| | There are an awful lot of clicks on the old odometer in Motor City. The
engine may still be willing, but the body-work has been chipped and dented
through years of magnificent service.
From a distance, the car still looks like a sleek and expensive luxury ride. But get up close, and it's no longer state-of-the-art. More and
more from here on in, it'll need servicing in the shop.
Yes, it's undoubtedly one of the most compelling storylines of the 1999-2000
NHL season: Are the Detroit Red Wings finally used up? Worn out? Broken down?
|  | | Brendan Shanahan, in a contract year, needs to produce this season if the Wings are to win. |
No one should merely assume the back-to-back Cup champs are ready for the
scrap heap just yet. No, too much character, too much pride, too much
competitiveness exists in a dressing room generously populated by future Hall
of Famers.
But too much -- far too much -- can go wrong to peg them as favorites. Their
invincibility has been stripped away, and behind the facade is the
unshakeable reality that they are closer to a fall than another glorious trek
up the mountaintop.
It isn't fair. It isn't right. But it's life.
When a champion, a great one, is caught in the inevitable fall from grace, it
brings to mind Shakespeare's lines from Richard II: "For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings."
Consider this: Not since the 1990 Oilers has a dethroned champion rebounded to
win a Stanley Cup. Before that, hop in a time machine and travel all the way
back to the 1972 Boston Bruins.
History dictates that titles are won in streaks, with success being a
fleeting, fickle mistress. The Wings have enjoyed her favors and now have
awoken to find themselves alone.
Detroit GM Ken Holland must have sensed the urgency at the trade
deadline last spring, making a big push to re-energize his club.
The moves, while bold, failed to pay off, leaving fans in Hockeytown to
wonder what the future holds.
Father time is a more determined adversary than even the Dallas Stars.
In 19-year-old Czech Jiri Fischer they own a future star, a defensive gem
plucked with the 25th choice in the '98 entry draft. But otherwise, the
majority of key personnel are cozying up to 30, or well past it.
Take a check: Steve Yzerman is 34; Brent Gilchrist, trying to rebound from a third hernia operation, 32; Larry Murphy, 38; Uwe Krupp, 34; Joe Kocur, 35; Doug Brown,
35; Chris Chelios, 37. Igor Larionov will be 39 on Dec. 3. Even
Nicklas Lidstrom, arguably the best all-around defenceman in the game, is now 29. The two seriously underachieving stars, winger Brendan Shanahan and center
Sergei Fedorov, are 30 and 29, respectively.
So who do the Wings add in the offseason?
A 34-year-old (Steve Duchesne) and a 35-year-old goalie (Ken Wregget) with a bad back.
By Stevie Y's own admission, reflecting back on the playoff ouster: "We
weren't able to crank it up when we had to. We were just never able to do it."
A telling observation. From when the Wings landed a barbershop
quartet of oldies -- Chelios, Wendel Clark, Bill Ranford and Ulf Samuelsson --
at the trade deadline, it seemed merely a formality that the threepeat would
follow.
Clark had never won a Cup, and Chelios had been yearning 13 years for another.
These decorated veterans, the thinking went, would be enough of an impetus, a
spur, to push Detroit over the top once again.
Instead, the Wings were swallowed whole by the Colorado Avalanche in Round 2,
looking old, tired and overmatched.
Supporters point to the injury to goalie Chris Osgood as the main reason behind the loss. That is, on one hand, a viable explanation, and on the other, an easy excuse.
There is, of course, lots to like about this team. Scotty Bowman, master
puppeteer, can be counted on to pull the right strings. There's Lidstrom, the
seemingly-ageless Yzerman, the quicksilver of Slava Kozlov (in a contract
year, so he should be interested), an emerging force in Thomas Holmstrom, and Larionov's unequalled savvy.
But there are also an uneasy number of question marks.
Certainly, they can't hope for more mileage out of Larionov and Yzerman than
was mined last season. Detroit's role players -- Kris Draper, Martin Lapointe,
Brown and the still-unsigned Darren McCarty -- must regain the form they
showed in the two Cup-winning seasons.
Besides Osgood needing to come up big, Shanahan and Fedorov are vital. Shanahan is
entering the final year of his contract, uncertain about his future in the
organization. Fedorov remains an exasperating enigma, so best not to count
too heavily on him to piggyback the organization back to greatness.
In the Wings' camp this fall, the talk as expected, has been peppered with
vows of redemption and one more sip from the grail.
"This season," challenges Yzerman, "we should be hungrier. I expect
us to be hungrier. I think when we go around the league now, it won't be such
a big deal to be playing the Detroit Red Wings; you don't get as much
attention when you're not the Stanley Cup champions."
A realization, adds Murphy, that takes some getting used to.
"It was a big change for us," he said. "A tough summer all around. You don't really know
what you have until it's gone. Well, now we know what we missed."
Alas, missing it, knowing it, and being able to do anything about it are too
often unconnected.
Time, after all, marches on. And in its relentless wake, even the most heroic lie as casualties.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com.
| |
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