Chris Osgood isn't all that interesting, but what he is doing the second time around in Detroit is extraordinary.

Run down the quote sheet from any game after Chris Osgood skates off the ice in these Stanley Cup Final games and you think you were listening to the spin cycle at the local laundromat.

It just hums along, spinning out nothing more insightful then a little grey water. On occasion there might be a left-over soap bubble or two with some "fizz" to it, but if it is there then just when you think it might have a little "pop" it's gone, spun down the drain in a vortex of meaningless platitudes and clichés all designed to say nothing that would irritate, inflame or, worst of all, agitate the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ask the Detroit Red Wings goalie his thoughts on pushing likely Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hasek to the bench and you'll get a nice little speech about the value of having two experienced goalies and how it doesn't matter who plays as long as the team is winning. Ask if he was bothered when Hasek - who once fell just short of running Curtis Joseph out of the Motor City at the point of a knife and essentially made Osgood expendable when the Red Wings acquired Hasek in a trade with Buffalo- ruined things for him in Detroit the first time around and all he'll tell you is that the Dominator is a great team guy and a real supporter of his and is comfortable and supportive with the decision that put Hasek on the bench and him in the nets.

Ask him if he minds being a physical target of the Penguins or whether or not he's attempting to get under their skin with some flops around the net (apparently there are no restrictions on goalie diving in the brotherhood of the over-padded) and he'll smoothly cite how things get a little hectic in the crowded area around the crease, but that it's all part of the game and you certainly don't want to react or even overreact to things that are outside your control.

Mention Sidney Crosby and he'll tell you he's a good player (thanks for that update, Chris). Ask about the mental impact of losing his first game in the series after posting two consecutive shutouts and he'll tell you, and this is his quote: "Both teams played real well, and somebody has to win and lose every night. We were on the short end last night."

In short, talking with Osgood is like chatting with a zen master under a palm tree on the edge of a meditation garden, not an NHL goaltender playing the last line of defence against a team that ran three clubs out of the playoffs with a relentless attack on net.

It's difficult to understand, especially if you remember the young Chris Osgood, the one who used to openly gripe over every perceived slight; the one who, upon being recognized as a Jennings Trophy winner, chose to verbally flip off his critics at an NHL awards luncheon; the one who accepted a centre-ice challenge from then Colorado Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy and pummeled him to the ice to cap off an all-over-the-ice brawl during the most heated days of the Detroit-Colorado rivalry.

But this is the new Chris Osgood, the one who at 35 is at the top of his game and among the very best in his profession.

In this reincarnation, Osgood competes on the ice and leaves it there. He's the guy who, unlike the often mercurial Hasek, keeps his cool because it helps his teammates keep theirs. He is also perhaps the most underpaid goalie in the NHL in relation to his accomplishments and he doesn't seem to mind.

All of that seems to come from the fact that he's Chris Osgood, the Detroit Red Wings goalie and that's where he started, where he's always wanted to be and where he feels he belongs.

He doesn't talk much and when he does he doesn't say much, but he's always made it clear he believes in Detroit, the team that first drafted him and later reacquired him as a free agent.

But in between those two stints he became a changed man. First off he changed his game; he made it better through stops with the New York Islanders and the St. Louis Blues. Once a flopper and a player who relied largely on his athletic ability (and it was noteworthy), he became more of a disciplined goalie. He adopted the now popular butterfly style and he made it his own.

Osgood is a model of efficiency in the nets these days. He's down on his knees a lot, which the style calls for, but he's almost always in position, square to the shooter and with just the right distance to cut down the angle. He's learned how to use the new equipment and that's allowed him to use his body more to stop and/or control shots. He doesn't sprawl unless he has to and he almost never lunges for a puck unless the situation absolutely calls for such a play.

That's the physical part of the game. Mentally he also seems much stronger. He leaves bad games in the past and bad goals behind him even in the same game. (Something Hasek has never quite mastered.) He's also learned to control the fire within. He plays the game with passion, but it's a controlled passion; intense during the game, but able to release that when it's over and it's time to prepare for the next one.

The maturing of the goalie hasn't gone unnoticed.

This past season he posted his best career numbers in the regular season (2.09 goals-against average) and is doing the same in leading all goalies in the playoffs (1.48 GAA, .935 save percentage). Though he mostly split time with Hasek during the regular season, he stepped in after Hasek lost a pair of games to the Nashville Predators in the first round and hasn't come out of the Detroit net since.

When asked about that he insists that the question, in fact all the questions, shouldn't be about him because it's all about team.

He always says that. He's a different goalie now and he knows it (which explains why he seldom talks and when he does it's barely above a whisper and almost never about him, but he did let some light in on himself in a recent interview with Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press.

"I've taken all the negative things out of my head," he said. "I want to play. I want to play all the time. But I'm not going to be angry if I don't.

"I know I've got to play well. If I don't, there is no reason for Babs (Mike Babcock) not to go back to Dom. Dom's played some great games and he's a great goalie. So I just have to be ready to play every night.

"Ever since I've been back, I never thought of this as being about me."

"I'm kind of over myself," he added. "I just want to win."

A different Chris Osgood indeed.