| Friday, November 3
By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com |
|
Not more than a month and a half ago, slumped in his dressing stall at The Joe on the morning of one of those sadistic, ritualistic morning skates, Steve Yzerman peered out on the horizon, contemplating the future and its possible repercussions.
"Our window of opportunity," he said at the time, with candor, "is shrinking."
Now, seen in the cold light of day, that window seems even smaller than the space detectable between Patrick Roy's pads the last 10 days.
Such an Yzerman admission was easier back then, of course, before the Colorado Avalanche had punted them from the playoffs, before the accusations began to fly and the deficiencies became all too apparent. Before the sobering, chilling realization had hit home that:
The Red Wings were beaten by a younger, swifter, hungrier team.
They were not embarrassed or torched or toyed with. They were only beaten.
But in HockeyTown USA, two years of that is too much.
And while it may be slightly unfair to match the abundant gifts of Drury, Hejduk, Skoula, Denis and Tanguay against Detroit's crop of emerging talent -- for no team can measure up to the treasures the wily Pierre Lacroix has squirreled away in Denver -- the fact remains that the Avalanche are going to be there, blocking Detroit's path, each and every springtime.
So, the comparisons aren't likely to vanish in a puff of smoke anytime soon.
Age is, of course, all the rage in laying down blame for Detroit's premature dismissal from these Stanley Cup playdowns. Even those who not so long ago loaded up on Wings in their playoff pools, referring to them a "mature" club at the time, now view them as little more than a creaky, cranky, wheezing bunch of old fusspots, out of time and out of step; watching them against the Avs similar to slipping in a VCR tape of a buoyant Cassius Clay laying a lickin' on the ancient Archie Moore, hollering between punches: "Someone find this man a pension! He's old enough to be my granddaddy!"
Whoosh! Was that Chris Chelios caught flat-footed?
Wasn't that Yzerman coughing up the puck in the high slot on that Ozolinsh goal?
The blanket blame heaped on an "old" team, of course, is an unfair, knee-jerk reaction. Detroit is actually blessed with a fair amount of developing players on its major-league roster.
To listen to the critics bay in the aftermath, though, there hasn't been this rapid an aging process since Dustin Hoffman's turn in Little Big Man.
Hey, those 108 points weren't a mirage. This was, after all, a team which led the league in goal production. But it's become all-too-clear that the time has arrived in Motown, as it inevitably does in every venue where professional sports is contested, to re-think and re-tool.
Those great Islander teams of the late '70s all got old together, and the franchise all but withered away. So changes there will be.
Problem being, rarely is such a transition performed without a certain amount of pain.
And in the Wings' case, drilling deep enough to get at the root of the malady isn't going to be a simple matter, because age, contractual status and a new, more economic way of thinking throughout the league are going to make that a tricky endeavor.
General managers, nowadays, simply don't trade high draft picks -- or top prospects -- for old warriors, no matter how many medals gleam from their chests. There's not much out there on the free-agent market this summer, either.
"I'm sure management is going to make changes," Stevie Y said, quietly, in the aftermath of the Avs' series. "We need something less than an overhaul but something more than tinkering.
"At some point we need good young guys to come in and produce. But I like our core. I like the attitude. I like the professionalism. Our foundation is very good."
And very expensive.
It'd take an inordinate amount of creativity to justify a $60 million payroll for a second-round playoff team. Shave a third of that off the books and you'd still get the same result the Wings did.
Check the pay stubs for next season. Yzerman eats up $8.5 million, Brendan Shanahan $6.5 million, Nick Lidstrom $7.25 and Chris Chelios $5.5. No. 1 goalie Chris Osgood, a restricted free agent, is going to want a hike from $2.2 million to, say, $4 million.
That's $31.75 million, for five players.
Not even Little Caesar's pizza baron Mike Illitch can pile on extra toppings that fast.
"We have a team payroll that's a big concern," admits general manager Ken Holland. "We have commitments to a number of people and a number of people whose salaries are rising dramatically. To keep everyone is economically not possible.
"We have to decide who's here and who's not."
Problem is, the Wings are painted into a corner on a number of contractual fronts, in the form of no-trade contracts. Brendan Shanahan is a perfect example. Good season, invisible playoff, but they're on the hook for $26 million over the next four years, regardless.
Unquestionably, the Wings must pare somewhere. So more than anything, Holland is going to have decisions forced upon him.
Igor Larionov is called The Professor for his studious manner and clinical approach to the game. After snubbing a two-year, $4 million offer earlier in the season, he's now being referred to in some quarters as The Nutty Professor. It's difficult to envision him returning.
Murphy, either, not with the club holding the option on another year at $3 million. The little ball of hate, Pat Verbeek, could well be a casualty. The oft-injured Brent Gilchrist, too.
And the time has come to parlay the enigmatic Slava Kozlov into a warm body and a draft choice.
The largest question mark this summer, as every summer it seems, hangs over coach Scotty Bowman. Bowman says he's going to sit down, talk the matter over with his family, himself and Holland. Bowman is, no one needs be reminded, a shrewd hockey man, a survivalist, someone who prefers to insulate himself with veteran players. Should the Wings, as expected, decide to turn in a slightly different direction, Scotty might, too.
Rumors of his possible departure for the Rangers -- should Oilers GM Glen Sather positively, absolutely, irrevocably turn the job down -- refuse to die off. In truth, he doesn't seem to be the best fit for a rebuilding job which could take a few years.
But the man comes loaded down with star power and success, two intangibles New Yorkers hold dear to their hearts. So if Dave Checketts and Co. make an enticing enough offer ...
And there's doubtless more than a slice of truth in the opinion that both Bowman and the Wings have probably mined as much out of each other as possible.
If he leaves, the entire structure of the team will change.
Since '91-92, no team has won more games than the Detroit Red Wings. In five of those seasons, they piled up 100 points or more. In an increasingly stagnant, talent-drained league, they were almost always worth the price of admission.
As an enduring legacy, there are the Stanley Cups of '97 and '98.
Sadly, nothing lasts forever. It's been a helluva run.
But those who live in the past are invariably doomed to be swallowed up by it.
George Johnson covers the NHL for the Calgary Sun. His Western Conference column appears every week during the season on ESPN.com. |  |
