Osgood Delivers Goods for Red Wings

Chris Osgood wasn’t exactly Mike Vernon’s backup, but Osgood always seemed to get pushed into the background during crunch time the last few seasons.

When the Detroit Red Wings reached the Stanley Cup finals in 1995, Vernon played 18 games and Osgood appeared in only two. And although Osgood played 47 games last season, to Vernon’s 33, when the Red Wings began rolling toward their first Cup title since 1955, it was Vernon who entrenched himself in the net with a succession of superb performances and was voted the most valuable player in the playoffs.

Osgood played in two games, watching and awaiting his turn. And now, here it is. The Red Wings traded the older and more expensive Vernon to San Jose in the off-season, so this is Osgood’s time. And he’s making the most of his moment.

“In some ways, I feel different,” said Osgood, who has a 1.90 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage in eight games. “I think the things I’ve been through have prepared me better for this situation and made me pretty excited to be where I am.”

Watching Vernon lead the Red Wings to their first Cup title since 1955 wasn’t easy, but Osgood decided to get what he could from sitting in a front-row seat.

“It was difficult not playing, but it was something that I had to accept,” said Osgood, who will be 25 next month. “I just wanted the team to win, and that made me happy. Coming into this year, it gives me a lot of confidence in what I can do out there.”

He has played well behind a defense that’s still adjusting to the loss of injured defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and to the bigger roles being played by Aaron Ward and Jamie Pushor.

“The goalies have had a little more pressure on them than we’d normally like,” said Dave Lewis, a Red Wing associate coach. “It’s a matter of just getting back to playing solid in our own end.

“We’re sort of feeling our way. We have a team that’s coming off a Stanley Cup season, which is something we haven’t all been through, and that’s a big factor. The system’s in place. It’s there and it’s working, but we’ve had some breakdowns.”

Osgood, who recently earned his 100th NHL victory, has handled nearly everything with admirable poise. His composure was shaken only once, when a hard shot by Carolina right wing Steve Leach hit him in the mask last Saturday and opened a bloody cut on the left side of his head, near his hairline.

His frantic mother called from Medicine Hat, Canada, to ask how badly he was hurt, but after six stitches and a few woozy moments, he was well enough to reassure her there was no need to worry.

FLYING HIGH . . . FOR NOW

When the Philadelphia Flyers were swept by Detroit in the Stanley Cup finals last spring, much blame was put on their goaltending. Neither Garth Snow nor Ron Hextall picked up the burden, leaving the Flyers in what then-coach Terry Murray infamously called “a choking situation.”

Murray is gone, but Snow and Hextall still alternate in net. And the Flyers’ new coach, Wayne Cashman, says there’s no need to upgrade his goaltending.

“That’s been our strong point,” said Cashman, who got a long-overdue chance to coach after spending 10 years as an assistant with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks. “Our goaltending was good enough to get us to the Stanley Cup finals. I have all the confidence in the world in them.

“A lot was made of the goaltending in the playoffs, but it was a whole team thing. [The goalies have] worked hard and done everything you can ask.”

Still, don’t be surprised if he changes his mind--or if General Manager Bob Clarke makes a move at the trading deadline.

Snow is 1-3-0 with a 3.24 goals-against average, which should concern the Flyers. Hextall is 4-0-1 with a 1.77 goals-against average, but he played well last season too, only to unravel when it mattered during the playoffs.

BUT CAN HE KEEP HIS CHIN UP?

Asked when he took the Kings’ coaching job which of his former coaches he might emulate, Larry Robinson mentioned Jacques Lemaire, his colleague with the New Jersey Devils. Robinson never uttered Scotty Bowman’s name except to say he’d do the opposite of what Bowman did in dealing with players. He also told stories of having nightmares about Bowman and waking up to find his hands squeezing his pillow as if it were Bowman’s throat.

By his second season, Robinson had more empathy for Bowman. They chatted when the Kings and Red Wings met, and he no longer considered Bowman the embodiment of all coaching evil.

This season, Robinson has come full circle. In explaining his practice of keeping two players together if they mesh rather than keeping three-man units intact, he said he was borrowing a page from Bowman’s book.

“Maybe there were methods to his madness,” Robinson said, smiling.

CAPITAL REPORT

The Washington Capitals are falling all over themselves praising new Coach Ron Wilson and taking swipes at departed coach Jim Schoenfeld. They sound as if they’ve been released from prison, so happy are they to be rid of Schoenfeld’s rigid defensive system.

“We’ve got a relaxed atmosphere,” said goaltender Olaf Kolzig. “It’s fun coming to the rink. Plus, we’re getting a little more offense, which makes it easier for a goalie.”

Last season, the first in which the Capitals missed the playoffs since 1982, they scored an average of 2.61 goals a game and gave up 2.78. This season, they’re scoring an average of 3.75 goals a game and giving up 1.88.

The Capitals’ old style, said center Adam Oates, “is fine. I mean, they had a lot of success doing that. They just couldn’t take it to the next level. Ronnie’s attitude is a lot different. I think sometimes after a while, you need a change and that change has been very positive for us.”

Oates is also positive being traded to Washington by Boston was a good move.

“I want to win a Stanley Cup and I didn’t feel that the Bruins were committed to winning a Cup, at least not with the team we had last year,” he said. “Obviously, only one team wins, but you have to at least try.”

SLAP SHOTS

Buffalo goalie Dominik Hasek, booed by fans who blame his feud with former coach Ted Nolan for Nolan’s departure, may be thinking about moving on. His agent, Rich Winter, suggested to a Buffalo TV reporter that Hasek wouldn’t mind being dealt, and Hasek reportedly told Pat LaFontaine, after LaFontaine was traded to the New York Rangers, that he too, might be better off elsewhere. Management, which backed Hasek over Nolan and intends to build a low-budget team around him, can’t be happy to hear that. . . . John LeClair’s new deal with the Flyers will pay him an average of $3.3 million a year in the last three years of his contract. The original deal was worth $7 million for five years.

Wayne Gretzky, the NHL’s all-time scoring leader, is one assist from 1,850, which would match the point total of second-ranked Gordie Howe. . . . Tampa Bay winger Shawn Burr, sidelined for six months after tearing a knee ligament, was scheduled to get a transplant from a cadaver. “Hopefully, it’s from someone fast,” he said. . . . Former Duck enforcer Todd Ewen is out for the season because of injuries to both knees.

The Chicago Blackhawks talked to the Carolina Hurricanes about goalie Sean Burke. Goaltending is less a problem for Chicago than the soft play of Alexei Zhamnov and Eric Daze’s puzzling inconsistency. . . . Is age catching up with Phoenix right wing Mike Gartner, who will be 39 next week? He had only one goal in his last 26 games last season, one in seven playoff games and none in his first seven this season.

Carolina Coach Paul Maurice asked a photographer not to take a picture of him after a loss to the Red Wings last Saturday until he could remove a chaw of tobacco from his cheek. “My mom would kill me,” he said. . . . As part of the NHL’s focus on diagnosis and treatment of head injuries, teams are giving players neurological exams. Those tests will be used for comparisons later if players suffer concussions.