Hotmail
Red Wings have set themselves up to repeat
Must-read:
Must-see:
Top headlines:
Worth a thousand words:
The defending champion Detroit Red Wings will likely be the consensus pick to become the first club since the 1998 Red Wings to repeat, although that was a considerably different version from the club that won it all this year.
Most experts will point to the Wings keeping their Cup-winning roster practically intact while adding more offensive punch in winger Marian Hossa as the reason they'll win it in 2009. Some might even be tempted to suggest the Wings could become the first team in over a quarter century to win three consecutive Cups.
Recent winners Anaheim, Carolina and Tampa Bay lost too many key players to free agency, leaving their respective front offices scrambling for affordable replacements that ultimately proved ineffective in bolstering a return to the Final.
Keeping a championship roster intact in today's NHL doesn't guarantee any team a second straight title, let alone portend a championship dynasty, as several factors make it very difficult for champions to repeat the feat.
Free agency, particularly unrestricted free agency, is the biggest factor. It's no coincidence that since the more liberalized free agency was established in 1995 that fewer Cup champions repeat their run to glory.
The establishment of the salary cap after the lockout of 2004-05 makes it even tougher to keep a winner together. With only a set amount allowable for salaries each season and the ever-increasing cost of retaining key players, especially star players, even a championship team struggles to stay intact.
Red Wings general manager Ken Holland did a masterful job of beating those odds for the upcoming season, re-signing all his key free agents while still leaving enough to add a scoring star in Hossa and to round out the rest of his roster with minor signings.
Even so, Holland's Wings still face stiff challenges over the course of the season and the playoffs. Other teams were busy during the offseason upgrading their respective rosters, which could make them more formidable opponents.
Division rivals Chicago and Columbus appear to have significantly improved as have conference rivals like Dallas, San Jose, Edmonton, Calgary and Phoenix.
In the East, the Pittsburgh Penguins, whom the Wings defeated to win the 2008 Stanley Cup, appear questionable to reach next year's final but remain a very talented team. Montreal, Philadelphia, Washington, Carolina, New Jersey and the New York Rangers also appear to have improved this summer..
The long NHL season is also a formidable barrier. Training camp begins in mid-September and the Wings' 2008-09 season begins Oct. 9 and concludes April 12. That's nearly seven months of training camp, preseason and regular-season play, without counting the two-month grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In this calendar year, the Wings will have played nine months of hockey, and would face another six months in 2009 if they're to march on to a second straight championship. That's a long, daunting, exhausting grind even for a club as talented as the Red Wings.
So much can happen over that long haul. Contract talks with next summer's potential free agents could become a distraction. Injuries can take a significant toll, particularly if one or more star players are waylaid. Rival teams can pull off trades which could make them more formidable opponents during the season and the playoffs.
 |
| The Stanley Cup made its way back to Detroit this year and Spector thinks it may be there for another season. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images) |
Motivation could also prove to be the deciding factor for the Red Wings.
When the Wings won their second consecutive Cup in 1998 they used as inspiration the plight of teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, whose playing career ended just days after winning the 1997 Stanley Cup when he was crippled in a limousine accident.
But the following season it was clear the Wings' well of inspiration had dried up. Neither the recovery from heart surgery of then-head coach Scotty Bowman nor the late-season acquisitions of veteran talent like Chris Chelios, Wendel Clark, Bill Ranford, Ulf Samuelsson and Todd Gill could lift the Red Wings to a third consecutive championship.
This season's Red Wings will have to look much deeper to find the motivation to gear up for a long, grueling defense of their title, and that's where leadership must come to the fore.
The Wings certainly aren't lacking in that category, personified by team captain Nicklas Lidstrom, who was a member of those late-'90s championship teams and learned what leadership was about from his legendary predecessor Steve Yzerman.
Lidstrom proved himself worthy of filling Yzerman's large shoes by captaining the Wings to the 2008 championship, but the biggest test of his leadership skills will be inspiring his teammates to a second straight Stanley Cup title.
The Red Wings have a very good chance of repeating as Stanley Cup champions but the road ahead will be perhaps much tougher than that which led them to championship glory this year.
Member Comments
theres going to be another party in the D at the end of this season! GO WINGS!!!!!
9/24/2008 9:32:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
winginexile, great story until the end. Hard to play someone who has no chance of making the playoffs
steelermike779/19/2008 10:26:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
Kwame sez: "Detroit, Y'all set me up for a comeback!" followed by " The beer is on ME!" . GO WINGS!!!!!
Tigerssfan849/11/2008 6:45:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
Amen wingnut85 Or at least give them permission to play as lions.
PS30629/8/2008 9:35:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
God His-dang-self couldn't help the Tigers or Lions.
WingInExile9/5/2008 20:25:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
can the wings help the tigers learn to play as a team and win?
tigerless9/5/2008 20:01:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
It's time to lace m up and let the fun start... what a great combination of veterans and young players coming out of Grand Rapids. Ken Holland is the man that built his staff and team and it should be a great year to watch with a smile. Drop the puck and lets have some fun.
ruffwind9/4/2008 1:37:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
Dont know what I did but it wasnt right, again, what game do the wings raise the CUP at home
lugwrench9/3/2008 10:52:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
And Risho, well thought out post, and certainly understood. Jealousy is the ultimate form of trubute. There were days when the Kings (Gretzky era) were a force and the Wings were dead. Those days are long gone, but not dead, the Kings will find their way back. Hockey rules!
Cujo_06219/2/2008 19:51:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
Nothing is guaranteed, drop the friggin puck already! GO LIONS........errrr WINGS!!
Cujo_06219/2/2008 19:46:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
nobody else in the league has close to the talent that the Wings have. They will definately repeat as Stanley Cup Champs!! GO WINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eagle459/1/2008 6:50:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
Definately Repeat, no one could stop Datsyuk, Zetterburg last season, Franzen, Os was awesome in net, just added Marian Hossa, Lidstrom, Talk about impressive play from Nikolaus Kronwell, They will repeat, Go Wings, I LOVE IT
redwings4718/30/2008 16:02:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
Some thoughts about repeating as Stanley cup champs........<br /><br />Repeating in any sport is tough, but especially so in NHL hockey. 82 game regular season followed by, count 'em, four seven game playoff series to take the Cup. That's a tall, tall order. Of course, more than half the teams in the league make the playoffs, but it is in the nature of seven game series that all it takes to get beat is a 2-3-4 game lull, perhaps due to injury, due to running into a super hot goalie, due to finally wearing down after a long season and 1-3 tough playoff series, etc. Any number of things can jump up and knock a team out. For any single team to run this grueling gauntlet two years in a row is a remarkable achievement - and a highly unlikely one statistically. Much of the reason is the salary cap and a general parity among at least the top half of the league in any given year. How often it happens that a team which missed the playoffs by a mile one season changed just a few players and then made the playoffs, sometimes making a good run in the playoffs. The obverse of this is the Cup winner or runner up team which loses a player or two in the off season and then tanks it the next season, failing to make the playoffs. The lines between excellent and also-ran are very thin. The game itself so often comes down to minute details - the shot that hits the middle of the post and clangs out would have scored if it were only a half inch or so towards the net. Whole series have turned on a single well-timed goal. <br /><br />So, when hockey writers or fans talk about the Red Wings having the best chance to take the next Cup, thereby 'repeating', it's merely a matter of calculating the odds on paper. Ah, but they don't play the game on paper. <br /><br />The more accurate way to look at it is this: The odds of any team repeating are very small, especially now with the salary cap. This is just as true with this year's Detroit Red Wings. To win the Cup only one thing must happen - they have to win, win consistently, and win consistently during four rounds of seven game playoff series. To lose the Cup any number of things could happen. Nonetheless, on paper, this year's Red Wing team is as well set up to repeat as any team that has won the Stanley Cup in recent years. But the odds still favor the probability that some other team will win the next Stanley Cup. This, of course, is what makes repeating such a remarkable achievement, an absolute delight for fans of the repeating team. Of all 30 teams, you have to go with the defending champs when they've lost virtually nobody and actually improved the team with new additions like Hossa and Conklin. Plus, the Red Wings are notorious for having some unknown kid make the team out of camp, a kid who a season or two later is being tagged as a soon-to-be NHL star (think Filpula, Franzen, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, etc.). But the bottom line is that Detroit's odds are the best among the 30 teams in the NHL, but overall, the odds of Detroit repeating as Stanley Cup champs remain disturbingly (to Red Wing fans) small. <br /><br />What if Lidstrom blew out a knee in November? Detroit would still have a defense better than almost all the other clubs, but Lidstrom waers the 'C' and is the heart and soul of the Red Wings. The consequences of losing Lidstrom are literally incalcuable. Seasons turn on just such events. <br /><br />Having said all that, forgive if I root for my Red Wings anyway, lol. <br /><br />GO WINGS! DROP THE FREAKIN' PUCK ALREADY.
WingInExile8/20/2008 20:00:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
you know whats better then hockey.... basketball and this gmae si the reason why check it out its cyberdunk and its the best game ever literally<br />www.cyberdunk. com/?ref=960170
chrisp38/20/2008 11:32:00 AM(Report inappropriate content)
jourourjon<br />We are hockey people, we give as good as we get. But you porn s u c k i n g leeches<br />make me sick. barfffff
inthepipes8/19/2008 16:11:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
im not looking at the wings becoming a dynasty, i think the wings have been a dynasty for the past 20 years. just look what they have accomplished. until jimmy D. Ken Holland, Jim Nill, Stevie Y, leave and Mike Illitch decides to sell the team, they will remain a dynasty wether they win the cup or not.this front office has the greatest set of hockey minds in the history of sport, and thats why they have been and are in the position they're in.
oreowing8/19/2008 12:52:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
Jcpsr how can you say Lidstrom Rafalski will not be the best defensive pair in the NHL this year? You talk about how they're on the way down but Rafalski is 34, not exactly ancient. He has several good years left. As for Lidstrom he just capped off his 6th Norris trophy in a landslide. Age clearly hasn't slowed him down, largely because his game is based more off positioning than speed or physicality. Then look at the other two pairs you mentioned. Niedermayer/Pronger struggled last year. Niedermayer was on pace for only 42 points and was a -2 after 48 games. Pronger meanwhile was a -1 and had his lowest point total since 97-98. Keith/Campbell has to be a joke. Keith is an up and comer but doesn't have the offensive numbers yet and while Cambell has the offensive numbers he's a massive liability in his own end. A big reason why he'll never be considered a Norris contender.
snowboarderx1158/18/2008 17:50:00 PM(Report inappropriate content)
advertisement
