However, the big story of the night was Chris Osgood finally getting his 400th career win after being on the losing end of his two previous starts.
Things didn’t look good for Ozzie early on as the Avalanche were running on all cylinders and were able to get a soft one past Osgood seven minutes into the game making it 1-0.
Like many times in his career though Osgood persevered and became the best player on the ice for his team. Osgood tied a career high with 46 saves helping lift his team to the 4-3 victory and making him the 10th goalie in NHL history to reach 400 wins.
Other Wings goal scorers included Jiri Hudler who scored his second goal of the season (his first also came against Avalanche goaltender Peter Budaj) and his first in 31 games. Johan Franzen then tied it up at 2-2 after a T.J. Galiardi goal then Lidstrom broke a 2-2 tie later in the third.
Despite the exciting win all eyes were on Ozzie who now joins a group that contain the likes of Patrick Roy, Grant Fuhr, Martin Brodeur and Terry Sawchuk. With that said though it still seems like Osgood doesn’t get the respect he deserves, especially in Detroit. The unfortunate thing for Osgood is he played his prime years during a time when goaltenders were all the rave in the NHL. Osgood didn’t get the hype that a Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominick Hasek or even Curtis Joseph got and often time was seen as a benefactor of the team in front of him.
Now there is no question that Osgood played with some great teams in the past. However you never hear of critics taking anything away from Grant Fuhr who played so many years behind Jari Kurri, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey. Or what about Brodeur playing behind Rafalski and Scott Stevens for so many years and Roy playing behind Adam Foote, Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic. Just about every single goalie with 400 wins at one point or another had good to great teams in front of them.
A lot of Wings fans need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Yes Osgood was part of some great teams but that fact alone shouldn’t discredit his accomplishments up to this point.
Source: Mlive.com, Associated Press
