On the Wings

In a column on ESPN today, Damien Cox adds to a growing collection of pieces declaring the fall of the “once-mighty” (a term commonly used in such things) Detroit Red Wings, who, we’re told, are on the fast track to again becoming the Dead Things. He pretty much bases this assertion on the fact that the Wings have lost four games already this season, when it took them over a month to do the same last year.

According to Cox, the Wings no longer intimidate anyone because they don’t have any personnel capable of intimidating opponents in the way they used to. By this he means they no longer have the ability to ice the “swashbuckling combination of passing and shooting and stickhandling and speed,” that had them going into “games with a one-goal lead just because the opposition knows it doesn’t have the same talent quotient as the Red Wings.” And the reason they don’t have the ability is because they have lost most of the big-name players they had, leaving the team a lineup that is, “by comparison, pretty darn ordinary.”

Paralleling the Wings’ “fall” is that of the Avs and the Devils, the latter of which, Cox says, has been kept from mediocrity by the merits of Lou Lamoriello and Martin Brodeur. The Avs and Devils, however, still have their mainstays, which in Colorado is embodied in captain Joe Sakic. The Wings, on the other hand, are doomed because of the “serious leadership vacuum” left by Steve Yzerman’s retirement and Brendan Shanahan’s signing with the Rangers. The Wings are seeing holes in other areas, Cox says, particularly in the defense, which will become depleted after Lidstrom, Schneider, and Chelios leave (when’s that going to be, Damien?).

Okay, enough summary. Here are some comments in response.

First of all, the Wings have never been the fastest team in the league. In fact, one of the most common complaints of Wings fans is that the team is too old and slow. For years, their strength was puck possession, which did not necesitate speed, but put a premium on skill.

Second, the Wings’ mostly young lineup is by no means ordinary. Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Jason Williams, Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler, Valtteri Filppula, Tomas Kopecky, Brett Lebda, and Johan Franzen are plenty extraordinary. They may not strike fear in the opposition like Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Nick Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, Brett Hull, and the Grind Line used to, but they are a major part of the League’s future and are good players now, as well. Cox, to be fair, covers this a little later in the column but not after making some ridiculous assertions.

Third, the Sharks and Ducks are not powerhouse teams. That Cox would label the latter a powerhouse is more indicative of the hockey media’s love affair with Chriscott Niederprongermeyer than just about anything I’ve seen so far. As for the Sharks, they’ve been “on the rise” for so long that I no longer expect great things of them.

Fourth, Cox makes a number of references to the Wings’ 2002 Cup-winning squad (ignoring the 1998 and 1997 teams), which pretty much explains why he’s so shocked that the Wings are where they are now. The 2002 season was very much a special case and was the only time the Wings came close to achieving the reputation of absolute dominance the media has given them. In that year, their roster truly was stacked and all sorts of platitudes were justified. In other years, the Wings were just a talented team with a solid core that demonstrated wide varience in how they performed when it counted.

Cox’s memory of a Detroit team stacked with marquee players has to come mostly from the 2001-2002 season. Not to say they did not have marquee players in other seasons but they had a lot more players Cox would call “ordinary,” (i.e. Doug Brown, Jamie Macoun, Tomas Sandstrom, Joey Kocur, etc.). Where the Wings are now is, to me, not vastly different than where they were in the early 90s, when Lidstrom, Fedorov, Konstantinov, Osgood, and Kozlov were proto-stars.

Again, the Wings have had a bad start, and it is worrisome. However, they still have a pretty strong team and ought to remain competitive, once they get out of this rut. Personally, I’d rather see them fall a little in the standings rather than go into the playoffs on top of the league and complacent. A fourth or fifth place finish (or even lower) may help them rather than hurt them. Someone like Cox wouldn’t remember it but the Wings won the Cup in 1997 and 1998 but didn’t finish on top of the regular season standings (they were third both years).

They just need to get their offense on track.