In 2010-11, Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock believes the veteran Red Wings will be stronger in part because they played a shortened schedule by their standards last season.

In the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Wings went out quickly, losing in five games to the San Jose Sharks and it is not something for which Babcock was happy, but rather being an eternal optimist, he sees the silver lining.

All summer, Detroit had stayed relatively quiet. The team has signed the 40-year-old Mike Modano to add yet another scoring presence to a lineup that is already loaded with them, including Jiri Hudler.

with 102 points, the Wings finished ’09-10, fifth in the West, salvaging a difficult season that began with back-to-back losses to St. Louis in Sweden and gave way to various injuries to Tomas Holmstrom, Valtteri Filppula, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Niklas Kronwall and Dan Cleary.

Pavel Datsyuk and Zetterberg each had only 70 points, down seasons by their standards. Moreover, for the top defenseman award, strangest of all, six-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom was not even nominated. Through the hockey world, that sent a collective gasp.

In Hockeytown, all told it was a different 2009-10 season but one that a lot of teams would still love to have. In the coming season, Babcock believes everything will be better and that the Wings will again be a legit Stanley Cup contender.

The Coach said, “Chicago’s going to be thinner as we all know and I think we’re going to be better. I like what has happened for the Red Wings as far as the dispersal of talent goes in the Western Conference. I like our team. I even told my wife that.”