2009 Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings had a pretty great 2008-09 season, winning the Central Division and the Western Conference Finals before being ousted by Stanley Cup winners the Penguins. In the offseason, the Wings lost Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky and Jiri Hudler, and replaced them with Jason Williams, Todd Bertuzzi and Patrick Eaves, making the 2009-10 season uncertain. The new arrivals aren’t really expected to fill the gap though. Rather, the Wings are counting on youngsters like Ville Leino, Justin Abdelkader, Valtteri Filppula and Darren Helm to step up. Plus, the team still has plenty of proven scorers, like Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Cleary and Nicklas Lidstrom. All in all, the Red Wings are still an elite team that is predicted to reach the playoffs for the 19th season in a row, and fans are already clamoring for tickets to Joe Louis Arena to watch them do it.

The NHL's long-awaited return to the ice in 2005-06 was a triumphant one for the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings dominated the regular season, finishing with 58 wins to only 16 regulation-time losses and 8 overtime losses, for a total of 124 points. That placed them not only at the top of the Central Division, and of the Western Conference, but also earned them the Presidents' Trophy for the year's best record in the entire National Hockey League.

Of course, that record put the Detroit Red Wings in the #1 bracket position within its conference; it also bestowed a monetary bonus and the home-ice advantage would have held throughout the playoffs. The Presidents' Trophy is, of course, no guarantee of ultimate victory, as the Detroit Red Wings had known from their own experience, including the previous postseason tournament (2003-04) in which they were eliminated by the Calgary Flames.

However, the Red Wings could have balanced that with plenty of successful history: 23 playoff appearances in the past 25 seasons, including 18 in a row. Looking as strong as they ever had, the Detroit Red Wings seemed poised to capture the Stanley Cup once more. It was not to be, though, as the Red Wings were eliminated in the first round by the Edmonton Oilers.

Note: The Red Wings' name is commonly misspelled as one word, Redwings.