Look, I like Chris Osgood. I just don't understand how anyone thinks there's a goaltending controversy at this point. Regardless of rust or how much he felt like sulking, he just wasn't good against Minnesota. It wasn't just the goals -- there were definitely some sweet shots and flukey goals. Even outside that, Osgood had absolutely no confidence. He was deep in his net, he was slow getting side to side, and he wasn't stepping up when Detroit needed him to. That all definitely led to a few of those goals. Sure, whatever, blame Babcock for him not having confidence. Do whatever. But I don't know how that justifies giving him more starts.

This is new for Wings fans, so maybe they're just not seeing it. In my mind, when you've got a goalie, continually, coming into a game and letting in 3-5 goals on 20-25 shots, and you've got a goalie who twice in a month has come through with 46 and 51 saves, among a handful of other games he's stolen, there's just no controversy. Osgood should be playing more than once a month. But how many more games like Wednesdays do we need to see before we call him a lost cause? There's just no point, with Detroit where they are in the standings, in taking such a huge gamble in Osgood. Jimmy Howard should be playing 75-80% of the games down the stretch. Osgood should get one more chance to take his job back at the end of the year, if Detroit's in the position where they can afford a few shaky games from him.

And that's pretty much the end of it. I understand perfectly that some people like Osgood better than Howard. That's cool, I really don't get it. I tend to gravitate to the one playing better. I'm just amazed that even after a game like last night, people are still thinking about the next time Osgood should start. I don't buy for a second that Howard is wearing out. One bad game doesn't mean he's tired -- by that logic, Osgood has been playing exhausted since early November. He's got that whole Olympic break coming up too. As long as he's winning (and that's the important part), there just isn't any reason to take him out. But I gotta be careful, because that's all heresy.

Other than Jimmy, there weren't too many bright spots yesterday. The defense was... yikes. I don't understand how the team preaches "keeping it simple" and playing so conservatively, but be content to turn the puck over all day. Jonathan Ericsson had a pretty rough night. Everyone was pretty guilty of unforced errors in their own end.

But that win was huge -- and keeping with not being so cynical, there wasn't really a whole lot wrong. The team just didn't come out with a whole lot of energy, but despite being outshot so severely, I thought they turned it on a little more as the game went on. They came up with some pretty timely goals -- though that end sequence was absolutely terrifying. Down a man with a two-goal lead, Danger Helm can't convert on what could have been a clutch empty net. I think I was on edge until there were four seconds left, because I felt that was the earliest time I could feel comfortable with a two-goal lead. But that didn't stop Mick from trying to jinx Detroit about two dozen times during the game, making his little quips about Detroit's two-goal leads.

The pre-game show was interesting because the FSN crew actually started sharing their opinions on players -- who goes, when Johan Franzen comes back in 8-12 days and they make a decision on Andreas Lilja after a conditioning stint that's supposed to start next week. Drew Miller was a name brought up, and responded by notching two points. He's growing on me. Not in the sense that I didn't like him, because I love his hard work, but I was just thinking Detroit might get rid of him for their younger players. Starting to feel like he might be worth keeping around, since he seems to be gaining confidence and is starting to be really noticeable on every shift.

And how funny was it that Jason Williams opened the scoring. Vanilla, Mr. Insignificant, every name he was called (and I'm not acting like I was above that, because I wasn't). Good for him though. He may be insignificant but he's a ton better than Ville Leino and Brad May. He didn't play much, but he looked alright. More noticeable in the first period than the second and third, but that could have had something to do with every other Red Wing turning the puck over in the first period.

I'm all about being optimistic, but it would have been pretty sad to drop that game to a struggling team like Nashville. We're a point up on Calgary with 54 games played each, but they've got Edmonton tonight -- a team who's dropped 20 of their past 21. They're in danger of going 0-for-January if they lose tonight. That would be funny, but it would be nice to be secure in 8th place for longer than 24 hours.