What happened to the 2003 Red Wings?

[SnowblindNYR]

I know they got stonewalled by Giguere but from what I remember they returned most of their juggernaut super team from the year before other than Hasek. But they had Cujo who is probably better than Vernon and Osgood. That sweep was probably every bit as shocking as the Lightning in 2019.

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[Brodeur]

Anaheim was quietly very good in the 2nd half of that season. Going into that series, I thought Detroit would win but that the Ducks would be a harder out than most were expecting. Both teams had similar 2nd half records:

Anaheim: 25-11-2-3
Detroit: 25-10-3-3

Quick look at the rosters and Detroit was a little top heavy on the blue line. In the Anaheim series:

Lidstrom: 33:35
Schneider: 28:16
Dandenault: 25:51
Chelios: 25:43
Woolley: 15:25
Bykov: 11:14

Jiri Fischer missed that postseason after a knee injury in November. Dandenault (13:29) had been a #6 defenseman the previous playoff. And maybe this was around the time Chelios was starting to slow down?

Despite that, Detroit did handily outshoot Anaheim in that series.

 

[Oddbob]

I know they got stonewalled by Giguere but from what I remember they returned most of their juggernaut super team from the year before other than Hasek. But they had Cujo who is probably better than Vernon and Osgood. That sweep was probably every bit as shocking as the Lightning in 2019.

It was mostly Giguere. He was unreal that playoff, especially in this particular series. The Wings dominated all 4 games, but couldn't score. Cujo let a couple of not great goals in as well, which were made worse by Giguere going Conn Smythe on the Wings.

As a Wings fan, the only series that we lost that sucked more was the 1994 Sharks playoff defeat as we were even heavier favourites in that one. 2003 was definitely more boring though with it being the height of the dead puck era in 2003.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

It was mostly Giguere. He was unreal that playoff, especially in this particular series. The Wings dominated all 4 games, but couldn't score. Cujo let a couple of not great goals in as well, which were made worse by Giguere going Conn Smythe on the Wings.

A bit of digression but did NJ do things differently or did Giguere just not keep up his ridiculous play because he's human?

 

[Oddbob]

A bit of digression but did NJ do things differently or did Giguere just not keep up his ridiculous play because he's human?

Probably a little of both. NJ was very trap heavy as we all know, so that probably hurt Anaheim as well. Also, Detroit got one goal off of 64 shots in one of the games, and New Jersey scored 6 off of 37 in one of the Finals games. I think he was probably tiring quite a bit. He also only gave up 1 goal in the whole Minnesota series just to put in perspective how awesome he was.

 

[The Panther]

Here's the Red Wings taking the ice in 2003:

 

[bobholly39]

I know they got stonewalled by Giguere but from what I remember they returned most of their juggernaut super team from the year before other than Hasek. But they had Cujo who is probably better than Vernon and Osgood. That sweep was probably every bit as shocking as the Lightning in 2019.

I don't think Lightning 2019 is a good comparable.

Lighting completely choked. That's 100% on them, and shame on them. And I say this as someone who believes that Lightning core is the best core of the cap era.

Detroit 2003 is more like Capitals 2010 who got Halak'd. Tried super hard, every way possible, but the goalie on the other side was just inhuman, completely unbeatable.

 

[JackSlater]

Giguere was the main problem in terms of making it a sweep. Babcock had Anaheim playing a fairly effective style for the time though, and generally Detroit was a very old team that was always going to be worse than the year before and going to be worse the longer the playoffs went on. Not that they went on very long for Detroit. There were other things like Yzerman being a physical wreck that year and Fedorov's contract situation looming, though Fedorov himself was Detroit's best player against Anaheim.

 

[The Panther]

What happened to Luc Robitaille that season? He did quite well in 2001-02. With only 14:50 ice-time per game, he still banged in 30 goals. (I believe his goals / 60 was higher than Brett Hull's.)

Then, in 2002-03, just 11 goals in 81 games and a dismal 7.4 shooting percentage (less than half that of one year earlier).

 

[WarriorofTime]

Old. They were old a year earlier too, but another year on all those old guys goes a long way. They could have used more out of Datsyuk and Zetterberg that particular Series.

 

[MadLuke]

They still had a 110 pts season and outshouts their playoff opponent 42.8 shots to 30.

Yzerman knee and others part were aging out, but a lot of the answer is the ducks, the league needed a game 7 in the final to beat them for a reason.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

"They ran into Giguere" is a good answer, but I think there's more to it.

Keep in mind that Scotty Bowman retired after 2002 (when the Red Wings won the Cup). The 2003 edition seemed far more focused on the regular season than they should have been. (This is pure speculation, but maybe new coach Dave Lewis wanted to show that it wasn't just Bowman who could put together a 100+ point team?)

As of February 9th, the Red Wings had a 27-17-9-2 record. A bit below their potential, but they weren't in a bad spot. They were still T-7th in leaguewide standings (and #4 in their conference). They could have cruised into a playoff spot. Instead, they played their best hockey of the season during the final months. From Feb 10th onwards, they had the best record in the league (21-3-1-2). I think Lewis should have had the team take their foot off the gas pedal. Why do you need the reigning Stanley Cup champions, who had one of the oldest cores in NHL history, to win 83% of their games down the stretch?

Look at how hard Lewis rode Lidstrom and Chelios during the final two months. They ranked 3rd and 5th in the entire league in SH TOI during that period (Lidstrom was 5th in total TOI; Chelios was lower because he didn't go on the powerplay, but he was near the top in terms of harder ES+PK minutes). They would have been better rested for the playoffs, had they got a minute or two less per game. Why did Fedorov get 24:26 in the 2nd last game of the season, a completely meaningless match against a non playoff team? In the final game of the season (against a non playoff team, and with the division title already locked up) why did Lidstrom get 29:23 (especially when he was north of 31 minutes the game before!)

There are other examples, but the point is - I think Lewis lost perspective on what was important for this team, and rode his stars too hard in the regular season, which would have caused problems in the playoffs, Giguere or not.