It’s Too Easy to Blame Joseph

Conventional wisdom says that the Detroit Red Wings are so deep and talented that they don’t need their goaltender to steal games for them.

He only has to give them a chance.

But conventional wisdom didn’t figure on goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Mighty Ducks, who is upsetting the apple cart.

In lifting the Ducks to a 3-0 lead over the Red Wings in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series, including a 2-1 victory Monday night in front of 17,174 in the Arrowhead Pond, Giguere is making Curtis Joseph look bad.

Not that the defending Stanley Cup champions will admit it.

“Goaltending’s not a problem,” said Red Wing captain Steve Yzerman after Joseph, for the third consecutive game, had given up just enough goals to make losers of the Red Wings. “Cujo’s a simple target for you guys.

“Goaltending isn’t a problem,” he repeated. “They’re one-goal games, close games. We’ve had mistakes, breakdowns in coverage that have cost us goals in all three games. Goaltending isn’t an issue. He’s just an easy target.

“If you know the game, if you watch it closely, you can see areas where we need to improve and be a little tighter.

“Again, goaltending is not an issue. You’re going in the wrong direction.”

So are the Red Wings.

Though Joseph’s troubles haven’t been glaring, they have been magnified by the brilliant play of Giguere.

Not only that, but Joseph is haunted by the recent past too.

As the Red Wings prepared for Game 3, Bob Duff of the Windsor Star asked his readers: “Anyone know the area code for the Czech Republic?”

His reference was to Dominik Hasek, who capped an award-winning career last season by helping the Red Wings to their third Stanley Cup in six years. Along the way, he memorably sealed off his net in Game 3 of a first-round series against the Vancouver Canucks after the Canucks had won twice at Detroit.

But with Hasek retired, “It would appear that Detroit’s precarious playoff hopes are left to be fumbled -- um -- carried by Curtis Joseph,” Duff wrote.

If nothing else, Joseph has shown he is no “Dominator.”

Signed by the Red Wings last summer as an unrestricted free agent, Joseph couldn’t be faulted for Paul Kariya’s third-overtime winner in Game 1, but he didn’t come close to matching the excellent play of Giguere, who made 63 saves.

In Game 2, he gave up an early goal to Stanislav Chistov, misreading the play as Chistov beat him to the short side from a difficult angle. Steve Thomas scored the winner on a shot that slid between the goalie’s legs.

Monday brought more of the same.

Early in the second period, despite the distraction of having Red Wing defenseman Jason Woolley’s stick planted in his midsection, Samuel Pahlsson launched a shot from the left faceoff circle that Joseph seemed positioned to stop.

It sailed over his right shoulder.

Early in the third, an ill-advised foray out of his net by Joseph led to another goal by Chistov, who carried the puck around to the other side of the net and tucked it into the lower right corner before Joseph could scramble back into position.