October 17, 2007
Leftover Wings
  

Leftover wings.

When the Detroit Red Wings visited Southern California last week, I got the sense that we were getting served more leftovers than first rate fare.

Sure, there are still some favorites on the menu like Nicklas Lidstrom, who plays as well as he did five years past. Yep, that Chris Chelios appetizer is still aged, a very aged snarling one (but maybe that's because he's pissed at Commissioner Gary Bettman for that union stuff) and the dessert you get in Dominik Hasek ain't bad for a 67-year-old netminder but it's hardly a four star menu.

The Wings PR department will remind you that if they total 100 points this season, it will be their seven consecutive season doing so and that they've hit that total for 10 out of 13 years.

They'll also trumpet the fact that two of the three years they didn't hit the century mark; they went on the win the Stanley Cup. They'll say that Mr. Grouchy, head coach Mike Babcock would be the first coach in NHL history to lead his team to three 100 point season in his first three seasons.
 

Among the forward wall, they have a stellar first line in Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom. But you try and name the second line and you'll lose that bet.

Daniel Cleary? Poster child for first round underachievement, thank you.

Johan Franzen?

Mikael Samuelsson?

That's a nice third line, perhaps but it's not striking fear in Anaheim, San Jose or Dallas.

While they should win the division with the stripping of the Nashville roster, this team is constructed for the regular season and not the second one. You put your checking line and best defensive pairing out against the Datsyuk line and these Wings are burnt in the playoffs, baby.

Same deal at the blueline, after Lidstrom (who will probably win the Norris Trophy again) and Chelios (no longer a huge ice-time guy), you have second and third tier talent like Brett Lebda and Andreas Lilja making significant appearance.

While GM Ken Holland smartly signed former Devils rearguard Brian Rafalski in free agency after losing Mathieu Schneider to Anaheim the same way, the smallish Rafalski is not the stopper they need in front of the aged Hasek come playoff time.

And the Dominator, bless him, came back for one more run at age 42. He still is angular, hard to understand self, but I will guarantee he'll miss 20 games this year with a bad groin and probably some of the first round of the playoffs too, thank goodness you have solid citizen Osgood as his caddy.

But you know Ozzy's not taking you four rounds, he did that once and that's that. And regardless of any regular season record setting, don't do Babcock the disservice of comparing his to Scotty Bowman. Ever.

So, as I've blazed the probable Central Division champs and most of Michigan wants to kick my butt right now, the moral to this story is that not the roster or the coach is the real problem with this team. It's something intangible that will lead to another disappointment in the spring.

It's the swagger.

Back in the day, and it really wasn't that long ago, the Detroit Red Wings locker room was a more exciting place than the ice sometimes. Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, even that pain-in-the-ass Brett Hull made the post-game chatter fun. These dudes were rock stars and they knew it. The most telling sign that the aura is gone was the fact that there was not one person waiting just outside the locker room area that past Sunday at Staples Center.

I remember just a couple of years ago when you'd have at least 100 strong waiting backstage for Stevie Y and his crew. Just to get a glimpse, an autograph, or hand shake.

Nowadays, are you waiting an hour below ice to chat up Niklas Kronwall?

The Red Wings you know and love, or hated, used to beat teams in warm-ups with their attitude, their air of invincibility.

Yes, a lot of it went out the door the day Yzerman retired, but you replace that with leaders of another sort and management hasn't done it.

Draper, for all his mastery on the penalty kill, doesn't have the pedigree to get everyone's attention. Datsyuk, for all his wizardry, got $42 million guaranteed last year, so he really doesn't care. And Lidstrom, though a Hall of Famer, is just a nice guy and carries the impossible burden of carrying the C after a legend.

You're not scared either, are you?
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.