Ozzie, or Ozzent he?

Just to get it out of the way, I am a HUGE Red Wings fan.  I lived through a good chunk of the Dead Things era, and have been handsomely rewarded over the past decade and a half for those excruciating times.  During these bountiful years, Chris Osgood has been a big part of the many championship runs the Wings have made, not least of which was stealing the starting job from none other than Dominik Hasek and leading the Wings to victory in 2008.  Needless to say there was a time when knowing he was backstopping my boys made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

However, we hockey fans can be a fickle bunch, and Osgood has done nothing short of falling flat on his face in recent seasons .  He was god awful last year, which forced Jimmy Howard into the limelight, and thank the Hockey Gods he shined and kept the playoff streak alive.  Then 2 years ago, as a starter, Osgood was at the bottom of the list for all relevant goalie stats.  Now, stack on top of that the fact that goalie equipment is getting trimmed this year, with Osgood already being mistaken for a stick when not in pads (a short forward's stick at that), and I smell a shitstorm brewing in the crease, especially if Howie goes ahead with that sophomore slump oft predicted by the pundits.

I've been following the Blogger's Roundtable currently being hosted at The Production Line, and have been enjoying the lively discussions between some of the best hockey minds of the bloggosphere.  However, I just can't figure out why, to a man, they believe that Osgood is going to have a bounce back season.  Between the reasons I stated above, the rumblings of his unhappiness with Babcock's use of his talents last season, and the fact that hes another year older, I find it hard to imagine a scenario where Ozzie could have a great comeback performance.