For the Good of the League, the Detroit Red Wings Must Not Win Stanley's Cup

Cody Belanger — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:21:29 -0400

The Detroit Red Wings are an incredibly talented team with the league's best defenseman, Nicklas Lidstrom. They have the scoring power, the shutdown defense, and two veteran goaltenders in Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood.

The team should be able to play wide open, exciting hockey.

But they don't—and that's why they can't be allowed to win the Cup this year.

Detroit plays a puck possession game. Simply put, they don't allow the other team to possess the puck. They don't take big slap-shots from the point because it could bounce off of a leg and onto an opposing player's stick.

They don't make cross-ice passes because even well executed passes can be picked off, or the receiving player could miss the puck.

It's a BORING way to play the game.

I love to watch good, defensive hockey with big hits, or wide open in-your-face offense. Heck, I don't even mind watching New Jersey play the trap for the last 20 minutes of a 1-0 hockey game.

What I hate is a game in which there are almost NO shots taken on the goalies. Here are some recent examples:

Game 1: Dallas at Detroit—Dallas amassed only 21 shots on goal, below their season and playoff average.

Game 2 : Dallas at Detroit—Dallas managed only 18 shots. Detroit put 34 pucks on net, but half were to the torso of Marty Turco. Such saves are easy and usually let the goalie freeze the puck.

Game 3 : Detroit at Dallas—Dallas held to only 18 shots on goal again. The two teams fired only 39 shots.

I could go back further, but I don't see the need.

The threat doesn't lie with Detroit, oh no. They're just the catalyst. Nearly every year the Stanley Cup winning team is emulated the next season.

Tampa Bay won with three talented speedy forwards. The next season teams focused on a "money line" of speedy skaters and small, quick players with breakout years (a la Daniel Briere).

Anaheim won the 2007 Stanley Cup with strength and a hard checking style. This season, the Philadelphia Flyers returned to the days of the "Broadstreet Bullies." They amassed the most suspensions in the League. Fighting numbers have even elevated as a result of the Ducks' gritty play.

So, if Detroit wins with their "take no chances, but strike when we're sure to get a goal" style, chances are history will repeat itself. Next season teams will be trying to emulate the puck possession game.

In short, Detroit's puck possession game is good for their chances of winning, but bad for fans of the game of hockey.

Stanley Cup Watch: Will Lightning Strike Twice for Tampa Bay?

Cody Belanger — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:00:26 -0500

After the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup Championship in 2004, the League was forced to negotiate their new Collective Bargaining Agreement and the Salary Cap was introduced into the NHL.

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost Nikolai Khabibulin and paid their top offensive trio (Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis, and Brad Richards) a substantial amount of their cap space.

They then proceeded to spiral out of the playoff spotlight and have yet to address their main concern of a No. 1 goalie (if Mike Smith, acquired from Dallas at the trade deadline, can fix this problem is yet to be seen).

The Ottawa Senators seem to be in a similar situation recently. Their big offensive trio of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson are locked up for several years and for a nice chunk of change (a cap hit of 18.71 million dollars per year), but both goalies have been faltering since late November.

Eerily similar to the Tampa Bay situation, isn't it? I believe the only reason the Senators are above the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Standings is that the Ottawa draft system is so good that the Sens secondary scoring is making the difference.

They might not show up every night, but the Sens big line aren't the only ones scoring in Canada's Capital. Tampa Bay doesn't have as much depth or homegrown talent as the Ottawa Senators.

So the question remains: Will Lightning strike twice, or is Ottawa's depth going to be their saving grace?

Bleacher Report - Articles by Cody Belanger

For the Good of the League, the Detroit Red Wings Must Not Win Stanley's Cup

Stanley Cup Watch: Will Lightning Strike Twice for Tampa Bay?