"If you're not here, you don't know what it's like." -- Chris Osgood, on the Red Wings' mojo.

DETROIT -- There is a certain currency the Detroit Red Wings have been stowing away for a Game 7 just like this one. A rainy day account stocked full of experience, and, sorry Pittsburgh, but it’s like shopping alongside Paris Hilton.

There isn’t a team in hockey that can spend with them.

Can anyone else say they’ve won four of the last 11 Stanley Cups awarded? Do the Pittsburgh Penguins’ consecutive finals come close to having been in six of the past 14 Cup finals? Eight of the past 14 Western Conference finals?

Then there is the history. Until you can say what Mike Babcock revealed on Friday, you can’t claim the same edge.

“Mr. Lindsay is always in the opening meeting before each round. He sits right in the dressing room, in his stall, with our team,” said Babcock.

“Mr. Lindsay’s” first name is Ted. You might have heard of him.

“That Gordie (Howe) comes in after the game, or that Steve (Yzerman) comes by, or that these players still care about being a Red Wing,” said Babcock. “To me, those are Original Six things that are very, very special.”

The intangibles that Detroit brings to the table in Friday’s Game 7 are simply untouchable from a Pittsburgh perspective. They are 15 years in the making -- dating back to when Sidney Crosby was playing Atom hockey.

The spring of 1995, when Detroit was swept in the final by New Jersey, was the genesis of a base of experience that is unparalleled in today’s NHL. That team brought together practices brought from the Red Army by players like Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov, from the Edmonton Oilers dynasty by Paul Coffey, and from Mr. Hockey himself by Gordie’s son, Mark Howe.

The mentor/head coach was Scotty Bowman himself. Inside that dressing room were Nicklas Lidstrom, Kris Draper and Chris Osgood, all Red Wings today.

“I got to play with Stevie (Yzerman). A guy like Mike Vernon,” began Osgood. “Certain guys you get to play with over the years -- Shanny (Brendan Shanahan), Mark Howe was here when I was first here, Coff was here, Larry Murphy was here. A lot of guys you learn from.

“Then, Pav and Hank (Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg), they learned from those guys, and now the younger guys see Drapes, Pav and Hank… It’s just kind of a torch that gets passed along.”

So what is it really worth?

In 2009, how can something the CSKA Moscow team did in the ‘70s be of any value? What swagger that came from Edmonton’s glory years can be of use in the next century?

The answer is, no use at all -- by itself. But all balled together under the winged wheel, at a time like this it can be pure gold.

“It’s calmness,” said Osgood. “(Those things) teach you how to relax, to play our game. It’s just something that’s been handed down from each player that we know. Instilled in us. Guys just have it in them in here.

“Does it work out every time, every year? No. But every year we give ourselves a darned good chance, because of our experience and our know-how on how to … approach games in the playoffs.”

You can take it back as far as you want. Like this stat: Detroit played in the first six Stanley Cup finals Game 7s in NHL history -- between 1942 and ’64.

Or you can throw in the last 2006 Winter Olympic Games, from which Maltby laughs, “We have half of the Team Sweden that won the gold medal.”

When Maltby thinks tradition, he thinks Yzerman.

“I’ve been here since ’96,” he said. “Stevie was the face of the franchise, the captain. Seeing how his game evolved … on and off the ice, how he carried himself.

For Babcock, it’s Larionov.

“When I came to the league (in ’02), we took our power play breakout in Anaheim -- that we still use today -- by watching Larionov. I did that when I coached in the minors here and I'd come to the games.

“We've tried to do a lot of the great that Nick (Lidstrom) does. We call them Nick-isms,” he said. “We take clips during the year, and show them that at training camp. So to me, those are the things you steal from great players, or they give you.”

Of course, once they drop the puck it is up to today’s Red Wings to win without the help of all those who have come before. “All the experience in the world doesn’t guarantee you a victory,” Maltby said.

There are no guarantees, we’ll grant you that. But a trip through this Detroit dressing room can be mighty persuasive.