The Detroit Red Wings are slowly and steadily putting together another great campaign in this young season and are on their way to a remarkable 17th-consecutive playoff berth.
Although there hasn't been much chatter about their success so far this season, they continue to perform. So how are they going about their business this year?
For starters, they have this season's leading scorer in left winger Henrik Zetterberg. He has 27 points - 13 goals and 14 assists - in 18 games played. The 13 goals also put him two behind the pace set by Atlanta Thrashers forward Ilya Kovulchuk. At this rate, Zetterberg is on pace to score 130 points, an unprecedented total in the past decade.
Aside from Zetterberg, the Red Wings continue to mix youngsters with veterans in an attempt to teach the newcomers the Detroit way. The likes of defensemen Chris Chelios, playing at the age of 45, and new captain Nicklas Lidstrom have given the team a strong backbone in front of fellow 40-year-old Dominic Hasek, who has been his usual solid self in front of the net. Hasek has posted a 5-3-1 record, though he missed several games after suffering a hip injury. His backup, fellow veteran Chris Osgood, was excellent in place of Hasek, and has eight wins this season and a .931 save percentage.
The Red Wings' roster contains a dearth of American-born hockey players. Only three - Chelios, Brian Rafalksi and Brett Lebda - out of 23 players on the roster are from the States. Everyone else ranges from all points of Canada to Sweden to Finland to Russia and Czechoslovakia. Detroit has brought the foreign game to the United States for years, and it seems to be working.
This eclectic group of foreigners, veterans and youngsters - such as Zetterberg and Pavel Dastyuk - know how to win in Hockeytown, USA. If the Red Wings continue their torrid pace - their nine-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday with a loss to their Central Division rivals the Chicago Blackhawks - they should be good enough to keep their playoff streak alive. As of now they have a 13-4-1 record with 27 points, good for first in the Western Conference and second in the league behind the Ottawa Senators.
Elsewhere in hockey news, the Hall of Fame Class of 2007 inductions were held Monday night in Toronto. The four players inducted include Ron Francis, Al MacInnis, Mark Messier and Scott Stevens. This quartet has logged a combined 93 seasons with 12 Stanley Cup titles. The four captains were staples in the All-Star Game and showed their greatness on and off the ice.
Messier is second all-time in points behind only a former teammate by the name of Wayne Gretzky. Francis is ranked fourth. The two defensemen, MacInnis and Stevens, were known for their toughness and strength. MacInnis won the hardest shot competition seven times and added a Conn Smythe Award for being the MVP of the 1989 playoffs with the Calgary Flames. The first New Jersey Devil to have his number retired, Stevens, too, won the Conn Smythe, in 2000, and he played in 1,635 games, the most by a defenseman in the history of the NHL.
Along with these four players, general manager Jim Gregory, journalist Dave Fay and announcer Bill Hewitt also join the Hall's class.
