16 years ago today, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the 11th time
On this date, 16 years ago, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 to clinch the 11th Stanley Cup in franchise history.
It was a historic championship, with Nicklas Lidstrom becoming the first European born captain to ever lift the Cup, while Detroit extended its lead on the rest of the league's American franchises in terms of championships.
Those Red Wings also ensconced themselves into Stanley Cup playoff history by becoming the gold standard for possession-driven success in what was the first year of the NHL's advanced stats era.
It was also a team—much like the Russian Five x Grind Line teams of the late 90s—that was defined the simultaneous presence of supreme skill in the form of the likes of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and the grit and braun of Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, and Kris Draper. Johan Franzen walked between those worlds as the postseason's breakout star who combined scoring touch (including a sizzling nine-goal-in-four-game run in the second round sweep of the Colorado Avalanche) with a pugnacious attitude and ready willingness to absorb and administer contact.
Of course, painfully, Detroit would return to the precipice of a repeat to match '97 and '98's only to fall on home ice in Game 7 against those same Penguins. The Red Wings have not since returned to the Cup Final.