Description
The 2001¨C02 Detroit Red Wings season was the 76th National Hockey League season in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings scored 116 points, winning the Central Division, their third Presidents' Trophy, and home ice throughout the playoffs. The team is considered one of the most talented teams of all time with 10 then future-Hall-of-Famers on the team, as well as a hall of fame coach in Scotty Bowman. After last seasons disappointing loss to the Los Angeles Kings, Ken Holland went out into the trade market to address Detroit's more glaring needs. He quickly filled them by trading for Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hasek and signing Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille. These big names joined other future Hall of Fame talents; Chris Chelios, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan, Steve Yzerman, along with Pavel Datsyuk in his rookie season and legendary coach Scotty Bowman, who had decided to return for one more year. The Wings were quickly selected as favorites to win the Stanley Cup and they were right. With so much talent on one team, including the first time three 500-goal scorers were on the same team, they quickly got off to a great start, winning 22 of their first 27 games. After finishing with 116 points and the best record in the NHL, the Wings had earned the first seed in the Western Conference and met the Vancouver Canucks in the first round. After the Canucks took the first 2 games, it looked like the Canucks were going to sweep the Red Wings. And the Red Wings were going to have their 2nd straight early exit. Their Captain, Steve Yzerman gave a closed-door speech to the team. Only the players in the locker room knew what was said, but the Wings headed to Vancouver and won four straight games to take the series. After a quick series against the division rival St. Louis Blues, Detroit met their old nemesis, the second-seeded Colorado Avalanche in the Conference Finals. They battled back and forth during the series, tying the series three times before reaching game seven in Detroit. The Wings came out firing and won the deciding game 7 ¨C 0. After that the Wings fought the cinderella story Carolina Hurricanes for the Stanley Cup, winning in game five at home. Over a million people showed up for the victory parade in downtown Detroit on June 17. There was no All-Star game this year as the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City took place in February 2002 where eleven Red Wings players represented their countries. Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman represented Canada, Chris Chelios and Brett Hull represented the United States, Dominik Hasek represented the Czech Republic, Sergei Fedorov, Pavel Datsyuk and Igor Larionov represented Russia, and Nicklas Lidstrom, Fredrik Olausson, and Tomas Holmstrom represented Sweden. The Red Wings sold out all 41 home games in 2001¨C02 as 20,058 fans packed Joe Louis Arena for every regular season and playoff game played in Detroit. The season was chronicled by Detroit Free Press sportswriter Nicholas J. Cotsonika's 2002 book, Hockey Gods: The Inside Story of the Red Wings' Hall of Fame Team.