Yeah, I was living in Detroit during that period of time... Detroit went from a bubble team when I got there in 1991 to Cup champs just before I left in 1997. Yzerman was a big part of it. And goaltending. And the Russian Five.
Not necessarily. If a player's head is screwed on right and he's playing better positional hockey, skating around like a chicken with his head cut off is unnecessary. I bet Nick Lidstrom rarely broke 20; he simply didn't need to.