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The end of an era Red Wings give way to more talented, younger teams
Posted: Tuesday May 09, 2000 09:48 AM
And so we say goodbye to the Detroit Red Wings as we've come to know and love them. Their claim as one of the NHL's all-time great teams may have fallen a little short, but they certainly can argue that they were a team of the decade, a 1990s type of club that played hard and played to win and usually accomplished both. The end, however, came both quickly and somewhat quietly, dispatched by the Colorado Avalanche in a mildly surprising five games. To watch the Avs play, you could hardly tell they ended a dynasty. Two Cups and a decade of excellence dispatched in workmanlike fashion. No blood spilled, no nail-biting finishes. The Avs may have made it look easy, but that's testimony as to just how good they really are. How they may well be ready to replace the Red Wings as the premier team in the West. The ramifications of that cannot be understated. First up, we may well see the end of William Scott Bowman's time behind the Detroit bench. While it's a given that he's the NHL's all-time winningest coach, it's more likely he will accept the Red Wings for what they are -- a great team in decline -- and move on. That could mean anything from retirement to a cushy front office job in Detroit to general manager, coach, or maybe both for the New York Rangers. The personal goal there was a record ninth Stanley Cup championship. That the Red Wings -- for now and the foreseeable future -- are not in that class just makes leaving a little bit easier. This isn't rocket science or even an exercise in blind chance. The Wings are the oldest team in hockey and though they are still capable of impressive achievements, especially in the regular season, they no longer have the proper combination of skill, hunger and -- and this is most important -- youthful enthusiasm to run the long Stanley Cup course. They also have almost no up-and-coming young talent; not on their roster, not in their system. Contrast that to the Avalanche. Colorado has stars, almost as many as the Red Wings. Peter Forsberg is the best two-way center in the West and quite possibly the best in the NHL. Joe Sakic is a genuine scoring star. Sandis Ozolinsh is a world-class offensive defenseman and Patrick Roy is just games away from being the winningest goaltender in NHL history. More importantly, the Avalanche -- at least before the late arrival of veterans Ray Bourque and Dave Andreychuk -- were the second youngest team in the NHL. Those younger players are also talented younger players and many of them made a difference in the showdown with the Red Wings. Chris Drury was a star for Colorado in this series. A season removed from rookie of the year status, he outplayed highly touted stars like Sergei Fedorov and even Steve Yzerman, scoring crucial goals in the series and making big plays in both ends of the ice. Adam Deadmarsh is just a kid, so is Milan Hejduk, WNY native Aaron Miller. Martin Skoula, Alex Tanguay and Serge Aubin are rookies. At 28, Colorado defenseman Adam Foote may well have been the best player on the ice. Contrast that with the Red Wings. Yzerman, their heart and their soul for near 20 seasons, is 35 and starting to look a good deal older. Playmaking center Igor Larionov is 39 and will almost certainly leave, perhaps even retire. Star defenseman Larry Murphy is 39 and Chris Chelios is 38. Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Pat Verbeek, Brendan Shanahan and Doug Brown are all in their mid-thirties or higher. This is not some fluke of timing. When the Avs won the Cup in 1996, a suspect year in which there were numerous upsets, general manager Pierre Lacroix opted not to try and build a dynasty, but to rebuild a pretty good club through trades and shrewd drafting. Some players were traded or allowed to leave via free agency. Picks were hoarded and young players -- lots of young players-- were drafted. The kids were allowed to develop through the system and then brought to the big club. Add in the mix of timely veterans -- Theo Fleury in an attempt to win last season, Bourque and Andreychuk this time around --and Colorado easily had more of what was needed to beat the Red Wings: talent, blended with youth, speed and enthusiasm. Will it carry the Avs all the way? Who's to say. The Red Wings certainly had success going a different way. They were a team of distinction for far too long to be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Still, the Red Wings have now been ousted in the second round twice in as many seasons and clearly the time for change is at hand. What we sensed last season is what we know today. A great champion from the past is fading from our midst. The new Kings of hockey haven't been crowned yet, but one has the feeling that their time is at hand. Even the Dallas Stars are likely to realize that. Jim Kelley covers the NHL -- and the Sabres -- for the Buffalo News. His notebook and Rumor Mill appear weekly on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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