Columnist Dean Juipe: Bad timing as Wings on the skids

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 9:27 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Only the most faithful haven't been deterred.

They see a roster dotted with what could be 10 future Hall of Famers and they see the huge regular-season point total, and they're convinced the Detroit Red Wings will steamroll through the marathon-like National Hockey League playoffs that begin Wednesday.

This is, after all, a team that sent 11 players to the 2002 Olympics and has, arguably, the greatest assemblage of talent in the history of the sport. It's all all-stars all the time when you're up against the Wings.

Their 116 points in the regular season were 15 better than the next best team, Boston, and 18 better than the team immediately behind them in the Central Division standings, St. Louis.

Even at the bastion of hockey gambling, the Imperial Palace, the Wings have almost unprecedented support. A visit Monday reinforced the notion of Detroit as the people's team, as it is a 4-5 favorite to win a Stanley Cup that won't be awarded until June.

But amid all these accolades are a couple of items that can offset the enthusiasm for those who believe or have bet the Wings to win it all. To wit: They're old, they're tired and they haven't won a game in more than two weeks.

Detroit dragged through the tail end of the regular season and went winless in its final seven games. Yes, the outcomes of those games were, in effect, meaningless to a team that had its division (and Presidents Trophy) already won, yet they're telltale if you're looking for trends.

Despite prodding from various sources -- sniper Brett Hull belittled the club for its lackluster ways going into last weekend -- the Wings were unable to re-energize themselves and were staggering as they reached the tape.

I tend to think they won't fully recover. And I think Colorado is a better bet for the Stanley Cup.

At the I.P. the Avalanche is a hospitable 6-1, with Philadelphia (8-1) and Boston (10-1) the other significant favorites. The latter two teams will have the advantage of coming through the lesser Eastern Conference, which aids their Cup chances.

Detroit, which has seven players at least 36 years old, may be in one of the most unique positions in the history of sports. Can you think of another team in any sport that was so dominant during the regular season yet so questionable on the eve of the playoffs?

And it's the team's advancing collective age, as well as its contributions to various national teams in the Olympics, that have led to this inopportune decline. The Wings had the bulk of their roster active (and involved in intense games) during the two-week Olympic run, while every other team in the league was resting the vast majority of its players.

Detroit fans can take some twisted comfort in knowing the Wings finished the regular season 20-4-5 a year ago, only to lose in the opening round of the playoffs, and that they were a mere 7-7-6 to close in 1997 before going on to win the Stanley Cup.

But that's groping for a reason to feel optimistic.

The truth may well be that age has caught up with the Wings a month or two premature from how they had it planned. It takes wheels to play hockey and the team from the Motor City is reduced to flats.