 99% sure what I’m gonna get out of him and so are the rest of the Wings. So I watch the team because pro or con Osgood the team knows what to expect and what they’ll have to do to win.