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Our esteemed leader asked me a simple question: "Between Pittsburgh and Detroit, who can rightly claim to be the 'Team of the 90's?'"
While blurting out "Detroit, dummy!" was my first instinct, I decided to look deeper into the question and come up with the best answer.
While Detroit has been a powerful team for the longest and Pittsburgh went through some very lean times (and near bankruptcy) before Sidney Crosby came to the rescue, let us not forget that the Pittsburgh Penguins were once scarier than the prospect of washing Lindsay Lohan's puke-drenched toilet.
Imagine a Power Play unit with Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux, and Larry Murphy? Yeah, I bet a lot of goaltenders were wearing adult diapers in the early 90s.
Let's do a little comparison shopping, shall we?
STANLEY CUPS: 2 apiece. The Penguins opened up the 90s with two consecutive cup wins, and then the Wings pulled off 2 straight cup wins of their own later in the decade.
OVERALL RECORD: Detroit wins this one by 27 wins.
Pittsburgh: 411-279-90-6
Detroit: 438-248-98-2
GOAL DIFFERENTIAL: Despite Pittsburgh's offensive power, they were usually always a weak defensive team, and never as balanced as the Detroit Red Wings.
Pittsburgh: 2890GF - 2537GA = +353
Detroit: 2849GF - 2212GA = +637
HALL OF FAMERS: As you'd expect with great teams, both clubs had their fair share of Hall of Famers (and future Hall of Famers). Pittsburgh gets the slight edge.
Pittsburgh: Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy, Bryan Trottier, Joe Mullen, Scotty Bowman, Craig Patrick, and Bob Johnson. Expect Jaromir Jagr and Mark Recchi to be there eventually.
Detroit: Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov, Larry Murphy, and Scotty Bowman. Expect Sergei Fedorov, Nick Lidstrom, and Steve Yzerman to make it. Vlad Konstantinov would have likely made it if his career wasn't cut short.
THE "X" FACTOR: Something that gives the team an extra boost of popularity or notoriety.
Pittsburgh: Mario Lemieux is one of the very best to ever play the game, and his comeback from cancer and other ailments was one of the bigger stories of the 1990s. Simply put, Lemieux put the fear into just about everyone he played against, and nobody wanted to take a penalty against the Penguins.
Detroit: Besides having the Russian Five, and being labeled as the Big Red Machine, the limo incident and injuries to Vlad Konstantinov and their masseuse was also another big story in the 1990s. The Wings used the inspiration from the accident to win their second cup.
While the Penguins had the firepower, the Wings were ultimately more successful in terms of wins and losses and staying power. While the Wings won just two cups, they were a powerful force with some staying power. If Lemieux hadn't retired and/or been injured so often, the scales would have likely tilted in the Pens' favor.
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