Charmed?

Wendel Clark hasn’t stopped smiling yet. Who can blame him?

After being rescued from the oblivion of Tampa Bay and delivered to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in a deadline-day trade, Clark still can’t believe his good fortune.

“It’s a great bonus to come from Tampa here and be put in this position, to be on a team you know can do it because it has done it before,” the rugged left wing said. “It’s like walking into the locker room at the All-Star game. There’s definitely great talent in this dressing room.”

Goaltender Bill Ranford, acquired from the Lightning the same day, still feels like a kid in a candy store. He can hardly believe that the defensive corps helping protect his net includes veterans Ulf Samuelsson, Chris Chelios, Larry Murphy and Nicklas Lidstrom, as impressive as any quartet in the NHL.

“No doubt, they’re great defensemen. And we’ve got some pretty good forwards, too,” Ranford said, smiling at his understatement. “I just came here with the attitude, ‘Let’s start over.’ It was an opportunity for me to further my career. I think in Tampa, I was done. It was just a disaster. I’ve got three wins here--it took me a whole year to do that there.”

Ranford, Clark, Samuelsson and Chelios, Detroit’s deadline-day additions, brought with them 3,468 games of NHL experience, five Stanley Cup triumphs and an unmistakable hunger to be winners again.

“They’ve been a godsend for us,” associate coach Barry Smith said. “They picked us up emotionally and on the ice. They’ve helped us leadership-wise, and they bring enthusiasm. But the team picture doesn’t win you the Cup. It’s how you play.”

They have played well, reviving the slumping Red Wings, who are building up strength for the long playoff haul, which begins tonight against the Mighty Ducks at Joe Louis Arena.

Although Colorado got a lift by acquiring feisty winger Theo Fleury from Calgary Feb. 28, the Red Wings’ bold moves might have trumped them. With skill, depth and experience at every position, the Red Wings reestablished themselves as Cup favorites, although they know nothing has been won yet.

“Maybe on paper we’re favorites, when you look at our lineup, but that’s just people predicting,” center Kris Draper said. “That has never come out of this room. Obviously, we have confidence, but we always had confidence. . . . You have to go out and work hard. You can’t just say we look good on paper and expect to win.”

Chelios, for years the Red Wings’ archenemy, has endeared himself to Detroit fans by throwing his 37-year-old body in front of shots and sticking up for his new teammates in scrums. The bridge of his nose has fresh stitches, evidence of his aggressive, take-no-prisoners style, but those are beauty marks for Chelios. He’s delighted to be playing again at his favorite time of the year--the playoffs.

“Even from the day of the trade, every game has been important,” said Chelios, who played few meaningful games the last two seasons while the Chicago Blackhawks missed the playoffs. “We were trying to catch Colorado and then just solidify our playoff position, so every game has meant something. I’m excited to be back in the playoffs. Everybody knows that’s what it’s all about, to go after the Stanley Cup.”

Samuelsson’s Detroit debut was delayed until April 9 because of a broken foot, but he didn’t mind the wait.

“I’m lucky,” he said. “Every game has been fun.”

The Red Wings were a good team before their stunning trades, but they had gone stale. They have played a lot of hockey over the years, advancing to the Western Conference finals the last four seasons and playing 79 playoff games, the equivalent of almost another full season.

That grind took its toll on a largely veteran team. The Red Wings flailed through a 0-6-1 streak in December and a 1-5-2 slump in early March, unable to score, protect leads or find motivation.

“We came out in some games and were flat,” Draper said. “We’d have a couple of good periods, but we didn’t play 60-minute games.”

General Manager Ken Holland was reluctant to tinker too much with his team, but he realized he had to change the mix. He put out trade feelers during general managers’ meetings, but got no bites. As the March 23 deadline approached, he wondered if a deal would materialize.

“I couldn’t have told you [the night before when] I went to bed, that all of this would happen,” he said. “Things started falling into place and I kind of went with the flow.”

That flow brought the previously untouchable Chelios from Chicago, Ranford and Clark from Tampa Bay, and Samuelsson from the New York Rangers, with the loss from the roster of only backup goalie Kevin Hodson and defenseman Anders Eriksson. The Red Wings immediately took off on an 8-0-1 run and finished with a 9-2-1 surge, earning the third playoff seeding in the West.

“I think after all the trades were made, the team got re-energized,” Lidstrom said. “We’re playing with more confidence and we’re enjoying it more. The players we added are character players, veterans, guys who were leaders on other teams and that won the Cup before.”

Before their first Cup triumph, the Red Wings had added Murphy and Tomas Sandstrom; before their second, they added veteran Jamie Macoun, who fortified a defense that sorely missed Vladimir Konstantinov, who is still recovering from the brain damage he suffered in a limousine accident after the first Cup victory.

The Red Wings used Konstantinov’s misfortune as motivation last season, but by the middle of this season, they needed a new spark and more of the toughness Konstantinov provided.

Enter Samuelsson and Chelios. Exit boredom and mediocrity.

“We missed Vladdie’s intensity,” Draper said. “He’d make a big hit or he’d stick someone and we didn’t have that anymore. We brought in players who are intense too. Chris Chelios doesn’t hesitate to do that, Ulfie has that reputation and Clarkie, what he’s done in his career is obvious. We brought in three guys that are nasty, and that’s contagious. Everyone gets that little nastiness and you need that in the playoffs. . . .

“Ever since those four guys came, it’s been a shot in the arm. The excitement, the emotional level, the intensity, they’ve all been on the rise. We put together a good streak and solidified our team before the playoffs, which is something we had to do. It was a necessity to get on a roll.”

The price for these deals was a chunk of the Red Wings’ future. For Chelios, Holland sent Chicago the promising Eriksson and two first-round draft picks. He gave the Rangers a second-round pick this year and a third-rounder in 2000 for Samuelsson, who can be an unrestricted free agent July 1. Clark cost the Red Wings Hodson and a second-round pick this year, and the price tag for Ranford was a conditional pick contingent on his performance.

A steep price, certainly. But Holland found the incentive of winning a third successive Cup was too powerful to be ignored, and it’s difficult to argue with him.

The Red Wings can become the first team to win the Cup three consecutive years since the New York Islanders won four from 1980 through 1983. The Islanders and Canadiens are the only teams that have won the Cup more than three successive years. Montreal won five consecutive Cup titles from 1956 through 1960 and four in a row from 1976 through 1979.

“We’re going to feel this down the road,” Holland said. “We made these deals, obviously, for now. And by now, I mean this year and a couple more seasons, maybe three, after this.

“I know at some point, we’re going to have to rebuild. But the way we looked at it was, we looked at [older players such as] Steve Yzerman and we looked at Igor Larionov and Larry Murphy. And Nick Lidstrom, who may be going home to Sweden, although we hope to keep him for three more years, but at some point, he will go home. And we said, ‘Let’s see if we can take a run at it now.’ ”

Holland’s gutsy moves have put the Red Wings in superb shape as the playoffs open. They’re ready physically, tactically and emotionally, but they’re not overconfident because they have seen too many paper champions fall in the playoffs. They learned that the hard way, losing to the upstart San Jose Sharks in the first round in 1994.

“Every year it gets tougher,” Draper said. “Nobody wants to see it happen except people in Michigan. We know it has been a tough year, but the emotion has stepped up as we get near the playoffs. We’ve played a lot of hockey, but this is the time of year everyone gets excited to play. Someone wants to say, ‘We knocked off the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions,’ and it’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

GANG OF FOUR

Detroit solidified itself for a playoff run with a series of moves at the March 23 trading deadline, acquiring four players with 3,468 games played and five Stanley Cups among them.

Rejuvenation: Before March 23 trades and after

Winning percentage

Before: .529 (34-30-6)

After: .792 (9-2-1)

*

Goals per game

Before: 2.97 (208 total)

After: 3.08 (37 total)

*

Goals allowed per game

Before: 2.60 (182 total)

After: 1.67 (20 total)