By George B. Eichorn

Columnist

Back-to-back. In sports, this feat has a special ring to it. Winning back-to-back championships is a mountain to climb yet once you’re there, it’s an outstanding accomplishment.

The Detroit Red Wings will need to avoid a Stanley Cup hangover in order to succeed where few National Hockey League teams have gone – winning back-to-back titles. The Cup banner is raised and the season gets under way this Thursday, October 9, at Joe Louis Arena when the Red Wings host the Toronto Maple Leafs at 8 p.m. in front of a sellout crowd and international television audience numbering millions.

The 11^th Stanley Cup in franchise history will be celebrated one last time in pre-game ceremonies (starting at 7:30 p.m.) as team captain Nicklas Lidstrom helps raise the championship banner to the rafters at The Joe. It will be a special moment for the players, management and fans as all the hard work and effort that comprised the 2007-08 Red Wings season is rewarded with the banner ceremony. Team announcers Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond will serve as co-emcees. The game is televised on Versus and CBC-TV yet not on local television. WXYT-FM 97.1 has the radio account with Ken Kal and Paul Woods.

Yet after the ceremony, Detroit coach Mike Babcock will tell his 2008-2009 edition of players that that was in the past and present is now! Every team in the NHL will out to defeat the Red Wings because, as the cliché goes, there’s a target on the back of the champions. Everyone wants to beat the champs – in hockey and every sport. Toronto will get the first crack at the Wings.

If a team could have gotten better after winning it all a year earlier, it’s the Wings. By signing top-line winger Marian Hossa from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Wings’ management under executive vice president and general manager Ken Holland, signaled a willingness to again go for the jugular and try to repeat as Cup champions. The only players gone from the title team goaltender Dominik Hassek and spunky forward Dallas Drake, both of whom retired. The acquisition of Hossa and backup netminder Ty Conklin makes the Wings as much as a favorite to win it all as they were last season entering the opener.

The Wings are the last NHL team to win back-to-back Cups (1997 and 1998) while the New Jersey Devils are the last to make it to consecutive Cup Finals (2000-2001). The league has seen eight different finalists the last four Finals (the maximum).  What’s even more surprising, the 10 finalists have advanced past the first round of the playoffs the following season. After the Wings won the Cup in 2002 (defeating Carolina), they finished the following season at 48-20-10-4 (1^st Central) but were eliminated in round one.

The top Wings forward line is expected to be Hossa (he had a groin strain at presstime), center Pavel Datsyuk and winger Tomas Holmstrom. Another line should find high-scoring center Henrik Zetterberg with wingers Johan Franzen (coming off a 27-goal season) and Jiri Hudler. Center Valterri Filppula anchors the third line with Mikael Samuelsson on one wing and probably Tomas Kopecky on the other. The fourth line could include center Kris Draper and wingers Dan Cleary and Kirk Maltby. Others contending for the final forward roster spot(s) are Aaron Downey, Darren Helm, Ville Leno and Darren McCarty.

Detroit opens the season without former all-star defenseman Chris Chelios, 46, and entering his 25^th NHL season. Chelios is out up to six weeks with a fractured right tibia (foot) after blocking a shot in an exhibition game at Montreal on September 30.  The defense is anchored by six-time Norris Trophy winner Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Brad Stuart, Niklas Kronwall, Andreas Lilja, Brett Lebda and youngsters Kyle Quincey and Derek Meech, the Red Wings-Detroit Sports Broadcasters Association Rookie of the Year in 2007-08. Quincey and Meech will both not stick this season as one goes when Celios returns.

Likely headed for Grand Rapids, the club’s top minor league affiliate, are Downey, Kopecky, McCarty, defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and goalie Jimmy Howard.

Besides Lidstrom (Norris) other trophy winners for the Wings last season include Zetterberg (Conn Smythe-MVP), Datsyuk (Lady Byng-Sportsmanlike and Selke-Top Defensive Forward) and Osgood-Hasek (Jennings-Team Goals Against). Former Red Wings great Gordie Howe received the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award too. Lidstrom was the first European-born team captain to lift the Stanley Cup while Zetterberg was the first European-born playoffs MVP.

Lidstrom, Chelios, Draper and Maltby are eyeing major career milestones this season. Lidstrom is 62 points from 1,000 and would be the eighth defenseman to reach that plateau; Chelios needs 20 games to pass Scott Stevens (1,635) for fifth place on the all-times games played list and 24 games to pass Dave Andreychuk (1,639) for fourth; Draper needs 50 games (950 now) to reach 1,000 and Maltby needs 58 (at 942) for 1,000 NHL games.

A national highlight of the new NHL season is the Detroit-Chicago Original Six showdown being played on January 1 in Wrigley Field (home of the baseball Cubs) on an outdoor rink, similar to previous outdoor games in Edmonton and Buffalo. Wings goalie Conklin is aiming for his third outdoor game as he participated in the two previous ones. Schedule-wise this season, for the first time since 2003-04, every NHL team will play at least one game against each of the other 29.

Honors galore for ex-Wings this season as Hall of Famers Alex Delvecchio (October 16) and Ted Lindsay (October 18) are feted at The Joe; Lindsay receives the prestigious Lester Patrick Award on October 22; Brett Hull enters the USA Hockey Hall of Fame October 10 and Igor Larionov is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 10. The Montreal Canadiens are celebrating their 100^th anniversary with numerous events including host to the 57^th NHL All-Star Game on January 25 at Bell Centre and to the NHL 2009 Entry Draft, June 26-27.

Eichorn’s NHL division winning picks — Detroit, Colorado, Anaheim, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Carolina. Stanley Cup Finals: Detroit over Pittsburgh. Scott Morganroth contributed to this story.

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