Is Chris Osgood Really a 400 Win Goalie(re-post)

I posted this originally at OverTheBoards on December 28, 2010, a day after Chris Osgood recorded win #400 against the Colorado Avalanche. There is some speculation that he is going to retire later today so I figured I would re-post it. Enjoy

Last night Chris Osgood notched a 4-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche and, in doing so, notched the 400th regular season win of his career. He became only the 10th person in NHL history to do so. Only Ed Belfour(Will be eligible this upcoming year[Belfour has since been inducted into the Hall of Fame]), Curtis Joseph(still 2 years away from eligibility), and Martin Brodeur(still active) have eclipsed 400 win and are not in the hall. Osgood’s win has sparked controversy all over the blogosphere as to whether he is a Hall of Fame worthy goaltender or if his wins are nothing more than the product of playing for the Detroit Red Wings in 14 of his 18 seasons. Below are the cases for and against.

Chris Osgood is a Hall of Famer:

• In his 18 seasons, Osgood has won 53.9% of the games he has played in. That is good enough to place him second on the list of 400+ win goaltenders. Only Brodeur(55.1%) is better. Even if he does not play well the remainder of the season he should still finish in the top 3.
• He has twelve 20+ win seasons, and 5 30+ win seasons. One of those 30 win seasons was a 31 win mark in 2003-2004 when he played for a St. Louis Blues team that finished with 39 wins. Another came in 2001-2002 when he won 32 games for the New York Islanders
• He has won 57% of his playoff games. For comparison Martin Brodeur has won 54% of his playoff games
• He is a 3 time Stanley Cup Winner and 3 time All-Star
• Replaced future Hall Of Famer Dominick Hasek in the 2008 Playoffs and led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup. In the process he lost only 4 games and held his GAA under 2 and his save percentage above .910. Oh he was also 35 when he did this.

Chris Osgood is NOT a Hall of Famer

• In 14 of his seasons he has had Nicklas Lidstrom in front of him.
• He has only 50 shut outs. Compared to the list of 400+ win goaltenders only Grant Fuhr has less with 25. Only Fuhr, Joseph, and Osgood have less than 6o shutouts. All the goaltenders in the Hall who have less Shutouts than Osgood have a bit more hardware than Osgood.

I honestly went into this article expecting to thoroughly prove that Osgood was not Hall of Fame worthy, but I don’t really believe that anymore. People will go on and on about that he was nothing more than somebody who benefited from the incredible teams Detroit has had over the years, but I am starting to believe he was a piece of that incredible. While it certainly helped his numbers to have a stellar D corps in front of him, it wasn’t as if he didn’t need to be good.

If there were no names on the ballots then Osgood’s will probably read something like this:
400+ Wins
50(at least) Shutouts
Less than 2.50 GAA
Better than .900 Save Percentage
3 Stanley Cups
7 Consecutive Seasons with 20+ wins
70+ Playoff wins

Now looking at that, can you tell me how he doesn’t deserve Hall of Fame honors?

19 v 90

Nobody can doubt the chemistry that has appeared between Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Ovechkin over the past 3+ years. Since Backstrom came into the league, they have played the majority of the time together. In that time Backstrom has recorded 86 goals and 227 assists, while Ovechkin has recorded 199 goals and 206 assists. With Backstrom recently missing his first NHL game, Ovechkin has been forced to work entirely with out his Swedish running mate. With one Swede out, Bruce elected to give rookie Swede Marcus Johansson the opportunity to play with the captain. The young kid is clearly making the most of this chance.

In the four games that Johansson has played with Ovechkin he has recorded at least a point in each game with 2 goals and 3 assists. Ovechkin, meanwhile, has similar numbers with 3 goals and 2 assists. Although this may be on a small scale, it is worth noting that this is a much better pace than either of these two have been on for the earlier parts of the season. Could there be a possibility of Backstrom playing second fiddle to the rookie Swede?

The Breakdown

• Faceoffs: Johansson's is improving in the dot but his 43.1% is just not good enough to be a first line center. Advantage: Backstrom
• Skating: Both Backstrom and Johansson possess great skating ability. Johansson brings much more speed to the first line. Advantage: Johansson
• Intelligence: This is pretty much a no-contest. Backstrom has been in the league 3 years longer than Johansson so advantage: Backstrom
• Intangibles: This is a bit difficult because it is such a vague term. The chemistry that Backstrom has with Ovechkin is something that Johansson can't pick up overnight. However that chemistry has has very little success this season. The newness of MoJo and Ovie is something that has been showing success. Maybe it is Johansson's speed or the fact that their gameplan was for Backstrom but I have to say advantage: Johansson.

How much of a copout is that? A 2-2 tie. If Arnott comes back healthy and you choose MoJo over Backstrom, then you would think Arnott moves to the third line. I am not really for taking Arnott away from Semin. But I can't see that being sufficient reasoning to give Backstrom the #1 center back. I wouldn't totally be against having them both play the top line, if they can prove their grittiness. Personally I am not looking forward to having to rework our line so close to playoff time.