“Candidates for election as Honoured Members in the player category shall be chosen on the basis of their playing ability, sportsmanship, character and their contribution to their team or teams and to the game of hockey in general”
This week the player I want to make the case for election to the Hockey Hall of Fame will also create an interesting debate. Goaltender Chris Osgood retired in 2011 making him eligible to be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame for the first time this year. I find his case interesting because in 2009 he came within one game of going from a “bubble” candidate to a “lock” when the Detroit Red Wings went up 3 games to 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Stanley Cup. However, the Penguins were able to come back and win the next two to take the title. There were a large number of experts who believed that if the Wings had managed to close the series, Osgood would have won the Conn Smythe Trophy. Had that happened, it’s hard to discount induction to the Hall for a goalie with over 400 wins, 4 Stanley Cups, and a Conn Smythe.
So the question is, can one series change the impact of the way a player’s legacy is viewed to the point where they can go from a Hall of Fame player to not being one (or vice-versa)?
To start with, let’s look at Osgood’s overall career. The Peace River, Alberta, native was drafted by the Red Wings in the 3rd round, 54th overall in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft. As with many young goalies at the start his career in Detroit he was seen as a backup. In his rookie season 1993-94 he backed up Tim Cheveldae and Bob Essensa before the Red Wings brought in 31-year old NHL veteran Mike Vernon, a Cup winner with the Calgary Flames in 1989. In that 1995 Lockout shortened season, Osgood served as backup on the Wing’s Stanley Cup run in which they were swept by the New Jersey Devils in the finals.
The following year Osgood led the league with 39 wins against just six losses and five ties with a 2.17 GAA in fifty games while helping the Wings to a 62 win season. As a reward, Osgood was named to the 1996 All-Star game and the 2nd All-Star Team, shared the Jennings Trophy with Mike Vernon, and was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. Also during this season, he became the 3rd goalie to be credited with a goal and the 2nd to shoot the puck on an open net after Ron Hextall. Once the playoffs started, however, Mike Vernon started the majority of the games for the Wings who eventually fell to the Cup winning Colorado Avalanche. Osgood continued to compile good numbers in 1996-97 but Vernon was still the team’s number one goalie going in to the playoffs. Osgood thus looked on from the bench as the Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers to sweep the final to take the Stanley Cup with Mike Vernon getting the Conn Smythe Trophy.
The 1997-98 season was finally Osgood’s time to shine however. With Vernon traded to the San José Sharks, he took on the full starting role with the Red Wings and that season he led the Red Wings to another Stanley Cup Final sweeping the Washington Capitals for the title. The Red Wings as perennial contenders in the Western Conference but they didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup Finals again until 2002. Up to that point, Osgood was the primary goalie of the Red Wings despite the fact that the Wings had been looking for an upgrade at that position for a number of years. In the summer of 2001, Osgood was put on waivers and was claimed by the New York Islanders as the Red Wings acquired six time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek from Buffalo.
Osgood spent the next four years away from the red and white. In his two years with the New York Islanders he split the time in goal with Garth Snow and Rick DiPietro. In 2002, he helped the Islanders make the playoffs for the first time since 1994, however the team lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games. The next year, with the Islanders not in playoff contention, Osgood and a 2003 3rd round draft pick were dealt to the St. Louis Blues for Justin Papineau and a 2003 2nd round draft choice. In St. Louis, he was the primary goaltender for the duration of his time there helping the Blues to pair of playoff berths, but lost in the first round to the Vancouver Canucks (2003), and the San José Sharks (2004).
Chris Osgood at the 2008 Stanley Cup Final
As the CBA was about to expire in 2004, Osgood came back to Detroit signing a two year contract. The idea was that he was going to split time with Manny Legace for the starting job in Detroit. After the lockout, however, Legace ended got hurt early in the season giving Osgood the majority of the starts leading the Red Wings to a President’s Trophy season. Unfortunately, however, prior to game 4 in the 1st round against the Edmonton Oilers, Osgood hurt his knee and was out for the duration of the series in which they were upset by the Oilers in six games.
Osgood was re-signed to another two year deal, although this time he would be splitting time with another former Red Wing, Dominik Hasek. Osgood suffered a fractured hand in 2006-07, however, which left Hasek as the starting goalie while the next year an injury to Hasek left Osgood as the primary goalie again in Detroit. Osgood responded by having another All-Star year by posting a league best 2.09 GAA and a save percentage of .914 as he compiled a 27-9-4 record. These numbers helped him get named to the All-Star game for the second time in his career. To start the playoffs Detroit went with Hasek in net until game 4 of the first round when coach Mike Babcock felt like he wasn’t getting the job done. Osgood thus took over and ran with it leading the Red Wings over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Finals in six games for his third Stanley Cup. In the opening two games of the championship series he posted back-to-back shutouts becoming the 4th ever goalie to do so.
This brings us back to where I started this piece: with Osgood again in the crease in 2009, the Red Wings were fully in control of the Stanley Cup final rematch against the Pittsburgh Penguins. However Sidney Crosby and the Penguins were not to be out done this time, beating the Red Wings in games six and seven to take their first Stanley Cup since 1992. Osgood played out the rest of his career in Detroit, retiring in 2011. However, prior to that he became the 10th goalie in NHL history to record 400 wins.
Now, from a pure “talent” perspective, no one will ever confuse Chris Osgood for Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, or Dominik Hasek. Many people believe that the team in front of him had more to do with his success than his actual play. Be that as it may, however, the fact is his statistics just scream Hall of Fame. He sits 10th all-time in goalie wins with 401, 8th all-time in playoff wins with 74, is 4th all-time in playoff shutouts with 15, and sits 4th all-time with a win percentage of 53.9. Osgood also became the first goalie since Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuck to win Stanley Cups more than ten years apart as a starter. He also played in two All-Star games, has two Jennings Trophies, and was a member of the 2nd NHL All-Star team in 1996.
Osgood has more regular season wins than the likes of Dominik Hasek, Mike Vernon, Tom Barasso, Gump Worsley, and Billy Smith, and more playoff wins than Jacque Plante, Dominik Hasek, Curtis Joseph, Tom Barasso, Turk Broda, Terry Sawchuck, Gerry Cheevers, Glenn Hall, and Tony Esposito.
The debate with Osgood has always been focused on the fact that he always had good teams around him. To me, however, that’s just like saying “What If?”. Ken Dryden said in his book “The Game” that he once rode the Toronto Subway and listened to a couple of fans saying that if Mike Palmateer played for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1970s that he would have had the same stats as Dryden. In my mind, you can’t fault a guy because he had a good team around him. The fact is he was a winner, and that’s what the Hockey Hall of Fame is about. Yes it is about skill, being the strongest, fastest, smartest in Hockey History, but it’s also about those who win above all else.
What I will leave you with is what Wings’ GM Ken Holland said about those who thought Osgood was a “passenger” on those good Detroit teams, as per Greg Wyshynski.
"The NHL has been around for 90 years or so, and as he retires 90 years into the League he has the 10th-most wins in the history of the National Hockey League. Anytime you're in the top 10 of anything that's been around for 90 to 100 years, that's pretty special.
"People would say that Chris played on a good team, and use that as a reason why [he was so successful]. They say anybody could accomplish what he's accomplished. My response would be that most of the guys above him on the list played for good teams. If it was so easy, everybody would be doing it. Not everybody wins 400 games.
"It's difficult playing for a real good team. Some goaltenders can do it. Other goaltenders struggle at it. I think Chris thrived playing under pressure of playing on a team with high expectations, year in and year out. There's times when he had a bad game or let in a bad goal, and I loved his ability to bounce back."
Let me know what you guys think or if there is someone you think should be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the comments section or you can contact me at:
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Twitter: @kirshenblatt
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