1997 vs. 2002, which Wings' team was better?

Over the past 15-20 the Detroit Red Wings have gone from a good franchise to an elite franchise that is recognizable all over the world. During that time frame the Wings have assembled some of the best teams in the hockey world winning four Stanley Cups and a number of Conference and Division titles.

Within the Wings organization a successful season is determined on whether or not you win the Stanley Cup. Based off this notion you can really only look at four teams within the past 20 years when determining what team was the best. These four teams were the 1997 cup team, the 1998 cup team, the 2002 cup team and the 2008 cup team. If you were to break it down even more, two of those four teams that stand are are the 1997 team that ended the drought and the 2002 team that was loaded full of Hall of Famer’s.

The Sporting News recently compiled a list of the top ten best NHL teams of all time. The Wings were well represented on the list coming in at #5 with the 1951-52 team and #6 with the 2001-02 team.

Where is the 97′ team though?

Let the debate begin.

Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News managed to get some reaction from players who played for both the 97′ and 02′ team to get their take on the 97′ snub.

“I would say the ’02 team might have been the most talented group, but I think ’97 was the better team,” said Steve Yzerman, the captain of both teams.

Brendan Shanahan echoed Yzerman.

“I would say 2002 was deeper, maybe had more talent,” Shanahan, a member of the ’97 team told The Sporting News. “But ’97 was just meaner, tougher, might have kicked the (expletive) out of ’02.

“A lot of teams, in the regular season, could dress a tougher team than us,” said Shanahan of the 1997 team. “The difference was, when the playoffs came, they didn’t dress those tough guys. All of our tough guys played regular shifts.”

Other players on the Wings who played on the 97′ and 02′ teams disagreed with the Yzerman and Shanahan.

“What is it, 11 or 12 guys are going to make the Hall of Fame off that roster?” said Kris Draper, preparing with his teammates after Tuesday’s practice for a trip to Tampa Bay with their fathers (it’s the annual father-son trip). “All the individual trophy winners, the 700 goal scorers, 1,000 point guys.

“I tell you what, I know I got a lot of jerseys and sticks signed by the guys playing on that team. Just the names on that team. It was a pretty impressive team.”

“From a talent perspective, you go down player by player, the skill on that 2002 team was so deep,” said Nicklas Lidstrom, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2002 and was part of the young, talented core in 1997. “We called it a fourth line, but look at that fourth line that team had.

“Luc Robitaille, Igor Larionov and Homer (Tomas Holmstrom). You have two Hall of Famers and Homer has scored a lot of goals and been a great player for a lot of years.”

Said Draper: “On paper, that’s definitely one of the greatest teams.”

Holmstrom, too, was somewhat awed by the 2002 team and felt the caliber of players gave that team the edge over 1997.

“I’d look around this room and it was packed with All-Star players,” Holmstrom said. “It was unbelievable.”

Despite all the talent, Holmstrom said there were many selfless personalities on that squad.

“Everyone knew you couldn’t win the Stanley Cup singlehanded(ly),” Holmstrom said. “Everyone knew the only way to win was to win as a team.”

Kulfan goes on to say that the 1997 team was the essence of team hockey something I think is lost in this whole argument. The 97′ team had players that truly grew together, went through the ups and downs, the disappointments and jubilation’s and the hunger to win. They had the perfect combination of grit in Joey Kocur, Tomas Holmstrom, Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe as well as finesse in the Russian Five. They had veteran goaltending that has been there and done that in Mike Vernon as well as a younger goaltender waiting in the wings (no pun intended) to take over the following season in Chris Osgood. I don’t want to take anything away from the 2002 team because they were a great team but the 97′ team was a team that would run over anyone and die for each other out on the ice.

2002 Team

Centers
Steve Yzerman
Igor Larionov
Kris Draper
Sergei Fedorov
Jason Williams
Pavel Datsyuk
Forwards
B. Shanahan
Brett Hull
Kirk Maltby
Luc Robitaille
B. Devereaux
Darren McCarty
Kris Draper
T.Holmstrom
Defense
Nicklas Lidstrom
Jiri Fischer
M. Dandenault
Chris Chelios
Fredrik Olausson
Steve Duchesne
Jiri Slegr
M. Kuznetsov
Uwe Krupp
Goalies
Dominik Hasek
Manny Legace
1997 Team
Centers
Steve Yzerman
Igor Larionov
Kris Draper
Tim Taylor
Sergei Fedorov
Wingers
V. Kozlov
B. Shanahan
Doug Brown
Kirk Maltby
Martin Lapointe
Darren McCarty
Joey Kocur
T. Sandstrom
T. Holmstrom
M. Dandenault
Mike Knuble
Defense
V. Fetisov
Bob Rouse
Jamie Pushor
Nicklas Lidstrom
V. Konstantinov
Aaron Ward
Larry Murphy
Goaltenders
Mike Vernon
Chris Osgood
Kevin Hodson