 Residing at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the Red Wings have been NHL's most consistent franchise of the last twenty years – lifting Lord Stanley's Cup four times in the past twelve years, and always in the mix for the championship. In fact, last season the Red Wings became the first team in league history to earn more than 100 points in nine consecutive seasons. Can the Red Wings continue their winning tradition despite icing the oldest team in the National Hockey League? Last season was extremely successful, with the Red Wings repeating as Central Division Champions while posting an impressive record of 51-21-10. After battling through playoffs, Detroit once again found themselves in the Stanley Cup Finals for the second consecutive year, and with a familiar foe awaiting them; the youthful Pittsburgh Penguins, whom the Wings had defeated in six games the previous en route to once again hoisting the Cup. However, Pittsburgh shocked the Wings by forcing a Game 7, and then winning the Stanley Cup on Detroit's home ice at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings saw quite a few changes in the offseason; leading goal scorer Marian Hossa left for Chicago and took winger Tomas Kopecky with him, giving Detroit's division rivals two of their best forwards. In addition, talented young center Jiri Hudler is expected to take his act to Russia this season due to being dissatisfied with his arbitration agreement, while Mikael Samuelsson, another tough scoring winger, also departed for Vancouver, thus leaving the Wings very thin up front. How did the Red Wings address all the losses? The team did bring in scorers Todd Bertuzzi and Jason Williams as free agents, but the most of the empty spots are expected to be filled by younger players already within the Wings' organization. It will be interesting to see how the Red Wings respond to losing so much firepower in one offseason, but the good news is that they were already one of the league's highest scoring teams and should still be far above average for 2009-2010. Few teams possess two centers with the talent of Henrik Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk, and wingers such as John Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom, Daniel Cleary, and Bertuzzi should round out two extremely strong lines for Detroit. The Red Wings also possess some promising youth, most notably Ville Leino, Darren Helm, and Justin Abdelkater, all of whom were impressive in the playoffs and expected to play significantly increased roles this season. Defensively, the Red Wings may be the envy of the league. Captain Nick Lidstrom is consistently the most excellent player in hockey and will remain one of the truly elite players in hockey until his retirement. Keep in mind that Brian Rafalski and Nicklas Kronwall are also exceptional defenders, while the last three – Andreas Lilja, Brett Ledba, and Brad Stuart – are not only dauntless in their own end, but would likely fit perfectly as part of any other team's top tandems. Can the Red Wings continue their winning tradition despite putting out the oldest team in the NHL? People can talk all they want about Detroit's age, but most will still take Detroit's talent over almost any other team in the league. Get your Detroit Red Wings tickets now and come to Joe Louis Arena for another great season of historic Red Wings hockey.
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