HockeyWings taking flight - again

Beginning of Story Content

The lull is over. Just under a month ago the Detroit Red Wings were out of the NHL playoff picture. But now, they seem to have found their stride again. And it's that same stride that's kept them competitive for nearly two decades. 

How do they do it?

• Visionary ownership (checkmark)
• Stable and creative management team (checkmark)
• Strong coaching staff (checkmark)

It all starts with Mike Ilitch, the founder of the successful Little Caesars Pizza chain, his restaurants, his casinos and his theatres. His passion for sports starts at the grassroots with the Detroit Little Caesars hockey organization, which has teams from novice to junior (sweet uniforms and team buses to boot!), the Detroit Tigers and Comerica Park, and of course, THE Detroit Red Wings.

This organization believes in the unconventional - and that's exactly why they succeed.

Many years ago, they named then-wunderkind Steve Yzerman to be their captain at the tender age of 20, making him youngest in NHL to do so. They allowed him to remain a Red Wing his entire career, and he's thanked the Ilitch family too many times to mention both publicly and privately.

They hired coach Scotty Bowman regardless of his age, and to Scotty's credit, he had an open mind and continued to adjust his coaching style and tactics to reflect the evolution of the game.  He embraced the concepts of reversing the flow, east to west play, regrouping when you don't see what you like offensively, puck possession and not resorting to dumping the puck unless you have to.  Even today most coaches panic and frown on these things.

More of what has set the Wings apart:

• Acquiring the undersized guys (which 97 per cent of teams would never do) such as Dino Ciccarelli, Pat Verbeek, Mike Vernon, Slava Kozlov and Kris Draper, all of who played integral roles in their championships. 
• Drafting players that are of different backgrounds and off the radars of most scouts like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Holmstrom, Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Osgood, Jiri Hudler, Darren McCarty just to name a few. By spending time in Sweden, Russia, Canada and Finland, Detroit's scouts came to understand the differences in the style of play, methods of training, coaching and culture.
• Signing the Russian 5 was another visionary move. Not only did they get great players, they were also able to pick their brains for trade secrets on what made the great Russian hockey system as dominant as it was. 

A nice mix of drafting, trades and free agent signings have positioned this team to be a on an unprecedented run of 18, yes, 18 straight years of making the playoffs - the longest of its kind for the 'Big 4' North American sports.

In speaking with Wings - and Team Canada - coach Mike Babcock last week, he felt his team has had their best 10-game segment prior to that night's epic comeback victory versus the Canucks. They're healthy and rested and hungry right now.

Jimmy Howard continues to dominate in his rookie season with a hot glove hand. He's fourth in the NHL with a .924 save percentage and sixth with 2.30 goals-against average and more importantly, he's earned the confidence of his teammates and the organization.

The usual suspects have been lighting it up: Datsyuk, Franzen. Zetterberg, Lidstrom and Rafalski have all been game breakers during this stretch run. Their special teams have been exactly that - special! An aggressive penalty kill (93 per cent) and an efficient power play (26 per cent) have been keys to their resurgence during this stretch.

I can tell you guys, nobody wants to face the Detroit Red Wings in the playoffs.  Eighteen consecutive years of playoff contention breeds experience.  Six appearances in the finals and four Stanley Cups equal a winning pedigree.

Look out folks. The Wings are taking flight - again.

End of Story Content