Family affair

The Wings hatch an inside job to keep the Cup

The Red Wings will go into next season as the well-deserved favorite to repeat as Stanley Cup champs and with good reason: Their phenomenal collection of talent remains largely intact. Still, retirements have taken a toll on Detroit's roster.

First, the Wings lost Dominik Hasek, one of greatest goalies of his generation. They've replaced him with a talented netminder (Curtis Joseph) who has never played a game in the Cup finals.

Detroit also lost the incomparable Scott Bowman behind its bench. On Wednesday the team officially announced that Bowman will be replaced by longtime assistant Dave Lewis -- who has been a (co-) head coach for exactly five games in his life.

On the face of it Lewis may not seem like a worthy successor. But it says here he's the perfect choice. This Wings bunch doesn't need a coach like Ken Hitchcock or Pat Burns or Ted Nolan. The thing need most at this point is, as Detroit GM Ken Holland said, "continuity. We've had a lot of success and Dave's been a part of it."

This team doesn't need a new attitude or a new way of doing things; it needs to keep on with its Cup mojo of a year ago. Detroit has great leadership in captain Steve Yzerman and in footsoldiers like Kris Draper and Darren McCarty, and that leadership is what helped the club meld so well last year. In Lewis, the Red Wings have a man who has been a visible part of the organization for better than 16 years. In his last season as an NHL defenseman, 1986, Lewis was Yzerman's teammate and dinner buddy. Through three distinct eras, under Jacques Demers, Bryan Murray and Bowman, Lewis served as an assistant in Detroit. A shakeup would have been to no one's advantage. Said Wings defenseman Chris Chelios: "It would have been tough to bring in someone from the outside."

However, loyalty and continuity are not enough. Lewis is also smart, attentive and meticulous. (Not as meticulous as Bowman, natch, but who is?) He's been largely responsible for Detroit's commitment to defense -- especially among their forwards -- over many years, and his ability to devise and implement large-scheme defensive strategies and to think both in the long and short term is a big part of why he has survived and thrived in Detroit. These are also the attributes that made him a short-list candidate to become the Blue Jackets' head coach two years ago.

Of course, there could be some tension lurking in the relationship between Lewis and Barry Smith, who will stay on as the Red Wings' top assistant to oversee the offense. Lewis and Smith have been jointly running practices for years. They coached the club together in 1998 while Bowman was recovering from heart surgery, going 4-1 while sharing the in-game decisions.

Smith could be head coach material himself. He's the man responsible for integrating the left-wing lock into the Red Wings system. That lock helped the Wings win Cups in 1997 and 1998. Lewis and Smith have always worked together splendidly. You would see them snacking together in their joint office or looking at film together or bonding together in moments of Bowman tyranny. Under Bowman they knew their place and they shared it.

Now Lewis is the top man. He'll continue to entrust the offense and many of the team decisions to Smith, but he can't forget that this is his team now. The time will come, soon and often, that he will have to reject some of Smith's ideas and assert himself. "We both want the team to succeed," said Smith before the hiring was officially announced. "So I don't see why there should be a problem."

Right. These guys have long ago learned to keep their egos in check. (Bowman can keep anyone humble.) They should be able to make this potentially difficult transition without much trouble. Lewis, who is a strong teacher and who managed to sell the team on the neutral-zone trap last year, is the right man for this job.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy covers the NHL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

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