The Free Press concludes its survey of the first quarter of the 21st century in Detroit Sports this morning, ranking the best Detroit sports teams over the past 25 seasons.
The 2005-2006 Red Wings earn an “honorable mention” from Christian Romo despite being upset by the Edmonton Oilers…
2005-06 Red Wings
The 2005-06 Red Wings, one of the most talented Detroit teams in history, are a case study in the differences between regular-season and playoff hockey.
On one hand, the Red Wings’ 58 wins from that season are the second-most in franchise history, while their 124 points basically lapped the field in the ‘05-’06 season. But their first-round loss to the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers? That itself makes it a season worth forgetting as much as it is worth celebrating.
The 2008-2009 Red Wings earn 14th place by making the Stanley Cup Final…
14. 2008-09 Red Wings
The record: 51-20-10, lost Stanley Cup Final.
The 2008-09 season was business as usual for the Red Wings, featuring the team’s fourth straight 50-win season, its ninth straight 100-point season and its 18th straight playoff appearance, part of a 25-season run for the franchise. The only thing that didn’t go to plan was a Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who avenged their loss to the Red Wings the season before.
The Red Wings remained good for a few more years, but that 2008-09 team, led by four 30-goal scorers (Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Marian Hossa and Henrik Zetterberg) and featuring four future Hall of Famers (Datsyuk, Hossa, defenseman Chris Chelios and captain Nicklas Lidström) was arguably the last truly great Red Wings team.
Detroit has finished atop its division only once since then (2010-11) and has won only three playoff series since, never advancing past the conference semifinals. It was easy to think the good times would last forever — and in a way, they did — but it’s been a long time since Red Wings fans have rooted for a Stanley Cup-worthy team.
The 2007-2008 Red Wings crack the top 10…
6. 2007-08 Red Wings
The record: 54-21-7, won Stanley Cup Final.
The winner of the Presidents’ Trophy has won the Stanley Cup only four times this century. Two of those were the Red Wings, most recently in the 2007-08 season taking down the Penguins in six games and hoisting the trophy in Pittsburgh.
It was also the last time the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup, as the Euro Twins – Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg – combined for 74 goals and 115 assists. In net, Dominik Hasek (a future Hall of Famer) and Chris Osgood each made 40 regular-season starts, won 27 games and allowed 84 goals. (Osgood played 58 fewer minutes, for a 2.14 goals-against average to Hasek’s 2.09.) In the postseason, Hasek started the first four games, mostly ineffectively, before Osgood took over and went 14-4 (including two shutouts in the Cup Final) with a 1.55 GAA.
And the 2001-2002 Red Wings earn top honors:
1. 2001-02 Red Wings
The record: 51-17-10-4, won Stanley Cup Final.
Are the 2001-02 Red Wings the greatest NHL team ever? They certainly have a case for most talented team ever, with 11 players playing in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, nine future Hall of Famers on the ice (plus another behind the bench, in coach Scotty Bowman) and four career 500-goal scorers on the same team. It was almost certainly the greatest collection of talent in Red Wings history, even if a few other Red Wings teams have them beaten on points percentage.
The 2001-02 Red Wings won just about everything that could have been won, including the team’s third Presidents’ Trophy and 10th Stanley Cup. Five players were named All-Stars, while Nicklas Lidström won the Norris Trophy (as the league’s top defenseman) and the Conn Smythe Trophy (as playoff MVP, the first European so honored) and a Russian rookie named Pavel Datsyuk got his first NHL shifts.
And after a brutal seven-game series against the hated Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals – in which they were finally able to bid a certain goalie “Au Rev-Roy” – to return to the Cup Final for the first time since 1998, the Red Wings left no doubt with a five-game victory over the Carolina Hurricanes to lift the trophy … and become Michigan’s greatest team of the 21st century.
