In 1984, the Red Wings made the playoffs with a record of 27-41-12. The next spring, in 1985, the Wings qualified again, even though their record was again unsightly — 31-42-7. Not surprisingly, they were bumped out in the best-of-five first round each year, going 1-6 in the process. The format in those days was that the top four teams in each division made the postseason. So the Red Wings, with their brutal winning percentages, nevertheless qualified by virtue of playing in a weak division.
The NHL doesn't allow for such shenanigans nowadays. The competitiveness is such that even teams with several more wins than losses can be on the outside looking in come playoff time. A #8 seed is eighth in position only; it's not eighth because it is a pretender — a pauper amongst princes.
The Edmonton Oilers entered the 2006 playoffs with 95 points. That's a total that has won divisional titles in seasons gone by. They are the #8 seed only because the seven teams in front of them had a bit more success than the Oilers did in the regular season. They are not #8 because they themselves had no success.
So it should come as no shock that the Oilers have squared their best-of-seven series with the mighty Red Wings at a game each by virtue of their much-deserved 4-2 win yesterday at Joe Louis Arena. They played better, stronger, smarter, and were more opportunistic. And, they are a pretty damn good hockey team, to boot.
Hands are wringing in our great metropolitan area this morning because the Red Wings are once again showing their faithful that the road to Lord Stanley's Cup isn't a yellow-bricked one that's without its flying monkeys and wicked witches. The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy in team sports to win because there isn't a cupcake on the playoff schedule, like the NBA — where the difference between #1 and #8 is a long road, a moat, a drawbridge, and a vat of boiling oil.
The NHL playoffs are fraught with terror and pucks that go bump in the night because the teams that compete in them are, for the most part, good, solid units that could — with some luck and a hot goalie — ascend to the Finals, with few exceptions. I know, and you should, too — because we've seen it. The Mighty Ducks in 2003. The Hurricanes in 2002. The Capitals in 1998. The Florida Freaking Panthers in 1996.
The Oilers beat the Red Wings yesterday because they bottled up the neutral zone, created turnovers in the offensive zone, and converted two of them into goals. They outmuscled, outhustled, and outsmarted the Wings on their own sheet of ice, and now deservedly take a 1-1 series back to Edmonton, where the Red Wings — for all their road success this season — have been very pedestrian in the last few years. I don't even know what they call it nowadays, the Oilers' building, but I always knew it as Northlands Coliseum. Regardless, it's been a sort of house of horrors to the Detroiters lately, and if that trend doesn't change, then you can kiss your fantasies of a dual Pistons/Red Wings parade down Woodward Avenue goodbye.
Bring It!
That's the playoff hockey slogan this year, so chosen by the wiz kids in the Red Wings' marketing department. They do that every year, for it has been determined that we are not capable of creating our own rallying cries. But what else do you expect for a franchise that has unashamedly declared that it plays in a place called Hockeytown? Even though we did not create the game, nor have won the most championships in its history. No matter. But if any city should be called Hockeytown, then that city is Montreal, if you want to know the truth.
The Red Wings can still make a series of it. They might even win the darn thing. But through the first two games, they haven't intimidated the Oilers one bit. In fact, Friday's overtime loss seemed to have galvanized Craig MacTavish's team. They had some success against the Red Wings in the regular season, and are clearly not in awe of our hockey gods.
And the fans in this town still have the nerve to act surprised and disgusted. This happens every year in the first round — even in the years when the Red Wings have won it all.
Who do they think the Red Wings are playing? Chopped liver? The 1984-85 Red Wings?
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