The morning after the fight before, Chris Osgood was as defiant as he was definitive.
He is hockey’s Indian rubber lightning rod, so used to the criticism that he can wrap it in stats and send it flying back at you twice as fast.
Sure, Osgood stunk in Calgary Monday night, letting in three softies before getting the hook. But if you want to say that makes him suspect for the playoffs, you’d better check your numbers, pal.
"Last year I had a 1.55 (GAA) and a .930 saves percentage in the playoffs. That’s not a fluke. There is a reason why that happens," the beleaguered Detroit goaltender said Tuesday morning in Edmonton, where he was — by some seven or eight minutes — the last Red Wing off the ice after an optional morning skate.
Osgood speaks softly, without malice or impatience. He is not hurt by the topic.
He has learned to deal with the question — "Do the Red Wings have good enough goaltending?" — because in Osgood’s mind, his game is easily defended. No matter what you may think it looks like at times.
"People who judge, who assume they know what’s going on, they don’t know. I know," he said. "I’ve played long enough. I know how I’m playing, how I feel. I know what I’m doing behind the scenes to be ready to play, what I’m working on when there’s no one else left in the building.
"Every time people question me, I seem to answer it. I’ll answer it for them when I’m done."
He is 36 years old and has two years left on his contract. Let’s give Osgood 50 more wins over that span, and take a look at where he’ll be, as he says, "When I’m done."
He would have 437 career wins, tying him for sixth all-time with another guy who won a few easy games behind a pretty good team — Jacques Plante.
Osgood’s career GAA will be under 3.00 and his save percentage will likely be better than .900, and right now this shaky playoff goaltender would point you to the NHL’s Guide and Record Book, where it lists his lifetime playoff numbers as 2.13 with a .913 save percentage.
Those numbers do not lie, regardless of how long hockey writers have lined up at Chris Osgood’s stall to ask him if he is going to cost his Red Wings another championship.
"April 15th — I’ll be ready to play. That’s my time of year. I live for that time of year," he said. "Pittsburgh won (17) games in a row at home last year? I was in the nets when we won 2-1 in there (in Game 4 of the Final). I know how to win."
The doubts though, do not reside only with fans and media.
Osgood’s GM Ken Holland took a hearty run at Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom earlier this month, before Wild GM Doug Risebrough signed Backstrom to a long-term deal prior to the trade deadline.
So Holland will be dancing with the girl who brung him, and Holland says he’s fine with that.
Dude, what else is he going to say?
"I’ve never had any questions about our goaltending," Holland said Tuesday.
Even when you went to war in ’06 with Manny Legace, he was asked?
"Well," he said, allowing that correction to go unchallenged, "I would say to you, managers on the other teams have the same concerns. It might not be about their goaltenders. It might be, ‘Can we score enough?’ We’ve all got concerns.
"At the end of the day we don’t have one of the five best goalies. But other than Martin Brodeur, how many (in that group) have won Stanley Cups?"
Hell of a point.
The Wings rode Osgood to two Cups a decade apart — in ’98 and ’08.
Has Roberto Luongo won a Cup? Miikka Kiprusoff? Tim Thomas? Steve Mason? Evgeni Nabokov?
Here’s a stat to chew on: heading into play Tuesday night: among goalies in the Top 10 in either GAA or save percentage this NHL season, only one has been a No. 1 goaltender on a Stanley Cup winner.
Answer: Nikolai Khabibulin.
"If we play good team hockey, our goaltending is fine," Holland said. "If we spring a leak, giving up scoring chances left, right and centre? You can put anyone in our net. We’re not going to be good enough."
The constant, nagging factor is that when Detroit does lose in the postseason, it is always considered an upset. They will have the best group of skaters in any series they play, so the inevitable conclusion is that, when Detroit loses, it is because of goaltending.
Look at this year’s potential playoff match-ups: Osgood vs. Luongo; Osgood vs. Kiprusoff; Osgood vs. Nabokov; Osgood vs. Khabibulin; Osgood vs. Mason; Osgood vs. Pekka Rinne; Osgood vs. Dwayne Roloson.
How many of those would you favour Detroit in? Two? Maybe one?
"I want to watch the playoffs before I make any decisions," said Holland, when asked the inevitable question about where this all goes.
"You want me to have a plan today? I have 12 plans. Let me just watch the playoffs. Watch hockey and make a decision."
Or, let the decision be made for him.
