Red Wings

[L-kxng]

4 Cups in 11 years with 1 year not played by the NHL lockout. That makes only 6 years failed and 4 cups.

[Rocky Bleier]

I think a few Wings' team did underperform through the years. I'm speaking specifically of those talented teams that went out in the first round. But the Stanley Cup is the most difficult championship trophy to obtain. It's a brutal marathon. Montreal and Edmonton were practically shoe-ins at one time, but nowadays it's a real crapshoot.

[Newbomb Turk]

4 Cups in 11 years with 1 year not played by the NHL lockout. That makes only 6 years failed and 4 cups.

they deserve scorn for not winning the cup in the lock out year.......

[Malto Marko]

MM do you watch hockey? Did you watch the dismantling of everyone we played last year? This team isnt the same team as the stuck up prima dona teams of the past. Babcock has this team playing like the opposition slept with their wives and kicked their dogs.

They're young. They're talented. They play their asses off and they're Champions. Act like you're a Wings fan for Stevie Y's sake.

LMAO! Dude, we have more in common than not. But, like Loops pointed out, don't think that everything is good even though Wings will be favored to win and might even again win the Presidents trophy. Playoffs in hockey are different in many aspects.

I do like the way Babcock has these guys playing hard but let us not forget that he did have a Presidents Cup team that got bounced early. I suspect he learned a lot that year and hopefully, that will not be an issue again.

My point here is that Bowman teaming up with his son will produce results for the Hawks. My guess would be the Hawks hired the younger with the hopes of getting Dad, preferably as a Coach. I believe his coaching days are over.

[L-kxng]

The Chicago Blackhawks are major market and original 6 team. It would be good and refreshing for the NHL to have them built up a rivalry with the Red Wings in the West.

[FCRhodes]

Why is the Stanley Cup the most difficult trophy to win? Seems to me that every year 1 team wins it, the same number that wins football, basketball, and baseball.

[gjdodger]

Because the very low scoring, constant influx of new, experienced, foreign players, and dominance of a single player--the goalie--tend to produce random results in the playoffs. We've had teams win in recent years that aren't likely to repeat in the next generation. A few years ago, all four top seeds in the Eastern Conference were beat in the first round.

[Malto Marko]

Why is the Stanley Cup the most difficult trophy to win? Seems to me that every year 1 team wins it, the same number that wins football, basketball, and baseball.

The only playoff system that is similar to Hockey is BB. 4 rounds of best of 7. Hockey takes more players to compete. You can not run with the same 5-7 players. You must have 17-20 that are preforming at top notch to survive. Additionally, the officiating is different as the playoffs progress and they allow more and more infractions that would be called under normal circumstance. I am not sure what the psychology is behind that but, it is a reality of the game.

[FCRhodes]

So its harder to win baseball, since its harder to make the playoffs. If it only takes a hot goalie and luck, the Cup is the easiest to win.

I think that it is the most grueling playoffs, but someone always (except strike years) wins it.

[gjdodger]

Yeah, it's a matter of semantics. I think what we're saying is among the major sports, the Cup is the hardest for the best team on paper to win, because so many variables gum up the works. On the flip side, it's easier for the Lightning to win the Cup than it is for, say, the Lions to win the Super bowl.

[FCRhodes]

Agreed

[Tom]

I was watching the NHL network and they've really been going over the 20th anniversary of the Wayne Gretzky trade. At one point, I think as Gretzky and the Kings were about to face the Oilers in the playoffs, Gretzky was doing an interview and I think he was disputing the fact that it was solely his desire to leave Edmonton. He mentioned something about how he had learned that Sather and Pocklington were negotiating a deal to send him to the Red Wings. In other interviews Sather claimed that any deal involving Gretzky came as a complete shock to him. But could you imagine Gretzky and Yzerman on the same team? This reminds me of the deal that the Wings almost made when they tried to trade Probert for Gilmour. Too bad the Flames backed out at the last second.

[jaadam4]

Any deal that would have landed us Gretzky wouldve had Stevie Y going in the other direction.

Probert for Gilmour?!?!?! Man that wouldve been money

[Tom]

I thought that too but I'm guessing Ilitch wouldn't have considered dealing Yzerman back then. I think they probably would have moved some sort of package involving Oates and a number of 1st round picks.

[chemiclord]

I thought that too but I'm guessing Ilitch wouldn't have considered dealing Yzerman back then. I think they probably would have moved some sort of package involving Oates and a number of 1st round picks.

Are you kidding?

When Yzerman was drafted, the GM at the time openly admitted he had wanted the three names taken before Yzerman. He would have had no problem packaging #19 into a trade for the "Great One".