The Detroit Red Wings always seem to find the right roster to compete and many times dominate in the NHL and this season has been no exception. More than a quarter of the way through the 2010-11 season, the Red Wings find themselves sitting in the top spot in the NHL with a 17-4-2 record and 38 points after 23 games.

How do they do it consistently year after year and even decade after decade?

A lot of teams would like to know so they can copy the formula that GM Ken Holland has put together but that’s a difficult task when there is a salary cap that exists; ask the Chicago Blackhawks about that.

The Blackhawks threw all their eggs in one basket last season and went for it all. Luckily for them they got to the Stanley Cup Finals and won the championship, otherwise they would be looking at an uphill struggle to win it this season.

The Blackhawks, who like many teams struggle to stay under the salary cap, were forced to let nine players go from that championship roster since June. A few of those players have found great success in their new homes like Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd in Atlanta who are No. 1 and 2 in scoring for the Thrashers with Ladd wearing a ‘C’ on his jersey and Big Buff wearing an ‘A’. Byfuglien actually leads the NHL in scoring for defenseman and that stat that may be hard to look at for Blackhawks fans who see their team six points behind division leading Detroit and just two points away from the No. 9 spot in the Western Conference.

So how do the Red Wings stay so consistent? One reason is Holland uses the team’s history of winning to attract several veterans over the years who are looking for an opportunity to have their name engraved on the cup. Players like Brett Hull, Chris Chelios and more recently Mike Modano have joined the Wings late in their careers with hope of hoisting the cup before exiting for the golf course.

Holland normally has blended veterans like these with a strong group of young players and draft picks to find the right chemistry. Going into this season however, many people questioned the Red Wings ability to stay on top since the veteran group far outweighed the youth, making their roster the oldest in the NHL.

Led by 40-year-old Nicklas Lidstrom and Mike Modano the Wings have 14 players over 30 years old with seven of them being over the age of 35. Balancing out the age scale this season is young goaltender Jimmy Howard is leading the charge. Howard has an astounding 15-2-2 record and 2.38 GAA and .919 save percentage. His mentor on the bench, Chris Osgood, has spent most of his career with the Red Wings and after a short stint outside the organization, turned down an opportunity for a huge contract elsewhere to finish his career in Detroit. Other players like Marian Hossa, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Dominic Hasek did the same with Hossa passing up a 70-plus million dollar multi-year deal to skate one year with the team in 2008 .

So GM’s around the league, there is the formula! Have a consistent draft and get veteran players to agree to skate for millions of dollars less per season than their agents can get them from somewhere else. Yeah, good luck with that, unless your Ken Holland running a team in Hockeytown.

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

LOS ANGELES – After years of hiding in the shadows of the rival NBA, the NHL made its way back into the ratings and into Hollywood’s spotlight after the last season’s playoffs. Just days after the Red Wings clinched the finals, the Stanley Cup made a trip down the red carpet and appeared on several popular television shows including “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.”

Since the notorious lockout season, there have been many questions surrounding the lack of marketing and publicity for the NHL. Ratings had dipped to historic lows while some national sports commentators grew apathetic to the league and its stars, until last year’s dream finals match-up between the Red Wings and Penguins.

The rating numbers reported by NBC for the prime time finals indicated the NHL was on the way back and the league used that momentum to kick their marketing and publicity into high gear as soon as the finals were over. After the Red Wings returned home with the Cup and completed their photo day, they gained an onslaught of attention from the national media and publicity soared.

Chris Osgood and Nicklas Lidstrom helped make that happen. Still battered from a long season and finals series, they gratiously accepted an invitation to fly to L.A. and appeared with the Stanley Cup.

After their “Sexy Back” dance performance on  Leno’s show, we shouldn’t expect Osgood and Lidstrom to  make it to “Dancing With the Stars,” but their representing the NHL and Red Wings that night in front of millions of coast-to-coast viewers was exposure the league desperately needed.

While on the same West Coast trip, Osgood and Stanley were again in the spotlight when they joined some of Hollywood’s stars including Mike Myers, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba and Verne Troyer for a walk down the red carpet at the opening premiere for the hockey-related comedy “The Love Guru.”

Born in Scarborough, Ontario, Myers grew up an avid Maple Leaf fan and getting exposure from the Austin Power’s star may have helped the NHL “get its mojo back.” In addition to Myers, Hollywood has a long list of celebrities who love the game including producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, Armageddon, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Verne Troyer who portrayed Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies to name a few.

This year, the NHL should take their relationship with Hollywood to the next level and continue to include these stars in their marketing plan. Hollywood stars have helped promote other leagues like the NFL and NBA and there is a lot to gain by inviting them to functions put on by the league.

Every year there are stories about the trips Stanley makes throughout the summer. Tales are about the far away countries visited or the occasional strip club stop. Those journeys do get attention, but that exposure is minimal compared to the exposure the league gained by these Hollywood trips.

The NBA promotes their relationships with celebrity fans including Jack Nicholson and Ashton Kutcher. If the NHL continues to pair Hollywood with their sport in 2008-09, what celeb might be sitting on the glass during the next Stanley Cup playoffs?

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