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Looking Ahead
Jennifer Miller	6/07/2006
My period of mourning has passed and the denial and anger have given way to the final stage of grief - that of acceptance. Not that I want to accept another early round elimination but, unfortunately, we are having to get used to such things in the little village of Hockeytown. Through the pain of bidding farewell to my Red Wings, I was able to watch a little of the remaining teams - until now. There is a finals match up that I do not care about in the slightest. I wish I could pretend, but I can't. At least the Tigers are doing well, and I surely didn't expect those words to come from my keyboard, believe you me. I wish I even knew where to start with this team but I just don't. I have to confess that this was the main reason it took me so long to write this column. There is nothing wrong with this team, really. This is the team that took the best record in the regular season and then simply choked when it counted the most and there is no predictor for that. I can point to many players that didn't come through when needed but really the blame goes to everyone in the dressing room save Henrik Zetterberg. The only knock I have heard against his performance was that he didn't have many assists. No wonder. I wouldn't pass to those guys either. He figured out quickly that if he didn't shoot it himself, it wasn't going anywhere near the net. I could blame Manny Legace, and he does deserve some blame. Many goals against were the type that shouldn't get by a good goalie in the playoffs and wouldn't have gotten by him during the regular season. But Manny is not responsible for the horrid lack of scoring. I will give some credit to Dwayne Roloson, but this team has beaten that man before and there was no reason to go making him look like Georges Vezina himself. There will be personnel changes this off season, partly due to the salary cap and partly due to the needs that Ken Holland has been noting since the early exit from the post season. Exactly how many new faces and how many will come from outside the current organization will depend on a number of factors – most notably how much money Nick Lidstrom commands in his new contract. Undoubtedly it will be put to Nick as such: ask for the maximum and you will get it but ask for less and you can have a better team around you. Nick is a smart man who plays the game with a great deal of pride, I think he may make himself satisfied with less than the maximum allowed under the new CBA. Although if he insists on that, they will have no choice but to give it to him. In the next couple of weeks, we will surely get the announcement from Steve Yzerman as to his decision about retirement. Toward the end of the season, we all saw there was still a little left in the old tank and we even saw glimpses of a much younger Yzerman, but I don't think his body can hold up for a whole season anymore and I think the team becomes too dependant on him even though they say the right things. I think for the good of the team it may finally be time for the captain to bid us a fond farewell. This is not how he wanted to go out, and not how any of us wanted to see him go out, but it may just be how things have to be. This raises questions on leadership for the future, to which I have just one word. Zetta. He has the same quiet hard working demeanor as Yzerman, and he has proven that when it counts the most and when the team is counting on him the most, he can come through. He is young and, unless Ken Holland suffers a head injury, will be around for a long time. Give him the reins and see where he can drive this buggy. The off season holds many mysteries. I am sort of excited to see what free agent day looks like in a post-cap world and to see how much the team will now have to change from year to year and how Holland and his crew will continue to keep this team competitive in the new era of parity. Already we are seeing interesting things afoot as both Legace and Chris Osgood are unrestricted this summer. It has been made clear that Cory Cross will not be offered a contract. Never mind that as a good many very interesting defensemen are available this off season. Goaltending could get tricky next year though as Jimmy Howard showed his youth a bit in the playoffs and there isn't that much on the market this year - not at bargain prices that Holland will need to look for anyhow. We'll just have to see how this all shakes out. I have a feeling I am really going to need a media guide for next season though.