DETROIT -- No crowd will ever sing the praises of the winning team's general manager, as the fans in Joe Louis Arena chanted "Oz-ie" Monday in tribute to goaltender Chris Osgood's second consecutive shutout in the Stanley Cup final.
If ever a general manager deserved public accolades it's Detroit's Ken Holland, who put together a team that takes its dedication to defense as seriously as its dedication to one another.
The Red Wings toyed with the Pittsburgh Penguins for much of their 3-0 victory Monday, moving to within two victories of ending the season of a team that was supposed to redefine the NHL and put Sidney Crosby's face out front for new fans to embrace.
It's the Red Wings who are the face of the NHL now. Those faces are sweaty and bruised and purple in some places, stitched together in others, but altogether a beautiful sight for fans who like their hockey rugged but rollicking.
The Red Wings will go to Pittsburgh for Game 3 on Wednesday with a 2-0 series lead that gives a new meaning to the word "commanding."
They have stifled Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and every other member of a supposedly stacked Pittsburgh lineup, doing it because of Holland's vision and the clever moves that patched gaping holes that his team had developed before the Red Wings' loss to the Ducks in last season's Western Conference final.
Holland is a former minor league goalie who, paradoxically, hates using precious salary-cap space to pay big bucks to goalies.
He willingly spends money and, if necessary, draft picks, to acquire the right defensemen, as he did in signing Brian Rafalski as a free agent last summer and acquiring Brad Stuart from the Kings in February for second- and fourth-round draft picks.
Rafalski has been brilliant, helping defense partner Nicklas Lidstrom become a finalist to win the Norris Trophy for the sixth time. Stuart -- so close to joining the list of players who had to leave the Kings to win the Cup, as Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake did -- has provided muscle and smarts and is a good complement to the hard-hitting Niklas Kronwall.
That Stuart chipped in a smart goal and a clever assist Monday was a bonus, but one that didn't come from dumb luck.
Building around a strong defense isn't a revolutionary idea. The Ducks did it in winning the Cup last season, spending lavishly on Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. Ducks GM Brian Burke inherited a core of good young talent but remade the entire defense to win the Cup.
