Will vs Skill: The World of the Playoffs

A couple weeks late on the blog, but the playoffs are in full swing in the NBA and NHL with both Detroit teams entering the second season as enormous favorites to win championships. Through one round, the Pistons are still alive and thriving while the Red Wings are sitting at home searching for answers.

To accomplish in a regular season what both the Red Wings and Pistons were able to is remarkable in its own right, but it appears that the playoff landscape in the two sports are like night and day.

Going into the playoffs, there was no question that the Red Wings were one of if not the most skilled team in the league, they rolled through the regular season to the tune of 124 points and the President's trophy for the league's best record. Once the playoffs came around, the game changed. After winning game one against the eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers, the Red Wings seemingly played behind the eight ball (no pun intended) for the rest of the series. After falling behind 2-1, the Red Wings impressively pulled out a decisive 4-2 win on the road to even the series going back to Detroit. It is this stretch of a series where, in theory, the talent of Detroit separates itself from Edmonton's drive.

This, of course, never happened. After withstanding an onslaught unscathed in the first period, Edmonton jumped ahead 3-0 and stunned the Wings in game five before an improbable (and controversial) comeback in game six. David officially killed Goliath, and this was not an isolated incident. The top four seeds in the Western conference are all watching the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs right now as Colorado, Anaheim, and San Jose stunned Dallas, Calgary, and Nashville respectively.

Hockey more than anything, has been a battle of wills due to the physical nature of the game. Every year at least one overwhelming favorite bites the dust to an opponent that they shouldn't have. The Detroit Red Wings have been no exception. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2002, the Red Wings last three postseasons have ended as follows: Swept by Anaheim in the first round in 2003, lost to Calgary in six games in the 2nd round in 2004, and the six game loss to Edmonton this year. While Anaheim and Calgary advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals and Edmonton's fate remains to be seen, losses to these teams come playoff time are unacceptable in Hockeytown.

Since the title in 2002, General Manager Ken Holland has done a terrific job of slowly transitioning young players into more prominent roles while some of the veterans ride off into the sunset, but he may be ignoring the message these last three failures have sent. After losing to Calgary in 2004, Holland elected to replace incumbent head coach Dave Lewis with Mike Babcock on the bench in hopes of avoiding another playoff letdown. With the same result this year and a roster that is still aging, Holland would be wise to re-evaluate his approach to building this roster. The skill players will still be there next season, his challenge is to find the players who are indispensible to playoff teams because anything less than a cup is unacceptable. Impossible expectations? Perhaps, but this is the world we live in.