Can the Wings win the Stanley Cup this coming season? The simple answer is that yes, assuming they'r relatively healthy they will have as good or a better chance than any other team. There are some people who insist that 2 straight years of losing to the Sharks, a team who allegedly got better (they didn't, but that's another discussion) means that the Wings need to make at least one big addition in order to win the Cup. I thought it would be interesting to compare this year's projected roster, which is basically set except for the #2 goalie spot, to the Cup winners from '97, '98, '02, and '08.
1997:
An early season trade that sent an aging Paul Coffey, an unhappy Keith Primeau, and some draft picks to Hartford for Brendan Shanahan and defenseman Brian Glynn gave the Wings one of the premier power forwards in the league. Shanahan, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Darren McCarty, and Slave Kozlov were the leading scorers among the forwards. Joey Kocur returned to the team mid season and teamed with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby to form a tenacious checking line, eventually called the Grind Line. Doug Brown, Tomas Sandstrom (deadline deal), Marty Lapointe, a young Tomas Holstrom, and Time Taylor rounded out the forwards. Nick Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Larry Murphy, Bob Rouse, Aaron Ward and Jamie Pushor were the defensemen. Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood shared the net.
Yzerman and Shanahan led the team is scoring with 87 and 85 points respectively, followed by Fedorov with 63. Lidstrom and Konstantinov led the defense and their contrasting styles drove opponents batty trying to figure out how to counter it. The addition of Murphy, whose career was rejuvenated by the trade, allowed the team to split up Lidstrom and Konstantinov to form 2 shut down defense pairings to go along with the checking of the Grind line.
1998:
The Wings had to overcome the tragic loss of Konstantinov due to a limo accident days after they won the Cup. Fetisov was also in the limo, but was able to return to the ice. A season long holdout by Sergei Fedorov, only broken by the Hurricanes front loaded offer, was another distractaction the team needed to overcome. Yzerman led the team with 69 points that year, Lidstrom was second on the team with 59 points in his true breakout year. Pushor was lost in the expansion draft, and the team brought in another former Leaf in Jamie Macoun and Dmitri Mironov from Anaheim to solidify the back end. The Grind Line was even better, and center Kris Draper played over 15 minutes a game as a disruptive force at even strength and a top end penalty killer. In the playoffs, Mironov lost his job to youngster Anders Eriksson, and the Wings went with Lidstrom, Murphy, Macoun, Rouse, Fetisov and Eriksson on defense, getting the most ice time in that order. Holmstrom fell into a PP specialist role, getting about 3 minutes of his 11 he played per game there. He also managed 19 points in that run.
2002:
The year of the Hall of Famers. Shanahan, Hull, Yzerman, Robitaille, Larionov, Chelios, Lidstrom, Hasek, and the debut of Russian magician Pavel Datsyuk. Add defensemen Steve Duchesne, Fredrick Olausson, and rookie Jiri Fischer, plus Devereaux (playing with Hull and Datsyuk on the 2 Kids and a Goat line), agitator Sean Avery, Larionov, and the ever present and irritating Grind Line, and this could be one of the best lineups ever, at elast by sheer weight of their accomplishments. Despite that, no player averaged close to a point per game except Yzerman who had 48 points in 53 games. Shanahan and Fedorov led the team with 75 and 68 points. Lidstrom repeated as the Norris winner, Chris Chelios proved that age is just a number, and Fischer, Duchesne, Olausson, Slegr, Max Kuznetsov, Jesse Wallin and the ill-fated Uwe Krupp rounded out the defense. In the playoffs, Scotty Bowman lost confidence in Slegr and Krupp and rookies Wallin and Kuznetsov and dreed only 5 defensemen for all 23 games. Lidstrom averaged a stunning 31:10 minutes a game during the Cup run on the way to a much deserved Conn Smythe.
2008:
Datsyuk and Zetterberg were far and away the scoring leaders, both topping the 90 point mark. Hudler and Cleary added 42, and Holmstrom and Smauelsson both had 40. Franzen added 27 goals, and Lidstrom and Rafalski led the defense. Dallas Drake returned to Detroit for one last Cup run and teamed with Draper and Maltby to form another strong checking line. Hudler, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, Filppula, Cleary, and Kopecky rounded out the forward unit. Brad Stuart teamed with Kronwall to form a solid second defense unit, and Chelios, Lebda, and Lilja rounded out the defense unit.
2011-12:
Datsyuk and Zetterberg remain the top forwards. Bertuzzi, Filppula, Hudler, Cleary, Franzen, and Holmstrom give the team 8 forwards who are more than capable of topping the 40 point mark, the same number of forwards they had who approached or surpassed 40 points in 08 and two more than they had in 98. Lidstrom, Kronwall, White, Ericsson, Stuart, Kindl and Commodore as a group are as good or better than any of the units on the previous winners, with the exception of the '97 team. They are certainly better than the '02 defense, which lacked depth to the point where they only dressed five defensemen. The bottom three of Commodore, Kindl and Ericsson are better than an aging Chelios, Lebda, and Lilja from the '08 team, which makes up for at least part of the difference between the top four D on each team. Darren Helm and whoever out of Abdelkader, Eaves, Miller, Mursak, or Emmerton plays with him should be as disruptive as the Grind Line in its various incarnations. That line, along with whatever combinations Babcock uses for the other three lines, should give the Wings 3 scoring lines and a superb checking line, just like the 4 Cup teams had. Jimmy Howard should be even better with another year of experience and a boosted confidence level of knowing he is the #1 guy in net and is capable of stealing playoff games.
In short, this team compares favorably to every other team that the Wings have iced since they started their run of dominance. As long as they stay relatively healthy, there is no reason they can't win the Stanley Cup.
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