Broken Wings go home early Detroit players deal with first-round ouster

DETROIT The Detroit Red Wings will play golf, not hockey, in Aprilfor the first time since 1994.

Detroit's season of much hope came to a dramatic end early Tuesdaymorning with a 3-2 overtime loss at Los Angeles.

The Kings won the best-of-seven first-round series 4-2, afterlosing the first two games.

"This is our summer now, and it's the middle of April," Detroit'sKris Draper said. "This is uncharted waters for this hockey club, andit's something that I can't explain. Obviously, it's going to sink inand we're going to be shaking our heads for the next couple of weeks,just wondering, `What if?' "

Two weeks ago, the Red Wings were the hottest team in the NHL andwere expected to at least face Dallas in the second round and perhapsColorado in the Western Conference finals.

They seemingly couldn't lose at home and were tough to beat on theroad after the All-Star break.

Aging veterans such as Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan werescoring goals and setting up others. Role players such as MartinLapointe were doing the same.

But Yzerman played only the first six minutes of the first gameagainst the Kings because of an injured left ankle.

Shanahan missed the third, fourth and sixth games because of abroken foot, after playing spectacularly in Game 2.

Darren McCarty and Chris Chelios were limited by injuries thatpestered them toward the end of the season.

"I don't think we've ever had a team as banged-up as this one,especially going into a series," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said."We're certainly not the team we were during the regular season."

The beginning of the end came in Game 4 when the Red Wings blew a3-0 lead with less than seven minutes left in the game. The Kings won4-3 in overtime and snatched the momentum of the series for good.

A familiar face, in a new uniform, helped end the Red Wings'season for a third straight year. Former Colorado standout AdamDeadmarsh scored the tying and winning goals in Game 6, to continuehis dominating ways against Detroit.

Deadmarsh, who has 26 points in 29 games against the Red Wings,helped Colorado eliminate Detroit in the second round of the playoffsin each of the last two seasons.

The Red Wings haven't made it past the second round since they wonthe Stanley Cup in 1997 and '98.

They thought this season's team could help recapture the gloryyears, despite being the oldest team in the NHL.

Detroit decided against shaking up the roster with trades duringthe season because of the success they were having.

It didn't work out.

"It really stinks," Detroit's Pat Verbeek said. "Looking back onthe season, the team we had, I felt that we had a real shot atwinning the whole thing. I think it's going to sting more in about aweek when you're sitting there finished and not playing hockeyanymore."