9502080105
DETROIT FREE PRESS
951130
Thursday, November 30, 1995
METRO FINAL
1D
photo Color JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press
:
Chris Osgood is one of the hottest goalies: "I don't even
THINK about losing when we go out there."
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1995, Detroit Free Press
WINGS THANK MATURITY FOR OSGOOD'S NET GAIN
The puck was coming at him. "Uh-oh," he thought. "I gotta stop it. . . . Am
I gonna stop it? . . . How do I stop it?"
He had enough time to think all this, because the puck was shot from the
other end of the ice and was moving pretty slowly. Even so, it went between
his legs before he flopped backwards, landed on it, then reached behind him.
And then, a smile.
"I did it," he told himself, looking at the puck. "I made my first save."
He was 8 years old.
He had just become a goalie.
Never mind that it was an accident. (Don't most goalies become goalies by
accident?) Never mind that his team needed someone to play net and everyone
else had already taken a turn. Chris Osgood had reluctantly pulled on the
mask, gloves and pads. He tried it. He liked it.
He . . . became it.
"It was hard on my parents," he said Wednesday after practice at Joe Louis
Arena. "Being the mom and dad of a goalie can be pretty stressful."
In fact, they tried to talk him out of it. Today, having failed, they
watch their son via satellite from the same place where he made that first
save, Medicine Hat, Alberta, one of those quirky Canadian towns near the south
Saskatchewan River, where Osgood says "you can leave your car running with the
doors open and nobody will touch it."
In other words, a long way from downtown Detroit. And Chris Osgood is a
long way from that first day in the net. When you look at him, with his
thatch-blond hair, small nose, apple cheeks and backwards baseball cap, you
half-expect him to hop on his bicycle and ride home.
But if hockey season has shown us anything so far, it's that Osgood is a
long way from his beginnings, a long way from the boyish rookie who cried when
the San Jose Sharks eliminated the Wings, a long way, even, from the kid with
the shaky confidence we sometimes saw last season.
He is now one of the NHL's hottest goaltenders, a guy who says "I don't
even think about the possibility of losing when we go out there now." The
face may say high school, but the performances say all grown up.
The Oz-Man cometh.
Flashy style is over
"I used to jump around too much," he says, when I ask what he does
differently now, why he leads the NHL with three shutouts, and has the
third-best goals-against average. "I used to think you had to be flashy with
saves.
"But I watched guys like Patrick Roy. So many pucks go off his chest and
shoulders. It was because he was in such great position before the shot, he
didn't have to move."
Less is more. That goes for thinking as well. When Osgood arrived, he took
every criticism to heart. He worried about every performance. He fretted over
every goal. "If someone said I didn't play so well that night, it would stay
with me," he admits. "Now I can say, 'Hey, nobody plays perfect every night.'
"
He lifts his cap, pushes a fist through his moist, clumped hair, and pulls
the cap back on, backwards of course. Osgood is a visual contradiction. Even
now, at 23, you can see why he was stopped at the gate by a security guard on
his first day with the Red Wings, and not permitted to enter because the guard
thought he was some kid trying to sneak in.
Yet by everyone's account, Osgood is a fierce competitor. "He really gets
into it," says coach Scotty Bowman. "He's aggressive, he gets intense. The
more he plays, the more focused he seems to get."
And he is playing more. Osgood didn't know where he stood a few weeks
before the season. Mike Vernon hadn't signed and for a while it looked as if
Osgood would be No. 1 by default. Then Vernon reached agreement, and some
thought for all that money, he would certainly be the star and Osgood part of
the chorus.
Teammates play hard for him
Instead, it is the kid who is earning the big starts, such as Tuesday
night's game against the hot Canadiens, another Osgood win. His 11 victories
are tied for fourth-best in the league. On nights when he's hot, the Wings
need only score once. On nights when he allows two or three, the Wings seem
to score four or five.
"They like him," Bowman says. "They play hard for him. That's not true of
all goalies. I've seen some talented guys never reach the top because they
were such jerks their teams didn't get behind them."
No such problem here. Osgood is no prima donna. He shares an apartment with
Kris Draper, and is one of the guys when the team goes out to eat. Of course,
if they go anyplace where alcohol is served, it can be a problem.
"If I go in first, everyone gets carded," he says.
So he waits behind the others. He has done that before -- including last
year's playoffs, when he waited behind Vernon, who started nearly every game.
Don't expect that to happen again. The fact is, this season Osgood is
exceeding the Red Wings' hopes. And he wants no dissension with Vernon.
"Mike and I get along so well, we're beyond being jealous. As soon as
Scotty says who's starting, the other guy encourages him."
So let's see. He's smarter in the net. He's tougher about criticism. He's
mature about sharing the job. And he's playing like a maestro.
The Oz-Man cometh.
Now. When does he start shaving?
Mitch will sign copies of his new book, "Live Albom IV," 7-8 p.m. Friday,
Media Play, Oakland Pointe Plaza; 1:30-2:30 Saturday, B. Dalton, Oakland Mall;
2-3 p.m. Sunday, Waldenbooks, Ann Arbor.