Debate: Which Red Wings Championship Team was the Best?
By John Manzo
Debating which Detroit Red Wings championship team was the best.
Now here’s a better debate.
Last week the Detroit Red Wings social media team put out a debate tweet asking fans to choose the better all-time roster between the Red Wings’ All-North America and All-World teams.
With guys like Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom and Dominik Hasek, among many others on the all-world team, it was an easy choice for me. You can read the full article here.
This week, though, the social media team wised up and put a real debate on our hands. Which recent championship team would you choose? Your choices are the 1997, 1998, 2002 or 2008 teams.
Now this should have a more diverse opinion than the all-North America and all-world debate, so let’s quickly break it down.
1997: The Breakthrough
This team was special because it was the one that finally broke through and provided Detroit with a more relevant Stanley Cup than the one in 1955.
This roster had the usual stars like Steve Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, with Mike Vernon manning the pipes.
1998: The Repeat
To prove it wasn’t a fluke, this team won the Stanley Cup again, and it had an even more special meaning because they won it for their forever teammate, Vladimir Konstantinov.
Similar roster to 1997, but this one had Chris Osgood in net. I tend to like this team more because it’s tough to repeat when you’re getting a team’s best game night in and night out. Plus, this one
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meant more for the players, even if it wasn’t the first.
2002: The Return
This team returned the Red Wings to the top of the NHL and featured a blend of old and new. Guys like Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Darren McCarty, Igor Larionov and Shanahan remained, but there was a youth movement with a young Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg (albeit he didn’t play much) as well as a lineup infused of new veterans like Hasek, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and others.
2008: The Last Dance (for now)
It felt like this team was going to battle Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins for a decade. The Red Wings took the first Stanley Cup and then the Penguins got revenge at Joe Louis Arena a year later, but more was left on the table.
Guys like Yzerman, Fedorov, Hull, Robitaille, Hasek faded while Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall and others were led by Lidstrom.
The Verdict: Give me the 2002 team. It was the perfect blend of veterans like Yzerman and Fedorov, toughness of the “Grind Line” sprinkled in with the next era and a few higher-profile veterans who came to Detroit to win.
Who do you think was the best team?