Pretty spiffy news from the Sporting News’s Craig Custance:
The fans have spoken, and they have crowned the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings as the greatest NHL team of all time.
When Sporting News’ panelists selected the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens the No. 1 NHL team, one NHL Hall of Famer told writer Craig Custance, “Must have been a lot of Canadiens on that panel.”
We’re thinking Red Wings fans got out the vote this time, as the 2001-02 Wings had to knock off their peers, the 1951-52 Red Wings, for the crown. Some Detroit players say the 1997 squad was even tougher than the 2001-02 team. Kirk Maltby says people forget how dominant Vladimir Konstantinov was on defense.
“He was ridiculous in that playoff year when we won it. That guy, he was just such a warrior,” Maltby told SN writer Matt Crossman. “I don’t know how he did this, but during the short time I played with him, he probably had three, maybe four breakaways as a defenseman. And every one was a guaranteed goal. I don’t know how he managed to have breakaways, but he did. And he buried every single one of them. It’s not like he was just that big warrior, grinding it out, tough to play against. He had some offensive upside to him.”
Original Story:
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