A Stanley Cup hangover generally refers to a championship-winning squad's overall lack of energy and motivation following a season in which they played hockey into the month of June, clinched the elusive Cup, and then spent the summer celebrating said Cup. Coming back for training camp in September and jumping right back into the grind in October takes its toll. Not to mention, every single opponent has your team circled on their calendar.
The Red Wings know the Stanley Cup hangover well, having won the Cup four times since 1997. And while coach Mike Babcock may have said he didn't believe in the hangover before last season, there was a reason the 2009 Wings were the first defending champion to make it out the first round of the playoffs since Colorado in 2002. He might believe in it now.
Defending a championship is hard.
Regaining a championship can be equally as hard. The 2010 Red Wings don't exactly have anything going for them as the Cup losers that the Penguins don't as the victors. They still played until the middle of June last year and the year before. They also made the conference finals in 2007. And the Wings are circled on every opponents' calendar no matter whose name was last engraved on the Cup. Detroit is defending a Cup even when they are not the defending champs.
And while they may not have spent the summer partying, it was almost certainly a trying few months for a team that came oh-so-close to a second straight championship.
The Red Wings are unlike most teams in professional sports and deal with expectations and pressure that only the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Lakers of the world can truly understand. They've created such an atmosphere of success and have competed at the top level of their league for so long, that it's expected by everyone -- players, coaches, owners, media and fans. The light burns out eventually. All dynasties die -- if only to be reborn at a later date -- but no one can stay continuously great. That dynasty has an expiration date.
Was the Game 7 loss at Joe Louis Arena the end of the current Red Wings dynasty? Is the hangover too much for this squad to handle? After all, they lost several key players in Marian Hossa, Juri Hudler, Ty Conklin, Tomas Kopecky and Mikael Samuelsson. Will this be the year that the rest of the league rises up and drags the Wings back down to earth to mingle with the hoards of the NHL's mediocre set?
Not a chance. And don't tell this group of Red Wings that all dynasties die, because they aren't letting go of theirs.
"You can tell the guys are hungry," team captain Nicklas Lidstrom told The Associated Press after the first day of training camp in Traverse City.
That hunger will have to be what drives them, and a more youthful roster will certainly provide more energy and consistency on the defensive side of the puck -- an area where Lidstrom says the team was lacking a year ago.
While the Red Wings did bring in a few free agents to fill the holes left by the departed, namely bringing back former Wings Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams, it's the younger players that will be asked to step in and fill those roles. Jimmy Howard will finally get a chance to show he belongs in the NHL by backing up Chris Osgood between the pipes, and Ville Leino and Justin Abdelkader will be looking to build off strong performances in last year's playoffs.
And of course, the Wings can still rely on the offensive wizardry of some of the game's greatest stars -- Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and Henrik Zetterberg -- and the defensive prowess of some of its heaviest hitters -- Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski and Niklas Kronwall.
No one feels sorry for the Wings and no one is going to. They suffered a crushing defeat a few months ago, but they now have a chance to make everyone forget it. They'll hit the ice for games that count on October 2-3 in a Swedish date with the St. Louis Blues. From there, they will open the home portion of their schedule against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 8.
You won't find any regular season predictions here, but you will find a guarantee that when the playoffs begin, the Wings will be there, ready to regain what they feel is rightfully theirs. This dynasty hasn't died yet, but another Stanley Cup is needed to prove it.
Winning -- the best cure for a hangover.
