The mighty Red Wings might be showing their age.
The Detroit Red Wings have been the NHL's model franchise since the mid-90s.
With GM Ken Holland and his able assistants running the show, you always had the feeling the Red Wings would be right in the thick of things at the end of the year. Detroit lost in the Stanley Cup final in 1994-95, but two years later embarked on back-to-back championship seasons. They won another Cup in 2001-02 and a fourth in 2007-08 and then lost in the final the following year.
Last season, despite a spate of injuries to key players, the Red Wings managed to make it into the second round of the post-season -- losing in five games to the San Jose Sharks. At times it looked like the Red Wings might actually miss the playoffs for the first time since 1989-90, but they rallied at the end of the season to finish fifth in the Western Conference.
At the end of the day the Red Wings gave a decent account of themselves, but there was a sinking feeling that the team is falling back to the pack. Not to suggest any team managed by Holland, regarded by many as the best general manager in the NHL, or coached by Mike Babcock, unquestionably one of the top bench bosses in the league, are suddenly just another team, but you have to wonder if they remain special?
While the Red Wings front liners, namely Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, are still be ranked among the best players in the league, there must be some concern about their supporting cast.
For starters, the NHL is now a young man's league and the Red Wings are decidedly old. All-world defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom has turned 40 and there's no denying he's slowing down. Don't get me wrong, he's still considered one of the best in the league, and certainly one of the very best defenders to ever skate in the NHL, but it would be silly to suggest he's still capable of being a serious Norris Trophy contender. Three years ago he led all NHL defencemen in scoring, but two years ago he ranked third and last season he slipped to ninth - still respectable, but you can see the trend.
Lidstrom is not the team's only grey beard. Kris Draper has turned 39-years-old; Tomas Holmstrom, Brian Rafalski and Chris Osgood are all 37; Todd Bertuzzi and Ruslan Salei are 35. The add-to-the-mix newcomer Mike Modano who is 40 and you really have to wonder how the Red Wings will keep up with younger, faster teams?
There was a time when the Red Wings pulled rabbits out of hats; unveiling young European stars who were either overlooked in the draft or picked late because they were late bloomers. Holmstrom was the 257th overall pick in 1994 while Datsyuk was picked 171st in 1998; Zetterberg 210th in 1999 and Ericsson 291st in 2002.
Now the big news in the off-season is the fact the team was able to sign a 40-year-old centre who had a career-low 30 points last season. Obviously Modano will play a new role with Detroit, a checking role, but it speaks volumes about the direction the team is going when it signs a player whose best days are clearly long behind him.
It's not that the Red Wings don't have youngsters, Darren Helm is 23, Jiri Hudler, Jonathan Ericsson and Drew Miller are 26. But, aside from Hudler, who returns to the club after spending last season playing in the KHL, the others are role players.
The Red Wings should be competitive this season. Goaltender Jimmy Howard was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie, which was won by Buffalo Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers, last season and he should provide Detroit with a chance to win most games. Datsyuk remains on the game's best all-around forwards, as is Zetterberg, but the Red Wings will not go very far if both players stall at the 70-point mark the way they did last season. Granted, injuries slowed Zetterberg, but he needs to get back to the 30-plus goal area he was in the previous four years.
Funny though, it wasn't too long ago when just being competitive wasn't good enough in Detroit.
