Someone get Ozzie a Snickers bar
Red Wings 4, Sharks 1
The last time Chris Osgood started a game? That would be December 20th. And with the way Jimmy Howard has been playing, the games Osgood starts could continue to be few and far between. It’s to the point where I could see Osgood appearing in Snickers commercials.
The Red Wings dominated last night’s game against the Sharks and it could be the first sign of what this team will look like now that they are finally starting to get healthy. There are currently four, maybe five guys on the IR who would be regular contributors if they were available. With that being the case Detroit still went 3-1 on the west coast in games against Phoenix, Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
It looks like it’s safe to say they’ve weathered the storm and are in great position to not only claim the #8 playoff seed but probably even move up in the standings. The injury pileup might have provided a silver lining in that the team seems to realize they are going to have to scramble and scratch and claw for everything in order to win games. This isn’t a team like last year’s squad which could expect to feast on lobster and filet mignon night after night. This is a team that would eat an eclair out of a garbage can.
The addition of Patrick Eaves during the summer and Drew Miller during the season has helped to bolster the team’s penalty kill and shot blocking. The youth infusion of players like Jimmy Howard, Darren Helm and Justin Abdelkader seems to have added a vital shot of energy to a team that has gone through three very long playoff stretches the past three seasons.
The season-long slog to fight for a playoff spot has made this team desperate. Now desperation isn’t generally seen as a good quality to have (at least that’s what the girls I date tell me), but it’s suited this team well. It’s been on display on numerous occasions when Brad Stuart or Darren Helm dove in a mad scramble and did everything they could to keep a puck out of the net, realizing that any goal surrendered would make it that much more difficult for this team to claim a point or two and stay in contact with the playoff pack.
You know the one player on the team who hasn’t seemed desperate? That’d be Chris Osgood. He’s been better than he was last year but that’s like saying the economy is better this year than it was last year. You know what? It still sucks. My guess is Mike Babcock doesn’t see that level of effort from Chris Osgood and that’s why he’s been willing to play Jimmy Howard in every single one of the last 8 games and give him the lion’s share of the starts over the past 5 weeks.
With the way this season has unfolded it’s nearly impossible to predict what the final outcome will be for this Red Wings season. They seem to have shrugged their collective shoulders about the plague of injuries and said ’so what?’ as they rolled up their sleeves and fought for every inch of ice, as they never gave up on stopping a puck until the red light flashed, and battled their way back into playoff relevance. It’s been ugly, sure, but it’s also been a pretty rewarding stretch of hockey.
Last night might be the first sign of what that team now looks like with a healthy dose of talent added back into the lineup.
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