The Ides Of March In Hockeytown Mean Goalie Concerns -- Deserved Or Not

Legace (top) and Osgood: let the hand-wringing begin


It has arrived right on time this season -- always reliable. You can almost set your calendar by it. It didn't come upon us last year, but only because there was no hockey.

The Ides of March are here, in Hockeytown (that would be Detroit, for those reading this not from the Motor City, where we have declared our city the center of a sport that we did not create). Our Ides don't mean the killing of any Ceasar -- except for his Little pizzas -- but they do mean the portend of skepticism, uneasiness, distrust, and worry.

And they are here again -- right on schedule.

It's time for goalie concerns for the Red Wings. It is always this way, you see -- a few weeks before the playoffs begin. No matter how well the netminder plays, something takes over along about mid-March:

Doubt.

Manny Legace says he has been "awful" since the Olympic break. Chris Osgood, the other netminder, has been doing his best impression of a see-saw. He continues to make the most difficult of saves, and whiff on some of the easiest. But he has won a Stanley Cup -- despite having a few whiffs in those playoffs, too.

By all rights, there shouldn't be any discussion here. Legace has remained among the league's goalie leaders throughout the season, in stats like wins, GAA, and save percentage. He has some shutouts. He continues to prove, as far as I'm concerned, that he is capable of playing the leading man for an NHL team.

Osgood keeps us on our toes, for we do not know which of his split personalities will show up between the pipes on any given night.

Red Wings GM Ken Holland, in an interview I did for MCS Magazine (on newsstands now), told me that he feels either one of his goalkeepers is capable of providing the kind of top shelf play that is required to make a bid for a Cup.

"But to make a long playoff run, you need everything to fall into place," Holland says.

And everything means everything: freedom from injuries, scorers who are scoring, defenders who are defending, and pucks that tumble your way.

Oh, and the goaltending. Of course.

It's always the same refrain here, but it is generally accepted that no matter how many of those other things "fall into place" for the Red Wings, none of them will mean a hill of beans if Legace -- or Osgood -- does not perform in a better-than-average capacity. Maybe even WAY better than average. So with the playoffs fast approaching, and since it's the norm in Detroit, and since Legace himself has called his recent play "awful," this is your cue -- if you're a Wings fan -- to wring your hands. Hands that are calloused from clapping for Manny Legace all season, by the way.

In the interest of fairness, however, there have been times when the concern in net has been real, and the performances subpar. Osgood, then a 21 year-old rookie, committed a gaffe in Game 7 of a first-round series with San Jose that cost the Red Wings the series. His failed clearing pass was intercepted and deposited into the Detroit net late in the third period. Afterward, Osgood wept in the dressing room -- and he was joined by hundreds of thousands of Red Wings fans. But Osgood was only in net as a rookie because late-season acquisition Bob Essensa proved as effective as a giant slice of swiss cheese.

In 1995, Mike Vernon and Osgood were not top shelf, and the Red Wings were swept in the Finals by New Jersey. The following year, the Red Wings struggled mightily in the playoffs, despite a 62-13-7 regular season record. They were finally eliminated by Colorado in the Conference Finals -- mainly because the Avs' Patrick Roy was far superior to the Vernon/Osgood tandem. Two heads are not always better than one.

The Cup-winning years -- 1997, '98, and 2002 -- were interesting because in '97, Vernon won the Conn Smythe Award as MVP of the playoffs, but in '98, the Cup was secured despite shaky (at times) play from Osgood. And in 2002, Dominik Hasek brought his world-class play to Detroit, but it wasn't until overtime of Game 3 of the Finals in Carolina that the Red Wings truly needed Hasek to rise to the occasion. And he came through -- big time.

The same garbage that has been spewed about Manny Legace in the past will be stirred again this April: He has never been "the guy"; he has no experience as the #1 goalie in the playoffs; he simply isn't good enough to lead the Wings to the Stanley Cup.

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

They were probably the same concerns raised about Miikka Kiprusoff, or Jean-Sebastian Giguere. Both were unheralded -- "unproven" -- and both led their team to one win of the Stanley Cup (Kiprusoff in 2004 with Calgary, and Giguere in 2003 with Anaheim). The coach of the Mighty Ducks during their improbable Stanley Cup run in '03? Mike Babcock.

Experience isn't always mandatory. Besides, it's not like Legace is a fuzzy-faced rookie.

If the Red Wings, as a team, perform capably in front of him, there should be no real concerns about whether the goaltender will make or break the team's Cup chances.

But, there will be. It's March, after all.