Old Reliables

Hard by the banks of the murky Detroit River, with a splendid view of Canada and with convenient access to nearby airports and casinos, is a community of active seniors who are having the time of their lives. Having adopted the philosophy that gray matter is more important than gray-flecked beards, the Detroit Red Wings, developers of hockey's Del Boca Vista North, have once again gathered a group of veteran defensemen to serve as the backbone of their annual Stanley Cup campaign.

The Red Wings defense consists of the silky 29-year-old Nicklas Lidstrom and a bunch of early-bird-special-eatin', Matlock-watchin' guys with shuffleboard in their immediate futures. There is 39-year-old Larry Murphy, who's so antiquated that if asked to ruminate on the Great One, he might assume the subject was Alexander. There is 38-year-old Chris Chelios, a fusty coot who has been paired with 34-year-old reclamation project Steve Duchesne. Spurned in its effort to acquire 39-year-old Raymond Bourque from the Boston Bruins, Detroit settled for a deal with the Phoenix Coyotes to reacquire 34-year-old Todd Gill, a useful spare defenseman who played with the Wings late last season. Doddering Detroit has as many over-30 defensemen (three) among its top two pairs as the other Western Conference powers—the St. Louis Blues, the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche—have combined.

The venerable rear guard has been a Red Wings signature since the 1980s, when a pair of Hall of Fame defensemen, first Brad Park in 1983 and then Borje Salming in '89, were imported in their dotage. The practice intensified in the '90s under Scotty Bowman, a coach with a fondness for players who aren't over the hill but who do have an elevated view of their surroundings. "Scotty knows players better than anybody I've been around," says former Detroit defenseman Mark Howe, now a scout for the team. "He brings in strong, character people, confident players. People say Scotty doesn't communicate with his players, but if you're 34 or 38, the last thing you're looking for is communication with your coach."

Howe, a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, retired in 1995 at age 40, after the Red Wings' first Stanley Cup finals appearance under Bowman. In April 1995 Detroit traded for a soon-to-be-37 Slava Fetisov, and in subsequent years obtained Murphy, Jamie Macoun (36), Chelios, Ulf Samuelsson (34) and Gill in deadline deals. If it had any teeth left, the Red Wings defense would be long in them.

The quest for the ageless defenseman is part of the sad legacy of Vladimir Konstantinov's career-ending limousine accident a week after Detroit's 1997 Cup victory. The void created by his absence has been exacerbated by the slow development of younger backliners such as Anders Eriksson, who was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Chelios deal a year ago, and Jesse Wallin, the Wings' 1996 first-round draft choice, who is still in the minors. "In a lot of cases you're not giving up key players or high draft picks to get these older defensemen," Howe says. "It's just money, the ability to take on salaries. The Red Wings have had money." When Detroit grabbed Murphy from the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1997, the Leafs were so eager to rid themselves of his $2.4 million salary that like the kidnappers who couldn't wait to return Red Chief in O. Henry's short story, they even promised to pay one third of the buyout if the Wings ended up dumping Murphy after the season.

"A lot of teams look at a guy and say that if he's not able to play for us for the next 10 years, we don't want him," Murphy says. "What happens with that attitude is that you're constantly playing that game, always searching for a 10-year guy. This team's approach is to win now. Get a guy and get the most out of him."

Detroit is a lovely place for a defenseman to age gracefully, especially since the Wings have high-octane forwards with the explosiveness to overcome a backliner's occasional gaffe. The defensemen also have the benefit of a defensive system known as the left wing lock, which, when properly executed, guarantees that a forward will stay high and hustle down the wing to lend a hand when the opponent takes possession of the puck. Now that is assisted living. For a left defenseman such as Duchesne, who has made his reputation with his offense, the ease of merely having to watch the middle has made him a more effective defender.

Other burdens, however, are placed on the Red Wings' defensemen. Unlike the Blues' Chris Pronger, the Stars' Derian Hatcher and the Avalanche's Adam Foote, none of the Wings' top four backliners is a traditional crease-clearer to match against an opponent's top line. Instead, Detroit's defensemen rely on puck movement. The Red Wings play a puck-possession game—"Scotty's philosophy is, if you have it, you might as well keep it," Murphy says—and if a defenseman can't smartly pass to a forward's stick, he can't play. "There's no secret that we try to get the puck up to our centers [ Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov]," Chelios says. "We're not just going to be shooting the puck around the boards. In Chicago the breakout was to get the puck, hammer it along the boards and hope for a bounce." Not long after he became a Red Wing, Chelios confided to associate coach Dave Lewis that he had almost forgotten how to pass the puck.

But then, Detroit doesn't merely welcome codgers—it reinvigorates them. Chelios, a three-time Norris Trophy winner, wasn't plucked from the scrap heap, but his skills were corroding. The Red Wings have helped him by using him less, taking him off the power play for the first time in his 17-year career. Chelios had only three goals through Sunday, but he ranked second in the NHL at +45. While concerned that his offensive instincts might rust if he doesn't cut loose on occasion, Chelios is still happy enough to lag behind and cover Duchesne's back.

Duchesne was a bigger project. He was heralded as the power-play savior when he signed a free-agent contract with the Los Angeles Kings in July 1998. Eight months later, with the Kings on their way to finishing 24th in the league with the man advantage, he was shipped to the Philadelphia Flyers. He ended last season with a total of six goals and 30 points, the worst offensive output in his 13-year career. "I was thinking about retiring," Duchesne says. "You have a year like that, you start doubting yourself. You figure you're no good anymore, that maybe you shouldn't be playing."