Spector: Wings have set themselves up to repeat

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/8449530...es-up-to-repeat

Some quick blurbs I thought to be of note...

The establishment of the salary cap after the lockout of 2004-05 makes it even tougher to keep a winner together. With only a set amount allowable for salaries each season and the ever-increasing cost of retaining key players, especially star players, even a championship team struggles to stay intact.

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland did a masterful job of beating those odds for the upcoming season, re-signing all his key free agents while still leaving enough to add a scoring star in Hossa and to round out the rest of his roster with minor signings.

Motivation could also prove to be the deciding factor for the Red Wings.

When the Wings won their second consecutive Cup in 1998 they used as inspiration the plight of teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, whose playing career ended just days after winning the 1997 Stanley Cup when he was crippled in a limousine accident.

But the following season it was clear the Wings' well of inspiration had dried up. Neither the recovery from heart surgery of then-head coach Scotty Bowman nor the late-season acquisitions of veteran talent like Chris Chelios, Wendel Clark, Bill Ranford, Ulf Samuelsson and Todd Gill could lift the Red Wings to a third consecutive championship.

This season's Red Wings will have to look much deeper to find the motivation to gear up for a long, grueling defense of their title, and that's where leadership must come to the fore.

Enjoy!

[theman19 47]

I think the drive is hossa's to command. He played like a man possessed in the cup finals, getting attention and very much being felt when Sid and Malkin were not. If he plays like that for us, it's going to be good.

[Dabura 12,232]

Pretty good piece overall, buy I've got some problems with it.

Division rivals Chicago and Columbus appear to have significantly improved as have conference rivals like Dallas, San Jose, Edmonton, Calgary and Phoenix.

"Significantly improved"? Really? He might have a point with Chicago -- but the rest? Not from where I stand. I'm not sure the Wings have even significantly improved, although they should certainly be even harder to beat than they were last season.

Training camp begins in mid-September and the Wings' 2008-09 season begins Oct. 9 and concludes April 12. That's nearly seven months of training camp, preseason and regular-season play, without counting the two-month grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In this calendar year, the Wings will have played nine months of hockey, and would face another six months in 2009 if they're to march on to a second straight championship. That's a long, daunting, exhausting grind even for a club as talented as the Red Wings.

Too bad they're old and slow and didn't get the summer off and won't be injecting any new blood into the lineup.

Oh, wait.

So much can happen over that long haul.

Hurray for truisms!

Motivation could also prove to be the deciding factor for the Red Wings.

When the Wings won their second consecutive Cup in 1998 they used as inspiration the plight of teammate Vladimir Konstantinov, whose playing career ended just days after winning the 1997 Stanley Cup when he was crippled in a limousine accident.

And when they won it this past season, they cited Dallas Drake as their spark plug, their "well." Now, no offense to Drake, but he wasn't exactly a huge story like Vladdy was. The Wings have basically substituted Drake's huger for Hossa's, and Hossa can force his will on the opposition in ways Drake never could.

[daniel1 32]

start.the.season.now

[Stu in Israel 0]

The Vladdy story is great, and maybe the Drake story is also, but the key factor is DESIRE. Teams of lesser talent and/or ability can win championships if they have DESIRE. The TEAM must have DESIRE, and all these stories of long seasons, tiredness, etc. are all bulls***!

Ottawa Senators, 1902-1903 to 1905-1906, 4 straight Stanley Cups.

Toronto MapleLeafs '46-'47 to '48-'49, 3 straight Stanley Cups.

Montreal Canadiens '75-'76 to '78-'79, 4 straight Stanley Cups.

New York Islanders '79-'80 to '82-'83, 4 straight Stanley Cups.

The Edmonton Oilers won 2 cups, interrupted by the Canadiens win in '85-'86, then they won 2 more cups.

Who were their Vladdies or Drakes? Good team and DESIRE is the key.

Oh, excuse me, Montreal Canadiens 1955-1956 to 1959-60, 5 straight Stanley Cups.

'nuff said?

[Matt 1,049]

And when they won it this past season, they cited Dallas Drake as their spark plug, their "well." Now, no offense to Drake, but he wasn't exactly a huge story like Vladdy was. The Wings have basically substituted Drake's huger for Hossa's, and Hossa can force his will on the opposition in ways Drake never could.

While I don't discount the club's desire to get Drake a Cup, this situation is quite a bit different when you're classifying "motivation" to win a Stanley Cup. There were a lot of guys on the 2008 team that hadn't won a Cup yet, so they're motivated by their own means.

How they play now that they have their own Cup ring is what I think he's getting at. Sources of motivation for players that have won it already. Guys like Lidstrom, Rafalski, Osgood, Draper, et al don't lack for motivation despite how many Cups they have won.

I honestly don't think that finding "motivation" will be a problem for the likes of Zetterberg, Cleary, Franzen, Filppula, etc., however. The first couple of months (specifically November/December, after the "Hossa rush" wears off) will be key. I would expect these guys to ramp it up as February/March rolls around.

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

While I don't discount the club's desire to get Drake a Cup, this situation is quite a bit different when you're classifying "motivation" to win a Stanley Cup. There were a lot of guys on the 2008 team that hadn't won a Cup yet, so they're motivated by their own means.

How they play now that they have their own Cup ring is what I think he's getting at. Sources of motivation for players that have won it already. Guys like Lidstrom, Rafalski, Osgood, Draper, et al don't lack for motivation despite how many Cups they have won.

I honestly don't think that finding "motivation" will be a problem for the likes of Zetterberg, Cleary, Franzen, Filppula, etc., however. The first couple of months (specifically November/December, after the "Hossa rush" wears off) will be key. I would expect these guys to ramp it up as February/March rolls around.

Agreed.....and its not as if the author of this article was telling us anything we haven't already heard about any defending Stanley Cup Champion. This is the sort of article you hear about plenty, but I don't see motivation being the problem.

The fact of the matter is that there are plenty of players on this roster with multiple Cups, some who just won their first and will want to taste it again as the season wears on, and Hossa who's desperate to get his hands on one. TBH, I'm more worried about health with the small amount of cap space the Wings have than I am about motivation.

[VM1138 1,921]

Out of those "rivals" the author cites, the only ones that could pose threats to us are Dallas, Chicago, San Jose (because of their new coach--I'm generally not on the San Jose bandwagon the rest of the world is at the start of every season). Columbus could be a wild card, but other than that, nobody SIGNIFICANTLY improved.

[Dabura 12,232]

Well, I'm certainly not discounting other, decidedly more selfish points of motivation for certain members of the '08 team. But given this team's makeup, I don't expect a significant hangover effect. These multi-Cup veterans are greedy sonsabitches (read: perpetually hungry for another title), the guys who won it for the first time will want to experience it again, and there will be new blood in the form of Hossa (and possibly others). I can't imagine these guys will need a boost of Vladdy proportions to propel them back to the top.

It would be one thing if teams were significantly improving all over the place this offseason like the author claims, but the Wings' two biggest WC foes, the Stars and Sharks, really haven't done a lot, at least on paper, in the way of bearing their teeth. In the East, the Pens are already floundering before even getting out of the gate, and the Habs, pegged by many as the Pens' heir apparent, aren't intimidating in the least.

I more or less agree with NFM on this one; I think injuries are looking to be the Wings' biggest enemy right now. I imagine that's where the 'hawks improvements will be felt the most. Considering this, the cap situation could, like NFM pointed out, become problematic, depending on how the injuries play out. For all we know, of course, the Wings could escape the regular season more or less unscathed. I'm certainly hoping they do.