poll: most memorable moment in Red Wings history

[yave1964]

Post expansion (1968) these are my picks for the greatest moments in Wings history:

 

1989 DRAFT, WINGS BEST EVER

 

In 1989 the Wings were well on their way to rebuilding, going to the conference final and losing to the Oilers. The draft that year set the Wings up for excellence for the next decade.

Mike Sillinger went in the first round, played over a thousand games and scored 240 goals.

Nick Lidstrom, one of the top two or three defensemen in the games history went in the second.

Sergei Federov the slick skating likely HOFer went in the fourth.

Dallas Drake who played over 1,000 games as one of the games top two way checking forwards went in round six,

Round seven produced Vladimir Konstantinov.

And it could have been better. The Wings were all set to take Pavel Bure in the fifth round and Gil Stein told them he was not draft eligible. Instead, twenty picks later the Canucks took him, striking a lawsuit that the league settled but Bure wound up with the Canucks. Can you imagine if the wings had wound up with the russian rocket from that draft as well?

 

GORDIE HOWE RETIRES IN 1971 AS THE LEAGUES ALL TIME LEADING SCORER

 

Pictured here with another Wings all time great, Alex Delvecchio, Gordie retired for the first time following the 1971 season as Hockey's all time leading scorer. He had 786 career goals and 1809 points, he came out of retirement two years later and starred in the WHA for six years and then one more year in the NHL finally hanging them up for good at the age of 52.

 

 1997 AND 1998- WINGS SWEEP FINALS BACK TO BACK CUPS

 

Brendan Shanahan came over early in the 1996-97 season and was the final cog of the Wings (near) dynasty team, helping put a team that was a perenial underachiever over the top.

Larry Murphy came over after being booed out of Toronto, and the new guys along with the Russian five combined with Steve Yzerman to buy into the Scotty Bowman system and veteran netminder Mike Vernon started all the way through the playoffs after beating up on Paddy Roy in one of the most famous goalie fights ever on March 26th.

 In 1997 the Wings swept the Flyers in 4 straight.

 In 1998 the Wings swept the Capitals in 4 straight.

 They are the last team to win back to back cups.

 

 1996 WINGS SET ALL TIME RECORD WITH 62 WINS

 

The 1996 Wings were loaded for bear, led by Yzerman, Federov, Primeau down the middle and Paul Coffey anchoring the back end, Dino Ciccarelli setting up shop in front of the net, Larionov and Fetisov joining the team, 14 players scored double digit in goals. Osgood was outstanding in net, sharing time with Vernon as they set a single season record with 62 wins. They would have qualified as one of the greatest teams of all time if they had not run into Lemieux and Roy and company in the conference final.......

 

2002 WINGS BLOW OUT THE HURRICANES IN 5

 

Oh, for the days before there was a cap. After being humiliated by a first round knockout by the lowly Kings the year before, owner Mike Illitch sent Kenny Holland out with a checkbook and told him to make certain it didnt happen again. To go with the existing stars on the team, Yzerman, Lidstrom, Federov, Larionov and Chelios, as well as spear carriers such as McCarty, Holmstrom, Draper, Maltby  and rookie Pavel Datsyuk, Holland brought in Dominic Hasek for goal, and 500 goal scorers Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille to round out the offense. Almost unnoticed but in many ways equally important Steve Duchesne and Frederick Olaussen were brought in to steady the back end. The Wings survived a first round scare by the Canucks and then romped their way to a cup, the ninth and final one in legendary coach Scotty Bowman's career.

 

2008: WINGS BEAT PENGUINS IN SIX FOR THE STANLEY CUP

 

The 07-08 Wings finished with 115 points, winning the Presidents trophy. Two years after the retirement of Yzerman, the team was retooled from within as Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg

who went on to win the Conn Smythe trophy for his play at both ends of the ice all postseason, the two became the leaders of the team along with the ageless Lidstrom and Holmstrom, the finesse of Rafalski, the Mule, Johan Franzen scoring 27 goals in the regular season and 13 more in the postseason, a final hurrah for Drake, Draper, Chelios and Maltby and hungry kids such as Filpulla, Hudler and Kronwall. Hasek and Osgood, previous cup winners in Detroit split the netminding fairly even and after the Dominator was roughed up by Nashville Ozzie took over between the pipes and was steady as the Wings took what is so far their last cup. To me, the iconic moment came when Zetterberg shut down a five on three for the Pens, taking young Crosby out completely leaving him sitting on his backside looking like he was wondering what was going on. Of course, Crosby has since won a cup of his own. Not a great team, a few HOFers mixed in but not interwoven as the other Wings cup winners had, but a solid club who won the Presidents trophy and never looked back.

 

Thats that. 29 teams down, 1 to go (the Flyers). Back in a dew days to get them done.

[J0e Th0rnton]

None of the above for me.

 

The blood game baby.

 

Claude Lemieux hit Draper from behind in game 6 of the playoffs, chopping his face open requiring about a million stitches. Taking out one of the Wings best checking centers. Avs go on to win the cup.

 

Next year, after 4 relatively peaceful games, retribution! McCarty rips free of a ref's grasp to blindside haymaker a Lemieux(One of the Dirtiest cheapshot artists of all time just blasted in the head. very satisfying. Always loved watching Neely clean his clock) and proceeds to rabbit punch him to the back of the head half a dozen times while he is down and dazed, ragdoll him over to slam him into the boards and knee him in the face. During the rabbit punches, Patrick Roy flew over to help only to collide with Shanahan(Memorable collision) and start a battle with Vernon and then, everyone on the ice was grabbing a man. Turned into mayhem in seconds.

 

Struck a tinder to the most memorable rivalry in the modern era between two of the top stacked skill teams in the NHL. Even non wing/Avs fans would tune in to their games wondering what shennanigans would take place tonight! And even if nothing happened, the sheer amount of superstar power represented between the two teams always made for exciting hockey.

[Yorick]

Max Talbot's two goals in Game 7 in 2009.   

[yave1964]

Max Talbot's two goals in Game 7 in 2009.   

Now that was just cruel, lol.......

[jammer2]

 Gotta go back to back cup sweeps....never see that, special stuff right there!

[WingNut722]

 Gotta go back to back cup sweeps....never see that, special stuff right there!

 

+1

 

Doesn't happen often and it hasn't happened since.

[SpikeDDS]

Not really a fair question as the 1997-1998 cups really wasn't a "moment." Made the decision really easy, and it's why it was answered 100% the same way.

[Vanflyer]

For me its the 1989 draft class. Without that draft, the back to back cups never happen.

 

I would maybe add an Yzerman and Gordie Howe option as well. If I think Red Wings, those are the two things that immediately pop into my head.

[runbch]

Definitely 97-98 cups.  It was great beating the Avalanche for the first one and then repeating after the limo accident.

[Vanflyer]

A consolation category would be Scotty Bowman glaring at Mark Crawford while Mark was blowing a gasket. I will never forget that. The expression on Scotty's face was "WTF, you dumb ass" and not a single word uttered by Scotty through the entire diatribe of Crawford.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pviOhImDGMk

 

And I thought I was high tempered (mostly at my wife).