SPORTS Cup champs make everyone else look like chumps By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor ‘Tie 2008-09 NHL season is about to kick off and all 30 teams are telling their fans that they have a realistic shot at winning the Stanley Cup. In reality, there’s only one team that can legitimately say that they are the league favourites, and that’s the defending champions, the Detroit Red Wings. If there has ever been a more complete hockey team in the modern era, I’m not aware of it. From top to bottom, Detroit has practically unlimited skill and depth at all positions. At forward, they make almost every other team in the NHL look like a Bantam squad. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Marian Hossa are all franchise players that any team would drool over. Detroit won the Cup last year riding the abilities of Datsyuk and Zetterberg, two scoring wizards, against Marian Hossa and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Almost as soon as the free agency doors opened on July 1", Hossa signed a one-year, $7.4- million contract. He turned down big money to sign with the cap-strapped Red Wings. The Edmonton Oilers offered Hossa a nine-year deal worth a staggering $81-million, while the Penguins tendered him a five-year pact that would pay an average of $8-million per season. After Detroit’s big three forwards, they have a plethora of highly-skilled, offensively- minded secondary forwards. While most teams stock their third, fourth and sometimes second lines with grinders who have little scoring ability, Detroit went the other way completely. All of their forwards are expected to contribute on the attack and put up decent numbers. Take Swedish sensation Johan Franzen; he shocked everyone by scoring a record six game-winning goals last March and equalling an organization record with 13 playoff goals in the last post-season. He’s currently got one year remaining on a three-year deal that pays him the relatively paltry amount of $950,000 per year. Other forwards such as diminutive dynamo Jiri Hudler and agitating power forward Thomas Holmstrom chip in just as much as some teams’ first line forwards. On defense, no one even compares. It begins with Nicklas Lidstrom, one of, if not the best defenseman in hockey history. At 38, he’s shown no signs of slowing down; he proved that last year by winning the Norris Trophy, given to the league’s best defenseman, for the sixth time. His resumé reads like the legend he is: In fifteen years in the NHL, all with Detroit, he’s won four Stanley Cups, six Norris Trophies, appeared in ten all-Star games, won an Olympic gold medal with his native Sweden (where he was named an Olympic all- star), been an NHL first team all-star every year since 1998 and last year became the first ever European to captain an NHL team to the Stanley Cup. He plays 35 minutes per game, quarterbacks the power play, kills penalties, plays in all situations, has a deadly accurate and powerful shot, is one of the best skaters in the league, and makes picture perfect passes. After Lidstrom, Detroit has one of the league’s best hitters, Nicklas Kronwall, phenomenally gifted offensive defenseman Brian Rafalski, quarterback Brad Stuart, the ageless Chris Chelios, and a number of up-and-coming young blue-liners. In goal, a position Detroit has always been traditionally super strong in, they boast the resurrected Chris Osgood, who most of the hockey world had long forgotten about, and the best backup in the NHL, Ty Conklin. They also have Swedish league all-star Stephan Liv and college sensation Jimmy Howard honing their games in various parts of the organization. While Dominick Hasek moved on, they’!I do just fine in net. Where Detroit most excels however isn’t on the ice, it’s in management. No team in NHL history has had a management team as efficient, effective and brilliant as Detroit’s. They have the NHL’s best general manager, Ken Holland, the man largely responsible for keeping Nicklas Lidstrom around for vastly less than he’s worth, signing Johan Franzen for a comparable pittance and continually unearthing draft day gems that just keep producing. Assistant GM Jim Nill is capable of being a fantastic full time GM, but Detroit pays him handsomely and rewards him with a shiny Cup ring every few years to keep him around. He plays a big part in contract negotiations and mans the scouting departments, where Detroit is the league’s best ever team. Steve Yzerman and Scotty Bowman are advisors to the team and are two of the best hockey minds in the business. Yzerman was the face of the Red Wings for more than twenty years while Bowman is the best coach ever. No team has been able to assemble and keep their talent like the Red Wings have. More than any team in a long, long time, they have fantastic odds to repeat as champions. One look at their management and playing roster, and you might as well give them the Cup right now. MLB Playoffs Around the Corner 3 vicsisix GR is almost upon us, and that can only mean one thing: no, not hockey, but playoffs; the Major League Baseball playoffs to be precise. The fall classic is a highly anticipated event for all baseball fans, and this year should not disappoint. There are two focal points of this year’s playoffs: one, can the Boston Red Sox repeat, and win a second consecutive title, as well as a third in the last five years? Second, can the Chicago Cubs World Series Championship drought end at 100 years? First let’s talk about the Boston Red Sox. After playing a season filled with injuries, a depleted pitching rotation, and a plethora of young players from the minor leagues, the Red Sox chance at repeating looked pretty slim. The Boston Red Sox showed that they are just as tough a team as any other year, managing a 93-65 record (compared to their 96-66 record last year, and 98-64 record in 2004) with still four games left to play. Players like potential MVP candidate Dustin Pedroia, and pitcher Jon Lester have stepped it up this year, ensuring a playoff spot for the Boston Red Sox this year. The Red Sox will most likely end up taking 18 the AL wild card, falling just short of the AL East title, which the unexpected Tampa Bay Devil Rays look to have wrapped up. The next team to watch for is the Chicago Cubs. The last time that the Chicago Cubs had back to back seasons in which they made the playoffs was 1907 and 1908; 1908 being the last time that the Cubs won a World Series. This historic franchise, most famous for its lack of championships, may have their best chance of making it to their first World Series since 1945, and winning their first World Series in 100 years since the Bartman incident of the 2003.National League Championship Series. The Chicago Cubs have their best record in 10 years, at 95-61 with six games still left in the season. The rest of the American League has the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels heading to the playoffs, while the Twins and the White Sox are in a fierce battle in the central division, with the White Sox still having five games left and the Twins still having four games left with one game still remaining against each other. The National League shapes up this way; The Los Angeles Dodgers, propelled by