Why the Detroit Red Wings Are Still the Team To Beat

For the last 20 years, every playoff team dreaded the time when it had to endure a seven-game series against the Detroit Red Wings.

There have only been a few teams in the playoffs that can lift their heads and say that they were able to tame the Big Red Machine.

Between 2002 and 2009, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup twice and were knocked out of the playoffs by teams that either won the Stanley Cup or reached the Finals:

2002: Detroit wins the Cup

2003: Mighty Ducks sweep Detroit in WCQF, lose in Finals

2004: Flames beat Detroit 4-2 in WCSF, lose in Finals

2005: Lockout

2006: Oilers beat Detroit 4-2 in WCQF, lose in Finals

2007: Ducks beat Detroit 4-3 in WCF, win Stanley Cup

2008: Detroit wins Stanley Cup

2009: Penguins beat Detroit 4-3 in Stanley Cup Finals

The road to the Stanley Cup goes through Detroit. And it's been proven.

Last year, everyone saw something they hadn't seen in Detroit in a very long time: an inconsistent, injury-riddled, struggling Detroit team. By the Olympic break, Detroit found themselves in 11th place with 68 points.

Definitely not Detroit-like.

Detroit was in jeopardy of missing out of the playoffs for the first time in 18 seasons.

People had started counting the Wings out of the playoffs, claiming a change of the guard in the Western Conference. They said Detroit's top players, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, were past their prime, and that Nicklas Lidstrom was on his way to retirement.

Detroit had battled injuries all year long and people started bringing in age as a factor.

Detroit, at one point in time, featured Darren Helm and Patrick Eaves. Hardly a potent scoring line.

Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk weren't their usual sniping selves and were way off career totals.

Johan Franzen had been gone 55 games before returning to the lineup, and had elected to play for home country Sweden, taking fellow Wing teammate Tomas Holmstrom's spot.

Detroit had some kid in net for them that had looked a bit shaky at times. 

Hockey analysts nationwide said that playing for their home teams would just drain the Wings' top players even more.

Boy were they wrong.

Detroit, as mentioned before, found itself out of the playoffs heading into the final 21 games of the season. For this "washed up team," there was a Mount Everest to climb if they wanted to make the playoffs for a record 19th straight year.

After a 16-3-2 stretch, Detroit was back in the playoff picture, and clinched the fifth spot in the Western Conference with 102 points. Still, Detroit was in a position it never thought it would be, without home-ice advantage going into the playoffs.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk had regained the touch they had been missing a majority of the year. Franzen was closer to being 100 percent healthy. Jimmy Howard had finished in the top 10 for goalie stats with 35 wins, 2.26 GAA and .924% SV. 

Detroit's top two scoring lines were doing just that, scoring. And its two checking lines were gutting out shifts and protecting leads.

The Red Wings ended up losing in the second round to the San Jose Sharks.

To many teams, that's a great feat. To the Detroit Red Wings, it's a failed season.

Detroit had played more hockey than any other team in the previous three seasons, including playoffs before this year's letdown. But Detroit now has more rest going into this year than it has had in a while, so it just may be good.

With all the rest the Red Wings have been racking up, this may not be too good for the rest of the NHL.

So beware.

This year might just be the resurgence of the Detroit Red Wings, because they left last year with some unfinished business.