The Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings resume their series on Tuesday in a pivotal game in Detroit. The first two matches were rather surprising in how they developed. The first showcased just how close the two teams could be while the second game showed that Boston could dominate at will.

The main difference in both games was the play of Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard. In the series opener, he was stalwart in picking up a 1-0 shutout. In the rematch, Howard was victimized by penalties but also made a plethora of his own mistakes to help his team lose 4-1. As a result he bore the brunt of the criticism for the loss. While it is not time to talk of goaltending issues, it could become a debate in coming games if the netminder continues to play the way he did in Game 2.

Is Howard capable of leading Detroit on a deep run?

It must be noted that Howard has not helped Detroit to a Stanley Cup championship thus far. He took over the reigns as the team's top keeper during the 2009-10 season and posted a solid .924 save percentage in 63 games. During the playoffs that year, he played 12 games and managed a respectable .915 save percentage but only managed to get the Wings to the second round. A year later, his playoffs ended even quicker with only 11 games played; however he managed a solid .923 save percentage during that playoff run.

In 2011-12, he endured his worst run with the Red Wings as the team was ousted in five games by the Nashville Predators and he only stopped 88.8 percent of the shots he faced. A year ago was a rough playoff season for the keeper as he managed to lead the team past the Anaheim Ducks in the opening round before capsizing in the final three games against the Chicago Blackhawks during the second round. In the first four games of the series against the Blackhawks, Howard allowed a total of six goals but in the latter three, he conceded 10 times. Surprisingly, he had the best save percentage of his playoff career as he stopped 92.6 percentage of the shots he faced. It is essential to note that he has yet to reach Chris Osgood's statistics during the 2008 and 2009 playoffs when the keeper led the Red Wings to back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. In the former year, Osgood stopped 93 percent of all shots faced and a year later his save percentage dropped to 92.6 percent over 23 games.

Howard cannot be blamed for Detroit's inability to get past the first round and his statistics suggest that he is doing the best he can.

The problem is that Howard will now have to win a playoff battle against the best goalie in the league and he would need to up his performance against the best team in the league. Gaffes like Sunday's first goal mistake, in which he passed the puck to a Bruins player, cannot be repeated.

So the question beckons: is he a goalkeeper capable of leading this team as far as Osgood did back in 2008 and 2009? The above statistics certainly paint a convincing portrait and statistics actually underline this as well. Of his first four postseasons, he has been in the top ten in save percentage in three of the four seasons; these statistics also include all goalies regardless of sample sizes. For goaltenders that have played four or more games in a series (the minimum to be eliminated), he has consistently ranked in the top 10 and was even in the top five in save percentage in his first two seasons.

This indicates that Howard is not a problem for Detroit, but one of the team's greatest assets. He is more than capable of leading this team on a deep run, but the team needs to step up as well.