Detroit's 1996-97 regular season

[c9777666]

what was with Detroit's 1996-97 regular season record looking back?

It didn't reflect their play, but..... 18 ties and the only time they didn't win 40 games in a non-shortened season from 1992-2012. They didn't even crack 40, forget 50.

Their record of 38-26-18 for only 94 points didn't exactly scream at the time 'This is the year!" given Detroit had flopped with much better years record-wise.

I know it's easy to say they didn't go all out that season after the 62 win 1996 season went down in disaster, but 18 ties and finishing 10 points back in a division they had owned, finishing behind a DAL team that was near the bottom of the '96 standings?

Hangover from '96? Pacing themselves? Meshing the new guys? The ties? I mean, they never really seemed to threaten Dallas for first place. Maybe they weren't going to go pedal to the metal, but you'd think they at least would have wanted to win their division.

And of course, it's worth noting that DET ended up not having to play DAL thanks to Cujo's famous save and Marchand's ot winner.

Click to read more...

 

[Pominville Knows]

All i remember is that everyone was impressed by Dallas getting themselves together, and we all know that it was no fluke.
Detroit did probably pace themselves though, due to the reason you mention. Their record was still good especially since there was no losers OT point back then.

 

[overg]

what was with Detroit's 1996-97 regular season record looking back?

It didn't reflect their play, but..... 18 ties and the only time they didn't win 40 games in a non-shortened season from 1992-2012. They didn't even crack 40, forget 50.

Their record of 38-26-18 for only 94 points didn't exactly scream at the time 'This is the year!" given Detroit had flopped with much better years record-wise.

I know it's easy to say they didn't go all out that season after the 62 win 1996 season went down in disaster, but 18 ties and finishing 10 points back in a division they had owned, finishing behind a DAL team that was near the bottom of the '96 standings?

Hangover from '96? Pacing themselves? Meshing the new guys? The ties? I mean, they never really seemed to threaten Dallas for first place. Maybe they weren't going to go pedal to the metal, but you'd think they at least would have wanted to win their division.

And of course, it's worth noting that DET ended up not having to play DAL thanks to Cujo's famous save and Marchand's ot winner.

After their record setting '96 season, they realized regular season success didn't mean squat. So Bowman spent much of the year tinkering with different line combinations, and drilling the "team first" mentality into the very core of their being. Detroit also focused a lot more on adding "grit" to their game, very deliberately not relying on their skill level as much as they probably could have. It led to a rather run of the mill regular season (and their first couple of playoff rounds, for that matter), but obviously worked out quite well in the end.

 

[GMR]

After their record setting '96 season, they realized regular season success didn't mean squat. So Bowman spent much of the year tinkering with different line combinations, and drilling the "team first" mentality into the very core of their being. Detroit also focused a lot more on adding "grit" to their game, very deliberately not relying on their skill level as much as they probably could have. It led to a rather run of the mill regular season (and their first couple of playoff rounds, for that matter), but obviously worked out quite well in the end.

There was also a lot of turnover on that team. Coffey, Primeau, Ciccarelli, Bergevin were all gone. Also, they made moves early in the season, moving Bob Errey, Greg Johnson, and getting Sandstrom.

All that said, they finished 5th in the league standings. They were 6th in goals scored and had the 2nd fewest goals against. Top 10 on the both the powerplay and penalty kill. Not a bad regular season by any stretch. They just had a ridiculous number of points in 1996 which was always going to be hard to top. Other than the 1976-1978 Canadiens, nobody could replicate that kind of dominance every season.

 

[GlitchMarner]

In a way, they're similar to the 2018 Capitals who "merely" had 105 points after two seasons of 120 or so points and finally won the Cup.

 

[tony d]

It was one of their worse regular seasons in some time at that point, still they won a Cup after 42 yrs. of waiting so that was all that matters for them. They went 16-4 in the playoffs that year.

 

[ShelbyZ]

There was also a lot of turnover on that team. Coffey, Primeau, Ciccarelli, Bergevin were all gone. Also, they made moves early in the season, moving Bob Errey, Greg Johnson, and getting Sandstrom.

Don't forget Kocur!

The turnover part is spot on, IMO.

They had traded away Ciccarelli, waived and lost Grimson, Ramsey retired, Bergevin walked as a UFA and they eventually moved Coffey and Primeau to get Shanahan. In very un-Red Wings-like fashion, they didn't bring in any vets to fill the spots...

They decided to replace Ramsey and Bergevin from within, and then started the season with Fetisov, Konstantinov and Coffey hurt (and in Coffey's case, on the way out of town). Filling in was 3 rookies in Ward, Pushor and an out of shape Anders Eriksson, as well as 20 year old Dandenault who was supposed to be a winger.

At forward, younger guys like Draper, McCarty, LaPointe, and Maltby took on bigger roles. Holmstrom was brought in for his rookie year, and guys like Johnson, Errey and Taylor were moved down the depth chart or off of it completely.

Eventually some of those voids were filled with the additions of Kocur, Sandstrom and Murphy.

They were bound to go through some growing pains with all the changes and the injection of youth.

Additionally, Mike Vernon didn't exactly have a great regular season that year.

 

[Big Phil]

I remember that season well, and no one thought the Wings were going to win, maybe when the bloody brawl match with Colorado happened on March 26th, but before that I know I didn't think so. I remember vacationing in Florida and talking to a guy from New Jersey at our resort and we talked the whole afternoon about hockey. He and I both agreed that Philly and Colorado would make the Cup final and meet. I looked up Detroit's record after Murphy came in via trade on March 18th and it wasn't all that impressive. The final 13 games they went 5-5-3. During that season I remember Bowman using Fedorov on defense at different times too. No doubt they weren't as focused on the points in the regular season.

 

[c9777666]

I remember that season well, and no one thought the Wings were going to win, maybe when the bloody brawl match with Colorado happened on March 26th, but before that I know I didn't think so. I remember vacationing in Florida and talking to a guy from New Jersey at our resort and we talked the whole afternoon about hockey. He and I both agreed that Philly and Colorado would make the Cup final and meet. I looked up Detroit's record after Murphy came in via trade on March 18th and it wasn't all that impressive. The final 13 games they went 5-5-3. During that season I remember Bowman using Fedorov on defense at different times too. No doubt they weren't as focused on the points in the regular season.

I get not being on focused on regular season points, but it was almost to the point where it didn’t seem like they were too heavily focused on trying to catch Dallas in their own division and get at least a 2 seed.

You mentioned predicting Colorado and Philly making the Cup Finals and DET was written off. I’m curious as to what you guys thought of the time of DAL and NJD (who barely finished behind COL and had better records than both DET/PHI)

 

[ESH]

They did finish 5th in the entire league that season, while allowing the second least GA as well.

Worse than expected? Yes sure, but you can’t really expect any team to be the best every season.

 

[c9777666]

They did finish 5th in the entire league that season, while allowing the second least GA as well.

Worse than expected? Yes sure, but you can’t really expect any team to be the best every season.

Maybe not the best every season, but if anything you expect them to win their division. They never made a serious run at Dallas to at least win their division

 

[blood gin]

That was the season scoring really took a dive, and Detroit I feel focused more on playing their version of the trap and being better prepared for the playoffs. They were still an outstanding team just a bit more under the radar.

Because of their rather unimpressive regular season I felt the pressure was sort of off Detroit once the playoffs commenced, and that helped them.

 

[JackSlater]

I think that people have highlighted a lot of the reasons. The team was a bit disjointed due to injuries and some changes to the roster, it was also trying to tweak how it played to be better suited to the playoffs. The emergence of Dallas as a legitimate top team in the division was a factor. Another, as noted, was simply a matter of bounces. Detroit was still fifth in the NHL that year but just had a pretty ridiculous amount of ties. For example, Dallas finished with 10 more wins than Detroit had and with 10 more points, but Detroit actually had the better goal differential.

As noted, the regular season was also not really a priority for Detroit at this point given the events of the previous two seasons. This was best exemplified by Fedorov, who took one of his sleepy regular seasons for the first time that season. Of course he was ready for the playoffs and should have won the Conn Smythe.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

I really wish Errey would've stayed on the team to be a bottom 6 forward, but then again maybe Joey Kocur isn't signed if Errey is still there?...….I recall Vernon not having a tremendous win/loss record, but can anyone remember games he played in the regular season outside of March 26th that showed he might've been done? How comparable were Ozzy and he as far as goals against and shutouts etc? I'm curious just how solid/good a regular season Ozzie had in 96-97...

 

[WingsFan95]

Regular season is near meaningless. Usually has been really but amplified since the early 90s with more and more upsets.

To be honest I wish the Wings had been less focused on winning meaningless games in 03-06 because maybe they do better than 8-14.

 

[Big Phil]

I get not being on focused on regular season points, but it was almost to the point where it didn’t seem like they were too heavily focused on trying to catch Dallas in their own division and get at least a 2 seed.

You mentioned predicting Colorado and Philly making the Cup Finals and DET was written off. I’m curious as to what you guys thought of the time of DAL and NJD (who barely finished behind COL and had better records than both DET/PHI)

In March 1997? My thought was that Dallas was sort of "new" to the party and someone was going to beat them along the way (eg. Colorado). The Avs were reigning Cup champs, led the NHL in points and had all the ingredients of repeating. The Flyers just seemed like the beasts of the East then. I wasn't overly impressed with the Devils of that era either until of course they proved things wrong again in 2000. 1995 at the time seemed like more of a fluke than a trend.

 

[ShelbyZ]

I really wish Errey would've stayed on the team to be a bottom 6 forward, but then again maybe Joey Kocur isn't signed if Errey is still there?...….I recall Vernon not having a tremendous win/loss record, but can anyone remember games he played in the regular season outside of March 26th that showed he might've been done? How comparable were Ozzy and he as far as goals against and shutouts etc? I'm curious just how solid/good a regular season Ozzie had in 96-97...

Errey was still around for a while after Kocur was signed.

IIRC, Errey was pretty quickly dropped down the depth chart by the emergence of some of their younger guys. McCarty and LaPointe moved up and took over the scoring role he had, and then guys like Maltby ended up taking over his role in the bottom 6/pk. I think his waiving had more to with someone getting healthy and the Wings having too many on the roster, while Bowman also wanted to dress Holmstrom more and didn't want to send him to Adirondack.

As for the goalies, I don't remember any specifics, but looking at both of their game logs, Osgood was real hot to start the season with a 9-5-2 record, 3 shutouts and .937 through October and November. In the same time frame Vernon starts 5-3-0 and is .893. They continue to ride Osgood through December. He cools off through the month until he puts up some pretty rough looking starts for about 3 weeks after Christmas. He then gets hurt and they go with Vernon. Once Osgood is healthy, they rotate every game until Vernon gets hurt in mid March. Osgood heats up again for the back 2/3's of February while they rotate, and then struggles in March. Once healthy, Vernon gets a bulk of the work for the rest of the season, where he heats up after the infamous 3/26 game against the Avs.

Vernon overall appears to have at least been consistently average to mediocre for the whole season. He never really gets positively or negatively streaky and usually follows up less than noteworthy starts with better ones. Osgood on the other hand peaks and crashes all over the place. As mentioned prior, he had a hot October and November. Then from late December to mid February, he has a stretch of 8 consecutive starts where he allows 3 or more goals, for a total of 34 GA and a SV% of .838. Then he heats up for his next 5, posting 2 shutouts and a .957. Then his next 3 starts he allow 13 GA total, and finishes the rest of March and April at .892.

Once the calendar year switches to 1997, it almost seems like a wash. From 1/1/97 and on, Osgood has a winning record and 2 shutouts, but sports a .891 SV%. Vernon has an odd 7-7-8 record (which is technically .500) and no shutouts, but has a still pedestrian but better .899SV%.

IIRC, part of Vernon getting the nod for the PO's was that he usually played well against the Blues.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

IIRC, part of Vernon getting the nod for the PO's was that he usually played well against the Blues

Shelby that whole summary was awesome and I appreciate the legwork. This sentence here though is news to me.....It makes me laugh because I should know better that no minutae statistic, no matter how trivial...would get by Scotty! Especially something like how a goalie plays against a certain team!

 

[tarheelhockey]

I have never seen a team put less stock in their regular season than the 96-97 Red Wings.

After the triple playoff shocks of 94-95-96, they were at a point where they could go 82-0-0 and everyone would have expected a playoff disaster. Kind of like the Sharks of the 2010s, or various “choke” teams in other sports.

As they were a given to make the playoffs with that roster, and given Bowman’s approach to building a playoff-ready team, there was no pressure on them to fight for regular season wins. Simply put, nobody cared. It was all about hitting the playoffs in stride and cresting at the right time. The fact that they waited till March to hit back at the Avs is a signal about the mentality of that team.

 

[c9777666]

I have never seen a team put less stock in their regular season than the 96-97 Red Wings.

After the triple playoff shocks of 94-95-96, they were at a point where they could go 82-0-0 and everyone would have expected a playoff disaster. Kind of like the Sharks of the 2010s, or various “choke” teams in other sports.

As they were a given to make the playoffs with that roster, and given Bowman’s approach to building a playoff-ready team, there was no pressure on them to fight for regular season wins. Simply put, nobody cared. It was all about hitting the playoffs in stride and cresting at the right time. The fact that they waited till March to hit back at the Avs is a signal about the mentality of that team.

But putting less stock to the point where you get passed by Dallas in your own division and don't even make an attempt to get at least the 2 seed?

 

[tarheelhockey]

But putting less stock to the point where you get passed by Dallas in your own division and don't even make an attempt to get at least the 2 seed?

I genuinely don’t think playoff seeding was the priority for that team.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

1996-97 was just a weird season and I suspect that played a part in it. Look at the standings. Anaheim was 9th overall with 36 wins and 85 points. You had a pair of 77 point playoff teams in the East. It was a cluster-you-know-what.