Is Fleury better than Osgood?

Question

last year osgood finished with a better GAA 2.09 than fleury 2.33 did. but, who is the better goalie? the wings lit up fleury in the playoffs but they were the only team that did. Osgood did a pretty solid job but that might be because he has such a good defense. Osgood had a total (with playoffs) of 41 wins and a save percentage of .914, Fleury WAS INJURED for awhile but still won a total of 33 games and had a .922 save %. what do you think?

Answer 1

Fleury needs to gain consistency before he can even be compared to Osgood, Brodeur, Luongo, etc.  Right now i find that him and Carey Price are in the same boat.  Great potential but yet to be proven consistently.  Fleury has great players in front of him.  Try putting him in New Jersey or Vancouver.  He won't stand a chance.  Consistency is the key for him.

Answer 2

Osgood just had a great team in front of him and Fleury is younger and has a future unlike Osgood, Osgood is extremely overrated just because had a good goals against average, but he didn't get many shots against him and the ones he did weren't of very good quality.

Answer 3

Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy

Answer 4

Fleury is better, no question. If you WATCH the goalies and ignore the stats (basically making what you base the skill on "pure" since stats can be influenced by teammates), it is clear that Fleury is better.

Answer 5

I think Fleury is a better goalie than Osgood, but still has a lot to learn. Osgood has the experience, but I think Fleury has better potential with his skills still developing.

Answer 6

Did you watch the Stanley Cup? Did you see how amazing Fluery played? He played amazing from the time he came back from the injury actually. Last year he was a 40 game winner, but had a problem with consistency. So if he stays as good as he was when he came back then it is clear he is the better goalie. I wouldn't really see the Wings lit him up either. Look at all the shots they took, and the amount of amazing saves he made. Heck if you shoot 40 times the goalie is bound to miss one or two. Osgood did his job in the playoffs, and was able to make some great saves when he had to. Thing is he RARELY had to, because the Red Wings played as a TEAM, and did an amazing job of it.

Hey Sportsanimal how close were you watching that? Guess you missed the players that were going right in to Fluery? I admit they didn't quite hit him but I'm sure it was part of why he fell. Anyway you prove the point of what a TEAM will do. Had the defenseman been playing the puck(you know HIS JOB) he would have hit the puck away so Fluery could fall back like that. I excuse Gonchar, since the Wings were pushing him in to Fluery, but he is about the only one who couldn't help. It's called TEAM WORK, not rookie mistake. That puck sat there for too long for it to be rookie mistake issue.

Answer 7

Fleury is. Yes he was injured and if he was playing that time it would have been higher. He is young, but is so talented!!!

Answer 8

Right now I think that Osgood is better because he's older and has more experience then Fleury does but when Fleury is older I have a feeling he's going to get better then Osgood.

Answer 9

As far as goalie skills I would give a slight edge to Fleury, but Osgood is a lot better than most people give him credit for. A lot of people will say it was Detroit's defense and not Osgood's skills that won, but a .914 save percentage is based on shots that would have otherwise gone in the goal. That is irrefutable IMO.

Answer 10

no

Answer 11

Who cares.  Both are good and both can win in the playoffs.  Neither are going to win a cup by themselves, (like Giguere almost did in 2003), and neither are going to cost you a Cup.  They are both just solid goalies, and that is all you can ask for, except if you have a defense like Ottawa or Tampa Bay, then you need a miracle.  Personally, puttin my Wings bias aside, right now I take Osgood only because he is a bargain at around $1.4 million, where Fleury is $5 million.

btw sgoldperson... The players around Fleury had NO effect on that "bad" Cup winning goal he gave up.  He realized the puck wasn't under him and did what EVERY goalie would have done, which is fall back on it.  That was one of the craziest bounces I've ever seen.  But as far as what you said about Osgood "rarely" having to make the huge save... That is just not true.  One of the bad side effects of Detroit's system is them giving up a LOT of really good scoring chances.  They don't give up many shots, but the ones that are, are usually very good chances.  This is because the Wing's defensemen NEVER want to lob the puck out of the zone, an effect of this is many horribly dangerous turnovers.  Pittsburgh was able to capitalize on many of these in the Finals.  That's how they were able to get most of their goals.

Answer 12

Yes.  Osgood had better numbers, but he also has a much better defense.  To be honest I'd be surprised if even Osgood denied that Fleury was better.

Answer 13

Osgood has proven to be solid for every team, even STL and NYI who suck horribly, in his career.  He has never had a losing record.  He is in the top 20 in almost every list of all-time NHL goaltending records, and has made 4 all star appearances.  He has 3 cups, 2 of which he won as starting goaltender, the other, he split time in the season with Mike Vernon when they won the Jennings Trophy (his FIRST jennings trophy).  he was a vezina runner up to Jim Carrey back in the day, and scored a goal.  Fleury will not prove to have the same longevity.  Chris Osgood is on a different level.

FYI dumbsh*ts, Chris Osgood has ALWAYS been CRITICIZEd and UNDERRATED!  There has never been hype about Chris Osgood.  He has NEVER been given the credit he deserves.  Fleury is a 1st round pick.  He will be good, and he will be starting goaltender material for a long time.  He is not the same caliber of a goalie though, at this point.  A lot of netminders start off strong, but don't manage to sustain the same level of play.  Chris Osgood is, currently, 3 times the goaltender, and was twice the goaltender at Fleury's age.  Maybe nobody remembers how spectacular Ozzie was in his early days?  His 3 straight all star selections came in, I believe, his 3rd 4th and 5th seasons (or 2nd, 3rd and 4th...).  Ozzie wins hands down.  Whoever thinks Fleury is better hasn't been watching hockey longer than 2 seasons.

No I didn't watch the Stanley Cup Finals.....I slept through them.

Yes I watched them, Fleury did great in the Finals.  I'm not saying he isn't good.  He's just not OSgood.  The Red Wings, however, were his only test.  Consistency is his problem.  We will see this season/postseason.

Answer 14

I think is Fleury better, lol my opinion

Answer 15

Osgood by a long shot. There is one significant difference between the two. 35lbs of silver being hoisted over Ozzie's head!

Answer 16

Right now is Osgood.  but from the looks of it Fluery will probably overtake him.

Answer 17

Great stats for your files. But, no way.  Its an Osgood world after all.

Answer 18

Hard to say.  There are so many things that contribute to goalies stats that they really cant tell you who is better than the other.  Just by watching them play though, I would say are pretty close to eachother.  I do think Fluery is severly over rated though.  Some people act like he is one of the best in the league (mostly pens fans), but thats just crazy talk.  The Broduers and Luongos are the best in the league.  Following them are the Nabakovs, Gigueres, Kipprusoffs, etc.  After that comes the Ozzys and Fleurys.  Ozzy is a little over hyped right now too after this last season, but he hasnt been over rated for very long.

Answer 19

fleury is better. osgood only played good with det.with blues he sucked,islanders he sucked.

Answer 20

Fleury is better.people think Osgood is the worst goalie to win 3 stanley cups

Answer 21

Fleury missed 14 games in the regular season when he had his ankle sprain. Osgood shared the season with Dum Dum. Osgood didn't play half as many games as Fluery did during the regular season.

Osgood has won three Cups--well I guess you could argue he truly only won TWO of those, in '97 he was the back up goalie, I don't think he played a game in the playoffs. But anyway...when Fleury has at least ONE Cup to his name then we can argue who is better.

Right now it's Osgood.

Answer 22

i agree with sportsanimal.  he replaced hasek.  both goalies have good teams in front of them.  just because detroit had a better defense doesnt mean osgood aint better. you would be saying the same thing if fleury was on detroit and osgood was on pitts.  i think they are pretty evenly matched but if i chose,  id osgood, not just because of his numbers, but because of his experience.  

id also like to point out fleury's 2006-2007 season.  he went 40-16, a great record, but had a bad GAA (2.83) and save% (.906)

Answer 23

um never!look!osgood REPLACED hasek, led them to a stanley cup and won!despite SOME goals in crucial parts-he wouldn't have done it if it weren't for hasek!osgood doesn't SIT on the puck and makes it go in-rookie error!

if hasek were to start and not chris-who knows?

Answer 24

Fleury.  through and through.  He gave110% through last season, at least when he played.  Osgood is a c*nt.  He is a terrific goalie when he wants to be.  Case and point.  Look at the season he spent with the Note (the Blues to all you non-St Louisans).  He sucked nuts in simple senarios.  when he played a team he thought would give him a challenge, he played phenomonally.  If not, he threw it away, and thus screwed the second half of our season away.  Now that he's back with his buddies up in f*cktown, he decides oh i wanna live up to my potential now.  F*ck Osgood.  and thats from the heart of StL.  We got Manny Legace now who wants to play his *** of to be the best he can.

Answer 25

Its funny to read such stupid arguments. I think Roy wasnt  really good either, because of those Habs and Avs teams he had in front of him. Broduer, what a joke, all that D, and clutch and grab trap, he wasnt good at all. Sound stupid, YES, it does. These are the same people that think Luongo is a god, but he cant lead the Canucks anywhere. Shouldnt we say Luongo sucks, because he cant lead a bad team anywhere?? Anyways, I dont like these who is better questions, because you might as well say, who do you like more!!! BTW, if your name gets ON the cup, you WON the cup. The tool that said Osgood sucked on the Blues and Isles, you are way off. He led virtually the same crappy Isles team, to a near 40 point improvement in his first season. The Blues, he put up decent numbers, on a team, that was destined for nothing.

Answer 26

Osgood is 35, Fleury is 23...look how good Fleury is at a young age. I believe Fleury is better.

:)

Answer 27

Osgood's better as of right now.  Two Stanley Cups as a starter, winning seasons with three different teams (and playoff trips with all three teams).  Fleury is just now entering his prime and just had his coming-out party in the playoffs.  Give him time.

Answer 28

Fleury is better, but he wasn't backed up by Detroit defense. Thats why he seemed to be not as good as Osgood.

Answer 29

Fleury, is better, just because of sheer potential. Give the kid time, roughly 5 years, and he will morph into a semi-Roberto Luongo type of netminder. He will not steal away games like Roberto, but he will face a decent amount of shots, and stop a majotiry of them. Osgood on the other hand is a good goalie, but by no stretch a great goalie. He has one quite a bit of games. But that might be due to the exceptional dominance of the Red Wings team, which he has played for, during his career. Osgood cannot steal games, but he can stop a puck. But Fleury is still better.

Answer 30

I still think that Chris Osgood is the better goalie unless Marc-Andre Fleury does something fantastic to make me think otherwise. Osgood is just about os good as you can get ;)

Fleury will be a great goalie later but for now Osgood is better...we can see that because who was it that won the Stanley Cup this year?