Chris Osgood Retires after* 110 Games as an Islander

Yeah, I appreciated that side of him. There is something to be said for that calming effect a “steady” or whatever goalie has on a team. His stats rarely made him look like a superlative goalie, but if his presence made his teammates not worry about the guy behind them, that’s usually a positive.

“I need to retire.”

Wow. 7.5 for Stamkos. Let’s hope JT’s 50 goal year comes after he’s resigned.

That’s who I aIways compare him to when talking about HOF for Ozzie, especially their respective playoff records. I discount Brodeur’s regular season stats because the Devils have played that stupid box his entire career, resulting, IMHO, in artificially low GA and SV%.

Brodeur’s playoff record is 99-82, 2.01, .919, 23 shutouts, 3 Cups.

Ozzie’s playoff record is 74-49, 2.09, .916, 15 shutouts, 3 Cups (but 2 as a starter).

We have debated the issue of “money goaltending” and “big save when needed” versus raw stats around these parts before. IMHO, there really is something to be said about a goaltender coming up big when needed, and for me, Ozzie falls in that category.

Using Billy Smith (the best money goaltender of all time) as a reference point, his regular season would never blow you away, but then you look at that 88-36 record in the playoffs, and you say, wow. Like Jimmy Devellano has said, Smitty used to put it on “cruise control” during the regular season and then raise his level of play in the playoffs to that of a first-team All-Star goaltender in the playoffs. Smitty himself has said that it’s tough to come up with that one big stop when needed, and pointed to Ken Dryden as a good example.

Osgood is a very close HOF case, but the thing that weighs most in his favor for me is that he was usually at his best when the stakes were the highest.

Ozzie, to me, is one of those guys who deserves his HoF spot based, not on his flashy numbers, but on his entire body of work. You can’t sneeze at three Cups — there’s a lot of goalies have fewer. You can’t blame him for playing on a good team - let’s not forget those two seasons on the Isle where he made us better. He’d probably have won another Cup had be not been knifed in the back on the Hasek signing - only Cujo got treated worse there.

Osgood didn’t LOSE games for his team. Sometimes we don’t value that quality enough. Here on the Isle, we know what that feels like.

Ozzie has a far better case than guys like Richter, VBK and Mike Vernon,

I both agree with that statement and do not see it as reason to declare he’s a certain Hall of Famer. But like I said, I’m not sure what the criteria is.

I mean, I think he’ll get there — and I’m not exactly opposed to players who did nice things on great teams getting there (it’s the Hall of “Fame” and not Hall of “inarguable statistical dominance”). But yeah, a lot of his accomplishments (W-L record especially) have never moved me because I could usually put several other of his peers in the same position and expect the same results or better.

But I think that’s in part a byproduct of having DiPietro, who reasonably was expected to be the workhorse for most of that decade.

As for the disclaimer: If you’re only making one negative post a year, you gotta save up your ammo!

Montoya’s numbers last year were unreal and more than we could’ve expected out of a guy who was acquired for a 6th rounder.

GP W L OT Min. GA SA GAA PCT
21 9 5 5 1154 46 585 2.39 .921

Sure he’s not a proven NHL commodity yet, but I would totally sign up for that again.

I call the Oilers dynasty interruptus.

What the Red Wings have done is impressive, dominant, maybe almost impossible to duplicate even. But it’s not a dynasty.

Arbour > Bowman
Scrappy Turgeon-less Isles > stop Pens at two-peat

Ahhh, so much fun.

Nah, couldn’t be.