Hawks Lose!!

[Dergula]

No thanks. A disgustingly-overpaid injury prone jerk for The Franchise would be a deal that would be bad enough to make me change allegiances.

We could always use more Leaf fans! HAHAHA!

[michiganice91]

umm again those stats mean nothing when you look at the d. detroit d KILLS the pens d.

ok so you've just agreed with me that the pens have worse defense and worse goaltending than the red wings.

Now lets look at the offense. Here are the current stats.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm

The wings score 3.8 goals/game, and the pens score 3.81 goals/game, so we'll call it even.

The pens give up 2.88 goals/game, and the wings give up 2.2 goals/game.

I think its obvious who is going to win the cup. Also detroit leads in just about every statistic past the goals stats.

[michiganice91]

How old are you? Seriously you're comments are slowly siding "with my dad is better than your dad"

The Pens are weaker defensively, but don't be too sucked in my the Wings. They are a great team, a great team who almost got knocked out by the 8th seed. What does that tell you young man? Anything can happen in the playoffs. The Pens learned a lot last playoff season and have played better teams to get where they are now. Blue Jackets & Ducks or Caps and Flyers?

The next series will be better than last year, maybe the same outcome, but the Pens will give the Wings a go of it.

Listening to you makes me hate the Wings more than I already do

I apologize in advance to the members here for jumping in, but it had to be said!

Im old enough to understand the game of hockey as much or more than just about anyone.

You need to understand that postseason seedings mean absolutely NOTHING! Its always much much tougher to play a team that came streaking into the playoffs to make an 8th seed winning 15 games in a row or something close to that. The ducks are an extremely veteran team who had a ton of offensive and defensive power coupled with a HUGE and very hot rookie goaltender. The sharks are perennial playoff stinkers and played their best hockey in the last half if 2008, obviously they werent a true # 1 seed. I am very confident that the Ducks would have won the cup if it werent for detroit. They would have pounded your puney penguins into submission. You also need to understand that the east is just plain weak compared to the west. The west is much more physical and defensively oriented, thats why its tougher to score so much like crosby, malkin, and ovechkin do. You only hate the wings because they keep winning, and I keep hyping them up...if the wings were losing you wouldnt care what I said. You lost hossa, and you still have the same stinky goalie you had last year. The penguins haven't improved and will face the same fate as they did last year. WINGS WIN 09!

Hmmmm Crosby/Malkin or Zetterberg/Datsyuk Ill take my chances with Crosby and Malkin.....The Wings are like the Yankees of Hockey. No one thought the Marlins would be the Mighty Yanks in 03 and they wiped the floor with them (IM a Yanks fan). The Pens are a Year Older and Crosby and Malkin have a year of expierience on their side. You need one good beating in the cup before you can win it and DET gave that to us last year. Its redemption time. You think Osgood is gonna shut out the Pens in the first games again? If you answer yes then your plain crazy

Osgood will have no problem shutting down the penguins. He is playing even better than he was last year. You underestimate ozzy so much, this will be the penguins downfall. You have no Idea how focused a guy like Chris Osgood gets when he plays, he just has the mindset that the puck is never allowed in his net. And as you can see the only goals that get scored on him are the ones that are humanly impossible to stop....except for CNSHockey...maybe he can stop them

And to make the statement that the wings are the yankees of hockey is stupid. Sure Illitch has a lot of money, but you forget that theres a salary cap. What makes the wings great is their management and draft skills. They consistently find the best talent from the later rounds of the draft...who else can do it like the wings do it???

Also how can you explain that when the league was un-capped in the 90's, the New York Rangers were spending waaaaay more than the red wings, and they flat out sucked except for 94, while the wings were always in the playoffs and won a bunch of cups. Money alone cannot win you stanley cups.

[Brodeur_fan666]

Osgood won't shut down the Pens.... I really think the Wings will. Osgood is not the key to their sucess. Gleason , Seidenberg and Corvo are not in the same league than Lidstrom , Rafalski and Kronwall.

Just my 2 cents.

[michiganice91]

Osgood won't shut down the Pens.... I really think the Wings will. Osgood is not the key to their sucess. Gleason , Seidenberg and Corvo are not in the same league than Lidstrom , Rafalski and Kronwall.

Just my 2 cents.

another osgood doubter...ozzy is a lot better than you think. He is a wall back there and has been the best goalie this post season.

[alpinemedic]

Spector tells the story much better than I can.

Written by Lyle Richardson Sunday, 24 May 2009 09:41 The most under-appreciated goaltender currently in the National Hockey League right now is Chris Osgood of the Detroit Red Wings.
Sure, Osgood may be appreciated by his teammates, coaches, general manager and many Red Wings fans, but he’s never going to pop up in conversations or debates over the NHL’s top goaltenders.
It’s hard to believe a goalie currently tied with former teammate Dominik Hasek for tenth overall in career regular season victories for goaltenders with 389, who next season will likely surpass Grant Fuhr and Glenn Hall to take over 8th overall, who has 49 career shutouts, can be so under-appreciated.
It’s mind-boggling to consider a netminder who twice backstopped his team to Stanley Cup titles ten years apart, and was more impressive winning the second one, would go under-rated as a successful playoff goaltender.
It’s incredible to even suggest a goalie whose impressive career playoff statistics to date (69-45, 2.12 goals-against, .914 save percentage, and 14 shutouts) has been dismissed as someone who doesn’t rise to the occasion in the playoffs.
But that’s the curse that’s afflicted Osgood throughout his NHL career. Despite his solid career regular season numbers and even better playoff numbers, “Ozzie” never gets the respect he deserves.
One reason is likely because eleven of his fifteen NHL seasons were spent with the mighty Red Wings, a team so talented they’ve won their four recent Stanley Cups with three different goalies, Osgood among them.
Maybe it’s also because Osgood, apart from sharing the Jennings trophy with Mike Vernon in 1996 and Hasek in 2008, has never won any individual awards like the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP, which Vernon did in 1997, or Vezina Trophies, as Hasek did numerous times in the late 1990s.
Perhaps it’s also because Osgood has spent his career overshadowed by greats like Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur and Hasek, even though Osgood has only one less Stanley Cup ring than Roy, the same number as Brodeur, and two one more than Hasek.
His critics also like to point out he didn’t have as much success once he left the Red Wings. They point to the fact that the Wings management lost confidence in Osgood in 2001, couldn’t find any trade partners for him and ultimately placed him on waivers where he was claimed by the NY Islanders.
Those were years in the wilderness for Osgood, but he still backstopped the Islanders in 2002 to their first playoff berth in eight years. After being dealt to the St. Louis Blues he posted a solid performance in 2003-04, with 31 wins, a 2.24 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and eight shutouts
Still, injuries and his stand-up style of goaltending took its toll, but the Wings, looking for an affordable veteran back-up, brought him back in 2005-06. Injuries still plagued him but nevertheless Osgood persevered and also changed his goaltending style, adopting the now-traditional butterfly style.
That style improved his numbers, and in 2008 playoffs helped him regain the starter’s job from Hasek, carrying the Wings to the Stanley Cup.
Yet this season Osgood’s numbers declined. While his won-loss record was superb (26-9-8) his goals-against average (3.09) and save percentage (.887) were decidedly not, and led to speculation Wings management would shop for goaltending help at this year’s trade deadline.
But GM Ken Holland resisted the temptation to do, sticking with Osgood as his starter and insisting he had full confidence “Ozzie” would step up his game come playoff time.
Holland evidently knew more about Osgood than his critics (of which I was one heading into this year’s playoffs), as he’s been outstanding in this year’s playoffs. In 14 playoff games thus far his record is 10-4, his goals-against is 2.17 and his save percentage sits at .920, considerable improvements over his regular season stats.
Osgood’s career numbers and three Cup championships thus far are worthy for Hockey Hall of Fame consideration but whenever that’s mentioned it’s invariably dismissed by pointing at his lack of individual awards, despite the fact former Boston Bruins great Gerry Cheevers is in the Hall with less one less Cup ring, lesser stats than Osgood, and no individual awards.
For Osgood’s part he insists the criticism about his performance and career numbers doesn’t bother him, saying he’s got the confidence and respect of his teammates which is all that matters.
As a goaltender it’s very important for your teammates to have confidence in your abilities. It’s obvious the Red Wings, from the team owner on down to the “Black Aces” on the roster, believe in Osgood to get the job done.
All Osgood does is win, and gets the job down without theatrics, temper tantrums or being an egomaniac.
Someday, when Osgood’s career is over, he’ll likely get the respect he deserves from the hockey world. It’s too bad that he probably won’t get that while he’s still playing, but at least he has the respect and appreciation of the denizens of “Hockeytown”.
Maybe in the end, that’s all that matters.

[13paveldatsyuk13]

How many times must people learn stats are just stats, this isn't fantasy hockey although some fans do live in a fantasy world. The wings are way better than pittsburgh on the ice leadership experience defense offense goaltending coaching etc... Pitt has 2 very good players and thats it period shut them down (not hard to do with world class defensemen), and throw 40+ shots a game on fleury and its over before it started.

[Brodeur_fan666]

I'm not a Osgood doubter. He is average in regular season and a good goalie in the playoffs. I'm just saying he do not have to be UNBELIEVABLE every nights to make the Wings win : he just needs to be at his best and that's enough for that powerful machine to win .

[whiteevo]

How old are you? Seriously you're comments are slowly siding "with my dad is better than your dad"

i asked the same thing. he said he's almost 18.....now i take his posts with a grain of salt and get a laugh. like those thread titles trying to lead on people. i remember when i played AAA, was a teen, thought i was a God of hockey.

what i learned in the following 10+ years is modesty, which is something someone needs a dose of.

[michiganice91]

i asked the same thing. he said he's almost 18.....now i take his posts with a grain of salt and get a laugh. like those thread titles trying to lead on people. i remember when i played AAA, was a teen, thought i was a God of hockey.

what i learned in the following 10+ years is modesty, which is something someone needs a dose of.

lol you'd make a lot more fun of me if I were some 40 year old dude.

It really doesnt matter how old I am...because I have PLENTY of hockey experience, and have been around every part of the game, and know just as much as anyone here. If you dont believe me, feel free to ask.