DETROIT -- In the immediate aftermath of a Red Wings morning skate, a locker stall where Luc Robitaille's equipment hung did not feature the life-sized living cutout of Luc Robitaille.

It seemed unusual. Most of the other supposed spokesmen for this very public contending team were in their usual places, doling out everything from the dry (Brendan Shanahan and Steve Yzerman) to the diplomatic (Dominik Hasek and Sergei Fedorov) to the downright dogmatic (the barking Brett Hull).

	Brett Hull, center, says he is still trying to find his niche with the Red Wings.

The lack of a lucid Luc is not what the Detroit media have come to expect of the affable veteran who joined the team as a free agent over the summer, but it could have correlated to the Red Wings' next game. The Wings were hosting the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, the same team that knocked the unsuspecting Wings out of the playoffs early last spring, and the same management team that more or less would decide to bid Luc good luck and goodbye as he pursued a new contract.

Of course, Robitaille would rather have stayed, if given the multiyear, multi-million dollar opportunity. But he wasn't, so he left and hasn't said much about it, which on a team with Hull really isn't all that unusual, anyway.

Aside from a naturally occurring L.A. longing, Robitaille shouldn't have too much difficulty finding delight in Detroit. Several hours after his post-morning skate no-show at The Joe on Thursday, Robitaille would help the Wings win their sixth out of their first seven games, a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers that took two goals in the final 40 seconds to accomplish.

What could be more enjoyable than that? Perhaps playing well.

"We have to come out stronger," Robitaille said after scoring his fourth goal in four games. "In this league, if you don't play hard for 60 minutes, it'll cost you. We've been able to overcome those starts."

Rejuvenated Shanahan

To get far this season, the Wings will need their best forward. Rarely has Brendan Shanahan looked better at the start of a season. Playing with Steve Yzerman might have something to do with that, but working on the power play with people like Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille has to help as well. Ask Shanahan for a quick explanation of his fast start, however, and he simply shrugs it off with an essay from the Book of Sports Cliches 101: "I've been in the right place at the right time a few times and not really doing anything all that different. It's just hockey. Sometimes it goes for you and sometimes it doesn't." But that still doesn't answer whether this collection of highly paid veterans and developing players who have bravely broken the $60 million payroll barrier can break the postseason stranglehold which has choked Detroit the past three years. "You add the players we did, you're definitely excited, especially in such an important position like in goal," Shanahan said. "But now that we've arrived in the season, it's more of a sense of duty. This team has spent some money to bring in some big-name players and now it's up to us to sort of make it all jell and work. And that takes some time." Still in search of the beacon of hockey enlightenment in Detroit, one can seek out the most legendary of coaching answer men, the great Mr. Scotty Bowman. When asked for his theory on Shanahan's relatively quick success, Bowman had a seriously intriguing answer. "I think he's very motivated because he didn't get picked up on the Olympic team yet," Bowman said of Shanahan. "He didn't get picked up on the (Elite) Eight, and then they brought a bunch of those guys to that training camp and he was a fill-in. He knows he has to put up big numbers in the first two months, because they said (being selected) will have a lot to do with performances early in the season. If he stays where he is, they'll have to pick him." -- Rob Parent

What Robitaille is a key part of now isn't quite a Red Wing rebirth as much as it is an in-progress creation of one more costly crack at the Cup.

Detroit traded Slava Kozlov and a draft pick to Buffalo for Hasek, and then gave the goalie a one-year deal for $8 million, though it carries two more seasonal payouts at Hasek's option.

Then with the available free agents quickly dwindling, Robitaille signed with the Wings when it become clear that Southern California -- the Ducks don't count -- was no longer a viable option. And finally, with no one of note from New York banging on his door as expected, unrestricted free agent Hull signed on, too.

Once that was done ... who else needed to talk?

"I'm still worried about what I'm doing here and trying to figure out how to change my game to try to fit in with the Red Wings," said Hull, who would score the game-winner against Philly that Thursday night with 17.8 seconds left in regulation.

"I was in a system (in Dallas) where changing lanes and making plays and being creative was not allowed. I'm still out there at times doing the safety-first thing, and I find myself caught without speed, because I'm in a position thinking I'm here for an out (pass) instead of just going for the open ice and there's your outlet.

"But people here have to get used to the way I play, too. I kind of come in and find my way around the offensive zone a little different than anybody else."

How so? Well, Hull said, "I can't give away my secrets."

Ah, but it's no secret that the pumped-up Wings are now the favorites in the West. Was the win over Philly a possible Cup preview?

"It's only the seventh game of the season," he said. "There's no finals anywhere. To get that far you have to be lucky and injury-free."

Hull has never had a problem just being one of the guys. Perhaps that's because he does so much for them -- both on the ice and in the interview room.

"You know, I'm the guy that cries wolf. I've said so much, they don't listen to me anymore," Hull said. "That's why I'm trying to get other guys to say something, but they don't listen. All they say is, 'Ah, there goes Brett again. Whether it's important or not, he'll have something to say about it.' But they worry about so many irrelevant things instead of what's important to make the game better.

"I mean, what are they afraid of? Obviously there (are) players who don't have the ability to say things and still keep their job. But there's 200 of them in this league that if they want to help the other players and help the league, they will speak up. They're not gonna lose their jobs. They all tell me on the ice they all like what I say, but then they never say it. I don't care if they like it or not, I'm saying it anyway. But help me out and say it with me!"

Come on, people. All you clichéd Shannys and in-absentia Robitailles and even-keeled Haseks and distant Yzermans ... help Brett say what he says is on everyone's minds ... whatever the Hull that may be.

And so, on an otherwise uninspiring trip to the Detroit locker room, we present to all inquiring minds the NHL's own Golden Tongue. For our entertainment and education, he runneth over...