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It’s a new season for Red Wings and Coyotes

Image (1) Stempniak1-thumb-250x375-8434.jpg for post 911

Ansar Khan has a great story this morning on the Red Wings and Coyotes first round series, and how much the teams have changed since last playing on January 26.

“More so than ever you’re going to toss out what happened in the regular season,’' Detroit forward Kris Draper said. “I think both teams believe in themselves, they’re very confident. It’s going to make for a great series.’'

The Coyotes had yet to add Lee Stempniak and Wojtek Wolski, while the Red Wings were fighting to get through a number of injuries. Thanks to the spectacular play of Jimmy Howard, the Wings were able to barely hang on and finished the season as the NHL’s hottest team.

So, combine that with the Red Wings overall history as a franchise in the playoffs and you have a Coyotes team that seems to be consensus underdogs in the matchup.

What will be interesting to see is how a Dave Tippett-coached team fares once more against Detroit; while with the Dallas Stars he had nothing but trouble with the Red Wings system, and was ousted in six games in the conference finals in 2008 by Detroit.

The older, grizzled and experienced championship team against the new, young and underdog squad. Triple deke, anyone?