Detroit is old and one win wont change that.

[swansoccer13 1]

Story out of Columbus, take it for what its worth..

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/05/07/detroit-is-old-and-one-win-wont-change-that.html?sid=101

[Guest mindfly]

Detroit has been too old for over a decade now........................

[Carman 387]

We've been old and on the way down for 10 years. Eventually someone is going to be right.

[VM1138 1,921]

We've been old and on the way down for 10 years. Eventually someone is going to be right.

That's what they're hoping for. I just don't get the whole "old" thing, considering we're not that much older than the league average. A year maybe? And that's only because of Lidstrom. It's like when Chelios was throwing off the average. One player doesn't make an entire team suddenly too old to compete.

[Guest Crymson]

In '07-'08, the Wings were on average the oldest, the lightest and the shortest team in the league. Look how much of an effect that had.

[dobbles 252]

man journalism sucks these days... pretty awful article.

[Guest Lidstromboli]

stopped reading when he talked about the penalties

[Red Wings 2010 9]

Someone is mad they got swept.

[Hockeytown Red Wings 245]

I wrote this guy last year when he assured everyone that Steve Mason was gonna wipe the floor with Chris Osgood in the series.

Outside of Game 4, Ozzie dominated the BJ's.

[Octopus's Garden 147]

Ahh yes, Columbus ... first place I go for hard-hitting and insightful hockey commentary.

[GMRwings1983 8,803]

I thought when we got rid of Chelios, the old talk would stop.

[StormJH1 231]

When the Wings won their first modern cup in 1997, Yzerman had just turned 32 years old, and Fedorov was 27. They were in the same points of their career as Datsyuk and Zetterberg are now. Yes, in the pre-salary cap era, the Wings had the ability to go buy or trade for star players, irrespective of salary, but:

(a) So did Colorado and any other serious contender at that time;

(b) The players the Wings "bought" were almost always OLDER players (Larionov, Murphy, Sandstrom). Shanahan was the same age as Fedorov.

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with having a core of players in the prime of their career, supplemented by younger energy players (Draper, Maltby, McCarty in '97; Helm, Abdelkader, Miller, etc. 2008-10). And "old" is not the same as "slow". Derian Hatcher wasn't necessarily old, but he sucked. Lidstrom is 40 years old but still effective. Chelios was very effective in 2002, and passable in 2008, but it's not like we don't have younger quality players too.

Oh, and our goalie is a Calder nominee, by the way.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

man journalism sucks these days... pretty awful article.

That's what happens when people stop paying for print media.

[RememberStevieY 5]

I'd love to force a game 7 and win, just to shove it in his face.

[toby91_ca 620]

That looked like a fan blog rather than an article written by a professional. Sure there may be some truths to it, but for the most part, it looked pretty unprofessional to me.

It does scare me a bit sometimes to think about the future...what if Lidstrom retires? Datsyuk will be 32 later this year, Franzen 31, Zetterberg 30. Sure, they should still have some really solid years left, but they will start to slow down sometime over the next few years.

The key is the injection of the next stars as we go. That is the unknown and the unknown is what scares me. Guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Franzen have come along to somewhat replace guys like Yzerman, Fedorov and Shanahan, but who is going to replace them in the next few years? Who is going to replace Lidstrom?

Edit: every team faces the same challenge though, which is why you tend to see teams go through peaks and valleys. Detroit has been very lucky to stay successful over the past 15-20 years though.

Edited May 7, 2010 by toby91_ca

[WingsallTheway 383]

Wow...thats a bold statement saying a team won't come back from a 3-0 defecit. This guy has some balls!

....

[Guest Shoreline]

What do you expect? He's from ******* Columbus. The one and only time they ever even made the playoffs, they were swept by an "old" team and forgotten about just as quickly as they entered the playoffs -- a non-factor. He obviously feels compelled to energize Blue Jacket fans because they're likely paying more attention to baseball and basketball right now. And if I recall correctly, people who write for them tend to try and stir the pot in this fashion, as hating a far more superior team makes for more interest it seems than cheering your own team on when they suck this bad.

[Rick Zombos Ghost 82]

oh hows Rick Nash's golf swing progressing?

[henrik40 76]

Must have been the odd man out to report on the Buckeyes daily meal and he's taking it out on the Wings.

[Supface 53]

[mjlegend 155]

Yes, sports reporters are an ugly lot!

Wait a sec...

Anyway, he's been nice enough to leave his email address so people can send him fan mail:

marace@dispatch.com

[Guest Lidstromboli]

[Namingway 146]

lol'd

[titanium2 867]

I've thought about a career in journalism before. Along the way I realized that I would have to write s*** like that just to pander to the public just to get website hits or whatever. And sure I realize that they may not have to work that way forever but still, f*** that.

[Casey 145]

Oy... drag this out again.

The current Wings roster, broken down by age.

Under 25: 5 players. Mursak, Ritola, Abdelkader, Helm, Kindl

26-30: 13 players. Howard, Meech, Ericsson, Lebda, Kronwall, Stuart, Eaves, Filppula, Miller, Zetterberg, Williams, Franzen, Janik

31-35: 4 players. Lilja, Cleary, Datsyuk, Bertuzzi

35-40: 7 players. Draper, May, Maltby, Holmstrom, Rafalski, Lidstrom, Osgood

A huge chunk of this team's offense is under 35, essentially all of it. The starting playoff goalie is 26. In last night's game, all but one goal was scored by a player at or under 35. Of the 19 points, 9 were from the 30 and under crowd.

I don't believe for a second they're too old.