While it's true they lost some talent and production, and haven't added anything of consequence in the early stages of the offseason, it still shouldn't put much of a dent in the Red Wings' Stanley Cup chances for 2009-10.
Let's take a look at what Detroit is really losing, and what it has coming up through the Grand Rapids pipeline.
It's been a rough month or so for the Detroit Red Wings.
They lost the last two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, eventually falling to Pittsburgh in an epic seventh game. When free agency started, the Red Wings started losing players. Marian Hossa (Chicago), Tomas Kopecky (Chicago), and Mikael Samuelsson (Vancouver) signed with Western Conference rivals. Now, the Wings have lost a good young player to the Kontinental Hockey League.
It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We'll be running our division-by-division preview of the offseason beginning later in the week, but we wanted to give the two top dogs their own space. Today: the summer outlook for the Red Wings. Tomorrow, the Stanley Cup champion Penguins.
The Red Wings came within one game of repeating as Stanley Cup champions. A goal or two here or there, and their mission – and Marian Hossa's – is accomplished.
Instead, Detroit's first question mark going into the summer months is Hossa. It's widely expected he'll re-sign with the Wings for five years or so, but that will push Detroit essentially to the limit when it comes to the cap, which is projected to be about $57 million again.
One of the key factors in Detroit's 3-1 win on Saturday was its dominant performance in the face-off circle, as the Wings won 39-of-55 draws. It's an impressive number on its own, but when you consider the Wings were playing without Pavel Datsyuk (winning 52 percent of his draws this postseason) and Kris Draper (64 percent) it's downright scary. And kind of ridiculous.
After the jump, a breakdown of which players did the damage, and who they did it against. Let's just say this: It's ugly for the Penguins, which begs the question: where the hell is Mike Zigomanis when you need him?
DETROIT -- This was more like it when it comes to a Game 7.
The second-seeded Red Wings and the No. 8 Ducks continued their hearty battle in the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday here at Joe Louis Arena, and Anaheim very nearly pulled off an upset of the defending champs, two weeks after knocking off the top-seeded Sharks.
Instead, it was hard-nosed Dan Cleary, not one of Detroit's marquee players, who willed the Wings into the conference finals by hammering the puck past Jonas Hiller with three minutes to play, giving Detroit a 4-3 victory over the tough Ducks. Detroit will meet the Chicago Blackhawks in a matchup of Original Six teams for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Finals.
You would probably think that Chris Kunitz would face some sort of punishment from the NHL for what appears to be, in the slow-motion video above, a deliberate cross-check to the face of Simeon Varlamov. But that would be giving the wacky NHL too much credit.
The NHL has decided not to suspend Ducks forward Mike Brown for his first-period hit on Detroit's Jiri Hudler in Game 1, which undoubtedly will upset the Red Wings and will lead to declarations that the league isn't being consistent in its discipline. After all, the argument goes, the league leveled a six-game suspension on Washington's Donald Brashear for a hit on Blair Betts of the Rangers in the first round.
Perhaps the NHL overreacted somewhat in that instance, but in this case, the decision seems warranted. After repeated viewings of Brown's hit on Hudler, I was not convinced it warranted a suspension, particularly a lengthy one.
Friday night, Anaheim and Detroit met to open their Western Conference semifinal series. During the first period, the intensity got cranked up big-time on a late and high hit by Anaheim's Mike Brown on Red Wing forward Jiri Hudler in Detroit's 3-2 win.
When they're on, there's no doubt the Detroit Red Wings are among the best teams in the NHL. More often than usual this season, the Wings were a tad less than adequate defensively, leaving their goaltenders in impossible positions and generally giving up too many goals.
The playoffs are different, however, and the experienced Wings showed that on Thursday. They easily dispatched Columbus, 4-1, in Game One of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.
You're going to hear about Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin quite a bit during the NHL playoffs (probably more than you care to hear about them) but they are far from the only players in the NHL that could make an impact in the race for the Stanley Cup.
Here are four under-the-radar players that could play big roles for their teams this postseason.
It's been a one-way street out of Detroit this offseason, as the Red Wings have watched Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Ty Conklin and Tomas Kopecky sign with rival teams in the Western Conference, while Jiri Hudler attempts to make a jump to the KHL (even though the NHL isn't all that happy about it). Such losses would be a sizable blow to most teams, but the Red Wings aren't like most teams. 
It's been a rough month or so for the Detroit Red Wings.
The 
One of the key factors in Detroit's 3-1 win on Saturday was its dominant performance in the face-off circle, as the Wings won 39-of-55 draws. It's an impressive number on its own, but when you consider the Wings were playing without 
The NHL has decided not to suspend Ducks forward 
There has been a lot of talk about hits to the head in the NHL playoffs so far. Washington's 
When they're on, there's no doubt the Detroit Red Wings are among the best teams in the NHL. More often than usual this season, the Wings were a tad less than adequate defensively, leaving their goaltenders in impossible positions and generally giving up too many goals.
You're going to hear about 
