10 years ago, I thought Osgood was good, not great....however the numbers do not lie. When you look at the numbers, you can not argue that Osgood has not been a great goalie with a career filled with accomplishments.

The NHL has been around for over 80 years. In that time, probably a few thousand guys have stood between the pipes for an NHL team or another.

In all of that time, thousands of goalies who have played in the best league in the world...Chris Osgood's career numbers put him in the top 10-20 goalies of all time. He still has a few good years left and before it is all over, he will be in the top 10 of all time in most categories.

Has Osgood benefited by playing on great teams? Absolutely... no one blames Patrick Roy, Grant Fuhr, Espesito, or Ken Dryden for playing on great teams do they?? It is all of these guys who contributed to their great teams and made them great, Stanley Cup winning teams.

But somehow...the casual hockey fan looks at Osgood's small stature, and Opie like face and thinks that he is average.... well the numbers and facts do not lie. Osgood has had a stellar, great career ranking him right up there with the greatest of all time.

The sprawling great save he made last night on Gary Roberts saved the game... you dont win Stanleys without great goaltending.

You can call me a lot of things and it will roll right off my back, but 'casual hockey fan' is not on the list.

I do not have the final numbers for this year, but in the last fifteen years of Cup winning goalies Mr Osgood's playoff save percentage was, well it was 14th place. Yes, in 1998 he won the cup with a 0.918 save percentage, only Barasso won with a lower save percentage (0.907 in 1992). Over the same period of the fifteen losing goalies nine had better save percentages, that places Osgood 23rd place of the 30 goalies making the Stanely Cup final.

Seasonal save percentage? Osgood was in 12th place of the same 30 goalies.

Career save percentage? 15th place of 30 goalies.

I have no axe to grind with any team. I am simply a fan. But his numbers do not stand up to scrutiny the way Roy and Brodeur's do, they don't shout 'great goalie'. He made the saves as needed and he won, I know that.

You don't win a cup without great goaltending? Tom Barraso won two cups, one with a pitiful 0.907 save percentage and 0.885 seasonal save percentage (both in 1992). He had a woeful 0.892 career save percentage. Hardly 'great goaltending'.

The best team wins the cup. Sometimes the goalie just has to be there.

-30-

Like PBH I am anything but a casual hockey fan. Numbers don't tell the whole story and you can produce statistics to make all kind of different cases. In my book the most important number is 2, the number of rings he has as the starting goalie on the cup winning team. That says to me he made the saves that he had to make when they needed to be made, the rest is details. I have no horse in this race, but I have openly questioned why this guy does not get his due.

Also, why not add Bernie Parent to that list. It was ashamed his career was cut short by injury and I was at the game where his career was ended. In his prime during the Cup years he was unbeatable, the guy was flat out amazing. Had he been around on that third trip to the finals maybe the Flyers would not have been swept. The Flyers played a different brand of hockey in those days and aside from Clarke they didnt have a bonafide superstar besides Bernie. I remeber the Spectrum roaring his name in those seasons and the old "Only the Lord saves more then Bernie Parent" bumper stickers all over the area.

I do not believe that anyone is ignoring Bernie Parent, or not giving him his due. In his era he was at or near the top. You won't find many knowledgable paople that think otherwise.

It is difficult to compare goalies over the years. Coaching, rule changes, and equipment have all made goalies better. But over ten to fifteen year spans gaolies can be compared.

ENOUGH GOALIE TALK!
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Fan numbers (lifted from Bill Houston on The Globe and Mail website)

Cup audiences

For Game 6, CBC drew its largest audience of the playoffs, 2.739 million viewers.

Over six games, the CBC averaged 2.3 million viewers, down 8 per cent from last year's five-game average of 2.5 million (Anaheim Ducks-Ottawa Senators).

In the last all-U.S. Cup final, the average audience was 1.51 million (2003, Anaheim-New Jersey Devils, seven games).

RDS had its largest non-Montreal Canadiens audience of the postseason, 858,000 viewers, and averaged 738,000 over the six games, up 20 per cent over its five-game average in 2007.

NBC drew an average audience of 6.8 million viewers, the most-watched sixth game in the U.S. since 1995.

NBC earned a national rating of 4.0 (percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in), which was a 111-per-cent increase over the last Game 6 (Edmonton Oilers-Carolina Hurricanes, 2006).

The network's average for its four telecasts of the final was 3.2, tops since 2002 (Carolina-Detroit, 3.6, three telecasts).

I hear yaa on the Bernie thing, he was my favorite player as a kid even though I didnt play goalie. I have met him on many occasions over the past 25 years, he's a real nice guy. Unlike Partick Roy who was our neighbor briefly after he retired.

What's next? Gump Worsley? :p

Michael Palmateer