Chris Osgood: Detroit Red Wings Cost Him 400th Career Win at Home

There may not be another professional athlete on Earth that has enjoyed so much success amidst so much doubt.

From the time he entered the NHL, Chris Osgood was disrespected, overlooked and taken for granted.

Part of this was due to the fact that he came of age playing behind legendary players such as Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and Brendan Shanahan.

If you wanted starpower, you got all you could handle in Detroit and never once needed to look to Osgood to provide it.

To be fair to his critics, Ozzie has seasoned his career with some unimaginably bad blunders.

There was the gift-wrapped goal he handed to San Jose's Jamie Baker in the 1994 playoffs. 

Four years later facing the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals, his inability to stop a Jamie Langenbrunner shot so far out that Mr. Magoo would have no trouble finding it caused many Red Wings fans, including this one, to curse his name repeatedly long after.

Still, despite his penchant for allowing head-shakingly terrible goals, Osgood more often left his opponents shaking their heads wondering how such a bad goalie could make such great saves.

Taking his career as a whole, no one could call Osgood a bad goalie and be called rational.

Osgood's 16 seasons in the NHL have been nothing short of outstanding and, though his career is most definitely coming to an end, he still has some unfinished business before he bows out, no doubt, gracefully.

Wings fans have often blamed Osgood for costing his team games with inopportune goals or unfocused play.

While he certainly has had his share of bad games, Osgood is more often made a convenient whipping boy for losses that, by and large, are due to team-wide breakdowns.

Nevertheless, in the eyes of many, the Red Wings, not Osgood, are responsible for Osgood's success and any wins the team enjoys are often in spite of him.

As jaundiced as this view is, if you believe it to be true, you'd have to believe that when searching for his 400th career win, Osgood's team would do everything to help him get it; and if he didn't, well, it would certainly be his fault.

In reality, the exact opposite scenario played itself out.

The Red Wings rearranged the goalie rotation to make sure Osgood got the start at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday afternoon as a win over the visiting Dallas Stars would also double as the 400th of Ozzie's career.

The Wings did give Osgood a 2-0 lead to work with halfway through the first period on Sunday.

However, a deflection off of Detroit defenseman Brad Stuart's skate yielded Dallas' first goal and another screened deflection provided the even-up marker a short time later.

Osgood played well in the second period, looking solid and committed to finally reaching the elusive 400 mark.

Things looked even brighter in the dying seconds of the second period as Red Wings forward Johan Franzen scored the go-ahead goal, setting the stage for a dramatic third period that seemed destined to result in victory.

Osgood was even better in the third frame.

He stoned the Stars on two shots that, on most nights, would have certainly turned into goals and played as solid as he needed to for a win throughout the period.

With less than four minutes remaining, chants of "Ozzie! Ozzie!" permeated Joe Louis Arena as the sellout crowd fully, and rightfully expected, to bear witness to NHL history.

Then, the team that supposedly wins in spite of Osgood, made an error that eventually turned that notion on it's ear.

Defenseman Brian Rafalski, on an ill advised clearing attempt, ended up turning the puck over to Dallas' Jamie Benn who promptly got it to team captain Brendan Morrow who ended up tying the game at three.

It was a glaringly bad mistake, however, the Wings surely would rebound and find a way to win the game in OT. Or so it would seem.

After failing to get a single shot on goal and spotting the Stars a power play in overtime, Osgood managed to keep his team in the game with less than a minute left.

The Wings looked to be putting on good pressure in the Dallas zone when the puck suddenly broke free and sent the Stars down the other way on a three-on-one.

As soon as they crossed the blue line, you could feel it was over.

Hanging your goalie out to dry on a three-on-one overtime break rarely results in good things and this night was no exception.

The game ended. The crowd deflated and Osgood, despite a very good effort, had his 400th career win snatched away from him, by his own team no less.

Hockey is certainly never about one player and the Red Wings malaise of late is certainly cause for concern.

However, the story of this particular loss was how a goalie who supposedly won only because of the team in front of him, managed to play well enough to win, if it weren't for the team in front of him.

Osgood will end his career with at least 400 wins, this is all but certain.

However, he deserved to reach that number on Sunday night and if it weren't for his teammates, he would have.

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