Don't Blame Howard, Not Yet

By Adam W Parks

Sunday, April 18, 2010
Round 1, Game 3
Coyotes 4 @ Red Wings 2

I've been reading the comments and listening to the mutters. "It's time to put Chris Osgood in."

Starting goalie for the Red Wings truly is the toughest job in Detroit. The guy mopping the floors at Popeye's Chicken on Woodward Ave wouldn't trade positions--at least he doesn't get blamed when someone else burns the biscuits.

What is the reasoning behind the lack of faith for goalies in Hockeytown? What is with the love/hate schizophrenic relationship we fans have with that position? Why does the spotlight of negativity shine brightest on the dude in net over all the 12 forwards and six defensemen in front? How about complaining about how the Wings were unable to take advantage of a team that had lost its best player and captain for the last half of the game? The half of the game that Detroit played its worst!

In Game 1 Howard kept the score within reach by making 19 saves in the third period but the rest of the team got out-worked and out-played. In Game 2 he out-dueled Ilya Bryzgalov in an absolute shooting spree. In Game 3 his team played flat the entire game, got out-shot (14-9) in the third period for the second time when trailing in the game, and at times left him completely vulnerable.

Okay, so Howard's @#$% was weak on that fourth goal, but that was the first goal of the series that I put on his head. Here is a breakdown of the Wings' breakdowns on Phoenix's first three goals.

Goal #1 went to Sami Lepisto who scored just 30 seconds into the game. Nicklas Lidstrom and Johan Franzen played hot potato with the puck in the neutral zone and the Coyotes, as always, pressured the puck and forced it deep into the zone. Petr Prucha got a couple of shots on goal and put the puck in front from behind the net. Martin Hanzal should have scored directly in front, but Pavel Datsyuk made a great play to get the puck out of the crease. The puck squirted out and Lepisto hustled and beat out two Wings to it and found the open net. When the play collapses down low around the goalie and sticks and skates are flashing everywhere, guys have to come to the aid of their goaltender and sniff out and clear those pucks. Howard was left scrambling around the crease because his team was too busy watching the play.

Goal #2 was a rebound put in by Wijtek Wolski, who won a battle for the puck in the neutral zone (again) and moved the puck into the Wings' zone. Matthew Lombardi picked up the puck and got a bad angle shot on Howard, but Howard gave up a bad angle rebound. In these situations the trailing defenders must pick up and neutralize those crashing in on the net. The culprit in this play was Justin Abdelkader as Wolski followed his forward momentum in towards the rebound. Abby was late picking him up and Phoenix got another goal on another open look at the net. Howard directed the shot into play on his left, but he had plenty of teammates around in front of him that could have/should have nullified the rebounded puck.

Goal #3 was Sportscenter's #1 Top Play this morning. Can you really fault a goalie when an NHL goal beats out all other plays from all other games in all other sports on a Sunday? Prucha dropped the puck off the boards to Radim Vrbata who made a quick pass back to put Prucha into a position to skate by Lidstrom and get horizontal with speed in front of Howard. This is a situation where, as a defender, you never want to leave your goalie in. Moving side-to-side following a pass is difficult enough, but to track a player at full speed moving across the top of the crease might be the toughest play for a goalie to defend against. The shooter has an array of options from slipping the puck through the five-hole to elevating an easy wristshot over the goalie's glove/stick when he's down low to take away the ice surface. Prucha had Howard frozen on the near post and with that speed he easily moved got in front and was able to slide it in on the far side.

Even on goal #4, the Wings made a bad turnover in the Coyotes' zone and Jonathan Ericsson and Lidstrom were caught in a change. Phoenix brought the puck up so fast that Lidstrom did not have a chance to get set in his position and left the shooter with an open look. Howard has to stop that shot, and he has stopped those shots all series, but that one bad goal happened to be the the nail in the Game 3 coffin and was the one most remembered immediately after the game.

Notice how I mentioned Lidstrom's name in three of those four goals. Nick is the man, my Wing, has been since I first saw him skate. Barry Melrose said that the Coyotes made him look "average" in Game 3, and he was. He was also slow. He also had a minus-three rating. Yet the game hangs on Howard's head in the eyes of many fans. Nobody would dare say "Bench Lidstrom!" and this writer is nowhere near those words. But I will stand up for Howard and say that Lidstrom played a bad game, and when your best defenseman played like Nick did yesterday, your goalie is going to look like the jerk.

So, to those who are calling "Ozzy! Ozzy!", I now give you three reasons why the Wings must stick with Howard (even though he doesn't deserve to be benched anyway).

1. Chris Osgood is as cold as a Foreigner concert is cool.

In 2008 when Chris Osgood replaced Dominik Hasek in the first round of the playoffs, Ozzy started the same amount of games (40) and appeared in two more than the Dominator in the regular season. He had a better goals-against average and save percentage too. Hasek was on a short leash and Mike Babcock yanked him quickly. Howard took over the starting job in Detroit because he lead Osgood in every single statistical category. In 2010 Ozzy has only appeared in five games and was defeated all of his three starts, averaging four goals allowed per game in those losses. Detroit's problem is not Howard, and Osgood is not Detroit's answer. Not this season anyway.

2. Bryzgalov is better than Howard. The Coyotes have played better than the Wings

I'm not going to show a bunch of statistics for this point, I already did that before the series started. Both goalies had surprisingly great regular seasons. Howard is deserving of the Calder Trophy and maybe is in the discussion for the Vezina. Bryzgalov is deserving of the Vezina and is surely discussed for the Hart Trophy. Bryzgalov has more playoff experience and a Stanley Cup ring. Neither goalie has played exceptional so far in this series. The real difference so far between these two in the series is Bryz's team has played cleaner and tighter than Howard's.

3. History says, "Wings lost two games? No big deal!".

What does this series have in common with Detroit's opening rounds in the Stanley Cup seasons of 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008? Each of those teams lost two games in the first round. In '97 the Wings were tied 2-2 with St. Louis before winning in six. In 1998 they went down 2-1 to...guess who...Phoenix, and won the series in six. The Hall of Fame team went down 0-2 in '02 to Vancouver before ripping up four straight against the Canucks to win in six. Nashville snagged two of the first three games against the Wings in 2008 before the Wings three in a row to wrap up that series in six. Four first rounds all pushed to six-games all resulting in Stanley Cup Championships.

Sit tight everybody. The Wings aren't done, and neither is Jimmy.

Peace.