2002–03 Detroit Red Wings season

The 2002–03 Detroit Red Wings season was the 77th National Hockey League season in Detroit, Michigan. The Wings scored 110 points, winning the Central Division, but just one point behind the Dallas Stars for the Western Conference's first seed.

Coming off their latest Stanley Cup victory, the Red Wings started looking towards the future. Dominik Hasek and Scotty Bowman had retired over the summer and captain Steve Yzerman was out for the first 66 games of the regular season. The weight of the team fell on Sergei Fedorov and veteran Brett Hull, who helped the Red Wings score the most goals of any team in the regular season. As newly acquired goaltender Curtis Joseph held steady in net, two more pieces of the Stanley Cup team would be traded over the course of the year. Maxim Kuznetsov and Sean Avery left in a trade for Los Angeles's Mathieu Schneider right before the trade deadline in an effort to push the Wings towards the playoffs. However, the pieces didn't fit as the Wings met the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the first round and shocked everyone by being swept in four games.

Three Red Wings were named to the roster for the 2003 All Star Game: defenceman Nicklas Lidstrom, center Sergei Fedorov and head coach Dave Lewis. It was Lidstrom's seventh appearance at the all-star game, Fedorov's sixth, and Lewis's first appearance as a coach.

The Red Wings sold out all 41 home games in 2002–03 as 20,058 fans packed Joe Louis...
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