I am amazed by the Detroit Red Wings.

We all know that the NHL is a copycat league. And after the Ducks won the Cup playing a very physical style of play, many teams tried to emulate them.

In fact, there was even a fast and talented team that thought it was a good idea to play crucial playoff games dressing four enforcers up front in this year's playoffs.

What I love about the Red Wings’ organization is that they work tirelessly at setting the standard and finding new ways of doing things, instead of copying what has worked in the past.

And if they are successful in winning eight more games this Spring, they may well start an overdue movement that will change the way teams are built moving forward.

It sounds a little strange but I believe that the European makeup of the Wings has been understated.

Yes it’s true that exactly half of their twenty-two players who have dressed for a game this post-season are from overseas. But to me it’s not how many, but how influential.

Here are some staggering numbers:

Europeans have scored 33 out of their 38 playoff goals in the first two rounds (87%)

Europeans scored 20 of 21 goals in the second round (95%).

It’s true..

Game 1: Detroit 4, Colorado 3
Zetterberg (Datsyuk, Rafalski)
Cleary (Franzen, Rafalski)
Franzen (Kronwall, Hudler) PP
Franzen (Filppula, Samuelsson) OT

Game 2: Detroit 5, Colorado 1
Franzen (Samuelsson, Kronwall) PP
Franzen (Hudler, Kronwall) PP
Filppula (Drake, Lidstrom)
Zetterberg (Datsyuk, Holmstrom)
Franzen (Zetterberg) SH

Game 3: Detroit 4, Colorado 3
Datsyuk (Zetterberg, Lidstrom) PP
Franzen (Lebda, Samuelsson)
Datsyuk (Rafalski, Holmstrom)
Zetterberg (Datsyuk, Samuelsson) PP

Game 4: Detroit 8, Colorado 2
Samuelsson (Lilja)
Holmstrom (Zetterberg, Datsyuk)
Franzen (Filppula, Stuart)
Zetterberg (Lidstrom, Datsyuk) PP
Zetterberg (Datsyuk)
Fransen (Zetterberg) SH
Franzen (Lidstrom, Hudler) PP
Samuelsson (Hudler, Filppula)

Total: 21 goals, 38 assists = 59 points

In Four Games…
Franzen: 9 G, 1 A
Zetterberg: 5 G, 4 A
Filppula: 1 G, 3 A
Datsyuk: 2 G, 6 A
Samuelsson: 2 G, 4 A
Holmstrom: 1 G, 2 A
Hudler: 4 A

Kronwall: 3 A
Lidstrom: 4 A

North American contribution: 1 goal, 6 assists = 7 points (5% of goals, 12% of points)

Game 1: Cleary 1 G, Rafalski 2 A
Game 2: Drake 1 A
Game 3: Rafalski 1 A, Lebda 1 A
Game 4: Stuart 1 A

That’s it.

It’s worth repeating again.

An elite team in the National Hockey League playoffs won a playoff series, despite getting just one goal all series from a North American-born player.

The Wings aren’t just a team that is half North American and half European. They are a team that is carried by its European stars.

Now some people may say that it doesn’t matter where a player is from and to some extent that is true. But one of the things I’ve always found interesting is studying and breaking down the rosters of past Cup winners, trying to figure out that formula to success. And there has never been a Stanley Cup winner that didn’t receive a significant contribution from North American stars.

For the sake of this analysis I looked at the top 2/3 of each Stanley Cup winning roster going back 15 seasons. That is not to discount the contributions of the bottom 1/3 but I wanted to isolate the top 8 forwards and 4 defenders – the players who were most critical to the success of their team (by production and minutes played).

Here are the European skaters who had significant roles on Cup winners:

2007 – Selanne, Pahlsson
2006 – Kaberle
2004 – Kubina, Modin, Fedotenko
2003 – Elias
2002 – Lidstrom, Olausson, Fedorov, Larionov, Holmstrom
2001 – Skoula, Forsberg, Hejduk, Nieminen
2000 – Elias, Sykora, Holik, Mogilny
1999 – Zubov, Lehtinen
1998 – Lidstrom, Fetisov, Fedorov, Kozlov, Larionov, Holmstrom
1997 – Lidstrom, Konstantinov, Fetisov, Fedorov, Kozlov, Larionov
1996 – Krupp, Ozolinsh, Forsberg, Kamensky
1995 – Albelin, Holik
1994 – Zubov, Kovalev, Tikkanen, Nemchinov
1993 – none
1993 – U. Samuelsson, K. Samuelsson, Jagr

That’s 47 in 15 seasons (plus the goalies, Khabibulin and Hasek) for an average of just over three Europeans out of 12 skaters on each winner.




Looking at Detroit’s roster, nine of their top twelve are from overseas. That’s 75%.

That’s more than the last four Cup winners combined.

3 x NA – Rafalski, Stuart, Cleary
9 x EUR – Lidstrom, Kronwall, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Holmstrom, Samuelsson, Hudler, Filppula

Seven of the bottom eight players on the roster are North American and there are some great character players like Draper, Drake, McCarty and Chelios who are obviously a big part of the team. But their team is led by the Swedes not the Canadians – and that’s something we’ve never seen before.

The three other remaining teams have much more traditional roster make-ups.

Dallas has nine Europeans but just four in their top 2/3 (Zubov, Norstrom, Lehtinen and Eriksson).

Philadelphia has seven and only two in their 2/3 (Timonen and Prospal)

Pittsburgh has just five, four of whom have a major influence (Gonchar, Malkin, Hossa and Syrkora).

Interestingly enough, all four teams will start Canadian goalies (although three have European backups). Barring a goaltending change this will be the third year in a row that two Canadian goaltenders carried their teams to the finals.

On defense, all have #1 d-men from overseas but only two of their #2 through #4 d-men are not North American (Kronwall and Norstrom).

Outside of Detroit, the tendency is to load up on North Americans down the middle (Richards, Ribeiro, Modano, Briere, Richards, Carter, Crosby and Staal) with the exception being Evgeni Malkin.

Looking on the wings there are some talented Europeans sprinkled in (Hossa, Sykora, Prospal, Lehtinen and Eriksson) but for the most part the teams outside of Michigan chose to build around Canadians and Americans.




In the Campbell Conference final there’s a very good chance that half of the skaters dressed will be from outside North America.

In all, on the four rosters (counting only those who have played in the playoffs) there are 42 Canadians (46.6%), 32 Europeans (35.6%) and 16 Americans (17.8%).

So what does all this mean?

Well if Nik Lidstrom doesn’t hoist the Cup in June, maybe it won’t mean anything. Teams will continue to build around North American star players, and the Wings will continue to find late round steals, choosing Europeans that have been under-scouted or underrated because of where they were born.

But, what if Detroit wins?

All of a sudden we’ll no longer hear that you can’t win with a European Captain.

And how Europeans are nice to have but you shouldn’t have too many if you want to win.

We may all of a sudden see teams trying to track down Fabian Brunnstrom’s long-lost cousins to play for them.

We may finally see true leaders like Lidstrom, Alfredsson, Sundin and Chara getting the respect that they deserve.

And we may see teams start to change the way they evaluate players and build their reserve lists.

Is this the year that the Cup truly changes everything?

Danny – dtolensky@hotmail.com

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