Will (gasp!) Backup Goalie Be Red Wings' Bugaboo?

Can a backup goaltender, of all things, decide whether a hockey team reaches the promised land or not?We're about to find out.The Detroit Red Wings pull the curtain back tonight for the first time in front of their home crowd in the 2009-10 campaign. And their fans will see something that they haven't seen in 20 years: an 0-2 Red Wings team.But the Wings are 0-0 in North America!The much ballyhooed trip to Sweden proved to be more distraction than it was worth, the Red Wings blowing two-goal leads in both games to the inferior (but improving) St. Louis Blues.Let's look at that word, inferior.First there's the inferior backup goaltender, Jimmy Howard---in comparison to last year's No. 2 man, Ty Conklin. But the concern in Detroit is that Howard is not only inferior to Ty Conklin, but also to Ty Cobb, when it comes to being a goalie.Chris Osgood, the No. 1 netminder, wasn't very good in Sweden. Howard, though, was downright awful.But it was just one game, right...