Quote:
Originally Posted by RomaGoth
Leave it to the Crapalanche to end the Wings' winning streak. The thing that has impressed me the most this year is the play of Jimmy Howard. He is a legitimate starting goalie in the NHL, which is something the Wings have been lacking for several decades (outside of stints from Hasek and Mike Vernon/Curtis Joseph and a good but not great regular season goalie in Chris Osgood).
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Jimmy Howard has been playing great this year. His numbers back it up and he's looked the part. He's maturing and developing. He's been the best player on the team all season along with Lidstrom.
He is part of the reason I never got concerned when the Wings went into that 6 game funk earlier in the season. About half of those losses came during Conklin's meltdown period and when Howard was in net the Wings weren't losing because of bad goaltending or defensive play, but because their offense went dry. You knew the offense would come around eventually, which it did, and the defensive play remained solid.
As for the comment about lacking a "legitimate starting goalie in the NHL"... Yes, goaltending has long been considered the Wings "weak spot", except for the 2002 Hasek year. But I think the reason goaltending was considered the weak spot was because the rest of the team was so good. You had to point to something.
By listing Osgood, Hasek, Vernon and Joseph as exceptions to the rule you pretty much list every starting goalie the Wings have had, outside Legace, over the past 20 years.
Chris Osgood is the winningest goalie in Red Wings history. He was a "legitimate starting goalie in the NHL" for a long, long time. And I'm not sure what you mean by calling Osgood "good but not great regular season goalie". Sure, Osgood may not have been a "great" goalie, but he was a good one and definitely a "legitimate starting goalie in the NHL" for many years. And you can't say that Osgood was only a "regular season" goalie when he won two cups as a starter and his playoff numbers are better than his regular season numbers.