Bill Clement

Forecasts of the Red Wings' demise are proving premature, but for Detroit's veteran core of players the window of opportunity to play for another Stanley Cup is almost closed.

Last spring for the second time in three seasons, Detroit bowed out of the playoffs in the first round. An early exit all the more surprising since the Red Wings had won their second straight Presidents' Trophy with 124 points.

Even though this summer saw Steve Yzerman retire and Brendan Shanahan leave via free agency, this is a team that feels it still possesses enough talent and skill to have Hockeytown cheering well into the playoffs. 

Hasek takes over in net
Going into this season fans of the Red Wings were holding their collective breath over the team's goaltending situation.

After a strong regular season, Manny Legace's struggles in the Red Wings' first-round playoff loss to Edmonton led management to make a change. Legace is gone, and six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek, who helped the Red Wings win the 2002 Stanley Cup, is back for another tour of duty in Detroit.

Even though Hasek's statistics aren't league-leading numbers in any category, his play has been solid, and that's why I'm not surprised the Red Wings had a strong opening month of the season.

Hasek's staying healthy is the single biggest key to a successful regular season and a playoff run for Detroit. Hasek missed the majority of the 2003-04 season recovering from a groin injury, and he sat out most of the second half of last season with Ottawa after again injuring his groin at the Olympics.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock, Detroit general manager Ken Holland, and other members of the Red Wings organization are keeping their fingers crossed behind their backs hoping that Hasek stays free of a serious injury, especially another one to his groin.

I'm not sure Babcock knows how many games Hasek can give him this season, and that's why the play of experienced backup netminder Chris Osgood is also pivotal to Detroit's fortunes.

Osgood played well for the Red Wings last season, and if Hasek were to get hurt, Detroit isn't in position salary-cap wise to go out and get a replacement, so I expect Osgood will be the man.

Nothing special about special teams
Detroit's defense is terrific, although the Red Wings don't have many kids on the blue line. No question there is considerable age on the defense, but there's also considerable experience.

Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Mathieu Schneider, Niklas Kronwall, Danny Markov, Andreas Lilja, and Brett Lebda form an excellent core for the defense. Lidstrom, a future Hall of Famer, has been the preeminent defenseman of his era.

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There are a lot of teams that would swap their blue line straight up for Detroit's, especially those teams in position to win the Stanley Cup this season.

Up front, the Red Wings are not nearly as deep as they have been in the past. They need to get more scoring out of a third and fourth line.

The play of Detroit's special teams has me scratching my head. In the past, this was a strength of the Red Wings season after season. It's been a different story so far this season.

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After about a month of play the Red Wings were ranked 28th on the power play and 25th on the penalty kill. That has to change for Detroit to do anything in the playoffs.

Detroit no longer has a shooter the caliber of Shanahan. It no longer has that one-timer from the off wing. And the Red Wings haven't yet been able to adjust to Shanahan's absence on the power play.

There are a number of teams that do not have a classic one-time shooter on their power play, but they have been able to survive because they have adjusted and found ways to score. Detroit needs to make such adjustments now that Shanahan is gone.

Special teams play for Detroit is listing, and showing signs it could capsize. Without question it's an area that needs to be addressed and improved upon.

In today's NHL, which is now considered to be a special-teams league, it is really surprising that Detroit is battling with Nashville for the Central Division lead, and is also one of the top teams in the Western Conference, without getting strong play from its power play and penalty killing units.