Kings Put Wings in the Red

Last one out of Hockeytown, turn out the lights.

Brendan Shanahan couldn’t rescue the foundering Detroit Red Wings in Game 5 on Saturday at Joe Louis Arena. Neither could Boyd Devereaux nor Jason Williams. John Belushi’s hysterical call to arms from the movie “Animal House,” which was shown on the scoreboard, didn’t get the job done, either.

To paraphrase the late, great comic, “Was it over when the Kings bombed the Red Wings, 3-2, in Game 5?”

Yeah, pretty much.

The question is, with the Kings’ series-clinching victory Monday in Game 6, have we seen the end of the Red Wing dynasty?

OK, so two Stanley Cup championships in the 1990s won’t make anyone forget the Montreal Canadiens’ 24 titles. Besides, Les Habs probably should have sued Detroit over copyright infringement for this Hockeytown business.

But the Red Wings’ longevity near the top has been remarkable. If they indeed are eliminated Monday, then it will be their first first-round exit since the San Jose Sharks’ upset them in 1994.

Remarkably, 17 players are still on the roster from the Red Wings’ last Cup victory in 1998. Sixteen players remain in uniform from their 1997 Cup victory. The only missing member is defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov, who was paralyzed in an automobile accident after a Cup victory celebration.

Which brings us to an unavoidable conclusion in the wake of three consecutive losses to the Kings and impending elimination: The Red Wings are Dead Things.

Consider that the Red Wings reached a level of desperation that called for Shanahan to limp onto the ice to test his broken left foot for five minutes before his teammates practiced Friday.

When that went well, it was determined that Shanahan could participate in the pregame warmup. He couldn’t walk without the aid of a cane Saturday, but skated 23 shifts for a total of 21 minutes 43 seconds.

“You think you can play and you want to play,” said Shanahan, who was injured blocking King defenseman Aaron Miller’s third-period shot in Game 1.

Said Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman: “We weren’t going to say, ‘You can’t play.’ ”

Bolstered by pain-killing drugs, Shanahan raced onto the ice and thumped King grinder Kelly Buchberger with a check against the boards that had the sellout crowd of 19,995 bellowing. “It got rid of the nerves,” Shanahan said.

The check did not do much to knock the Kings off course. Moments later, Ziggy Palffy scored on a breakaway and the Red Wings were down by a goal after only 1:15.

Shanahan managed only a weak shot from near the blue line through the first two periods and the Red Wings, showing surprisingly little life considering the effort it took Shanahan simply to get his foot into his skate, trailed, 2-0.

Only in the third, when desperation at last seized the Red Wings, did Shanahan assert himself. He had four shots on net, but the one that was deflected wide with Detroit down, 3-2, in the final seconds, stood out.

Scrambling to pot the tying goal, the Red Wings swarmed Felix Potvin’s net--just as the Kings had done in pressing for Bryan Smolinski’s tying score in the closing minutes of regulation in Game 4.

At last, the puck found its way to Shanahan’s stick. Positioned in the slot, he ripped a slap shot toward the net. But the puck struck a King and whistled past the net. The Red Wings failed to direct another shot on goal.

“I hoped I would bring something to the game,” Shanahan said. “What’s the point of waiting? It was a big game. I hoped I could have done a little more.”

Bowman made two other significant changes to his Game 5 lineup, dropping wingers Doug Brown and Brent Gilchrist and replacing them with Boyd Devereaux and Jason Williams. At the start, when the Red Wings seemed to be in dire need of CPR, the line of Devereaux, Williams and Pat Verbeek easily was their best.

Meanwhile, Shanahan had Kings shadowing him everywhere he went and didn’t have a quality scoring chance until late.

“Some things are going to have to change for the next game,” Shanahan said. “The 60-minute effort was not there. We had it in spurts from some guys, but not all the guys.”

At game’s end, reporters wondered if Shanahan would play in Game 6?

“Tonight was a game-time decision and Game 6 will be a game-time decision,” he said before hobbling, with the aid of his cane, toward the team’s bus.

Shanahan is merely one player, but Saturday afternoon, he came to represent the Red Wings’ fragile state.