Red Wings' Osgood stuck on win No. 397

Detroit -- So close yet so far away.

That's how 400 wins has to feel for Chris Osgood after Thursday night's 4-2 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes at Joe Louis Arena.

Osgood is sitting on 397 career victories, hoping to join a select group of nine goaltenders with 400 or more wins. He's going to need some help to get there.

The Wings have gotten into a bad habit of starting slow in several games this season. Yet they hadn't really paid the price for it until they faced the Coyotes, losers of three straight coming in.

Radim Vrbata got things going for the Coyotes when he eluded rookie defenseman Jakub Kindl and broke in on Osgood. He got Osgood to commit and then backhanded the puck into the left side of the net at 7:00 of the first period.

Less than two minutes later, the Coyotes scored on the power play when defenseman Keith Yandle crept in, held the puck and then put it in top shelf.

"It's tough because there's a guy backdoor, there's a guy there," Osgood said. "He tried to be patient, patient, he put it right beside my head. It's a difficult play -- guys make plays in this league. To me, he could have passed it and it's hard for a defenseman to get over there because the other guy's wide open so you get yourself in between and he happened to make a nice shot."

Having scored even strength and with the man advantage, all the Coyotes needed was a shorthanded goal, which they got when Lauri Korpikoski shot the puck from the blue line and it went in stick-side.

"It just curved a ton but that's no excuse," Osgood said. "I've played long enough that I know I gotta take that entire side away just to make sure things like that don't happen. It's just a matter of getting rust off and getting to play. I know better than that. He's that-handed shot, I've got to take away that side no matter what and avoid bad happenings. It's like trying to hit a Tim Wakefield knuckleball with my stick. For me, I'd miss most of the time. But I know better. I've got to get myself, my entire body in front of it and make sure that doesn't even have the opportunity to happen."

Korpikoski was giving Osgood the benefit of the doubt.

"You take a wrist shot just past the blue line, you don't expect it to go in," Korpikoski said. "Maybe knuckleballed a little on him. Good things happen when you shoot the puck."

Or bad things, from Osgood's perspective.

Originally, Jimmy Howard was going to start in net but he felt some back spasms after the morning skate.

"They told me before the morning skate he had some tightness in his back," coach Mike Babcock said. "He went out and skated in the morning like he was going. (Trainer) Piet (Van Zant) told me before I left in the morning that he wasn't going. Ozzie had lots of time. I thought he made some good saves for us. He'd like to have the third one back."

Captain Nick Lidstrom said the Wings didn't help Osgood out much in the first period.

"I thought they were a lot hungrier than we were," Lidstrom said. "I thought they came out with a better jump. I thought they were quicker on pucks and they capitalized on their chances they got, too. They got one power play, one shorthanded, one even strength. It's hard to give a team a 3-0 lead and try to come back from it. It's very tough."

The Coyotes completed the many different ways of scoring with an empty-net goal to ice it after the Wings pulled Osgood with 1:16 to play.

Meanwhile, Osgood's counterpart, Ilya Bryzgalov, looked like the finalist for the Vezina Trophy he was last season, making 43 saves. The 45 shots represented a high for the Wings and a high in shots allowed for the Coyotes.

"He's come up big all year long," Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski said. "You don't like to give up 45 shots. Detroit's got a lot of talent, got a lot of opportunities. He was there when they did."

Babcock wasn't sure if Howard would be available for Saturday night's game against Nashville. No doubt Osgood would like to get another chance, especially since he looked and felt better after the first period.

"I started feeling good halfway through the second," he said. "It's not stopping pucks, it's moving around, tracking things and being on the right angle all the time. It's things that goalies know. Just have to get in some games and get in kind of a rhythm."

Oct. 28, 2010