STANLEY CUP
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Loyalty Is the Wind Beneath These Wings
Detroit's Stanley Cup didn't simply come from mining European talent
By Katherine Thompson
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Posted Jun 5, 08 11:27 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom and Finals MVP Henrik Zetterberg both learned their hockey skills in Sweden, but it's not Detroit's strategy of drawing European talent that secured them this year's Stanley Cup. The team's success, writes Scot Burnside for ESPN, is due to management's willingness to gamble on older mainstays of the Hockeytown franchise.
Chris Osgood, the 35-year-old goalie who won 14 playoff games, got his last ring with Detroit 10 years ago. Along with Dallas Drake, who started his career here in 1993, and Dan Cleary, who was jobless 3 years ago, Osgood knows that his place is in Detroit. The team is full of these stories, which now all have happy endings.