The Wizard of Oz, meanwhile, had a few months at his Vernon summer home to digest last season.

"It was good," said Osgood, who heads back to Detroit this week. "The regular season wasn’t great, especially the first half which was terrible. The second half and the playoffs was great. Obviously, it was disappointing we didn’t win, but saying that, we fought through a lot of things, a lot of injuries and we played a tough, tough series every series and it didn’t happen for us. It was definitely exciting, a lot of fun to play in. At the moment, it’s real disappointing when you lose, but when you look at it, we achieved a lot." ...

"I like playing in the playoffs. I think the older you get, the more forward you look to playoffs. In the regular season, you need to play well, but it’s long and it draws out so when the playoffs start, especially in Detroit, that’s when it’s fun and you wanna play.

"For us, you look back, it’s disappointing when you’re up 3-2 and you lose, even 2-0 and you lose, but at the same time, we got beat by a team that played real well."