Members of the Detroit Red Wings pose for a team photo after they defeated Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 in game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals in Detroit, on June 13, 2002. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Paul Warner

TORONTO - Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov are joining Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, Luc Robitaille, Chris Chelios, Igor Larionov, Dominik Hasek, coach Scotty Bowman, executive Jimmy Devellano and owner Mike Ilitch as members of the 2001-02 Detroit Red Wings in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Factoring in the slam-dunk future induction of general manager Ken Holland and potential induction of Pavel Datsyuk, and the '01-02 Red Wings could tie for the most Hall of Famers of any team in NHL history. Here is an oral history of how that team came together and won the Stanley Cup:

HOLLAND: "We lost out the previous year to L.A. in the first round of the playoffs. We hadn't been in the final four that season and the two previous seasons since our Cup in '98. We still had obviously what we thought was a real good hockey team, real good nucleus."

HOLLAND: "It really started with, I got a call from (Buffalo Sabres GM) Darcy Regier in the middle of June saying that Dominik Hasek had gone to Darcy and had gone to the ownership and they were going to trade Dom Hasek. We were on a short list of teams that Dominik Hasek had interest in, and that got the wheels in motion. We traded (Slava) Kozlov and a first to Buffalo to get Dominik Hasek."

ROBITAILLE: "When I knew I wasn't going to sign with the Kings, which no one knew, and with the kids at school, I was trying to figure out where we would go. My wife looked at me and they had just made the deal for Dominik Hasek and she said, 'Well if you're going to go somewhere as a free agent, who do you think has the best shot to win the Cup?' And I said, 'Well, Detroit,' and she goes, 'Well you guys just beat them.' I go, 'I know, but they just got Dominik Hasek on top of this team.' She said, 'Well, why don't you try to see if you could go there, then.' And I go, 'Really?'"

HOLLAND: "We hit July 1, we had lost Kozlov, who had been real good. I think he had about 40 playoff goals for us in the previous years. He had produced a lot of goals. We needed some offence. Immediately signed on July 2 or July 3 Luc Robitaille."

ROBITAILLE: "I just knew how great that team was going to be. We didn't have Brett Hull at the time, and I knew how great that team was going to be."

HOLLAND: "Then we sort of sat there, I stayed in touch with Mike Barnett who represented Brett Hull. We even had a budget in those days. It might be hard to believe, but we did have a budget. We were sort of at the limit."

SHANAHAN: "Kenny Holland came to (Yzerman, Lidstrom and me) and asked us to defer money so that we would have enough money in the budget to sign Brett Hull. He came to the three captains, and we all deferred a million bucks each. We just wanted to win."

HOLLAND: "I ended up talking to our ownership and they said, 'Go for it,' and we ended up adding Brett Hull."

BOWMAN: "We had won a couple of years before. It was a good destination for players, you know? Kenny Holland was the manager, and we had a good owner that wanted to win all the time."

SHANAHAN: "I think that as a group we were all at a point where we realized what mattered most. Some had never won a Cup yet and were coming there for sort of a chance to win a Cup and then others were working on their third Cup. I always say once you win one, it's like a bear eating meat for the first time and suddenly you realize you're a meat-eater, that's all you want and you can't live without it."

ROBITAILLE: "The first week of camp, Scotty Bowman (told assistants) Dave Lewis and Barry Smith he didn't want anybody to get hurt the first week because it would put us back. He knew the whole team was going to play till June. As a player you hear that, even though there was pressure, the expectation to me was a great feeling that that's what was expected out of us: to play all the way till June."

HOLLAND: "We got off to a tremendous start. The first 20 games we lost three games. ... Right out of the gate, when we got off to a great start, you knew we had great chemistry, you knew we had a lot of depth to win regular-season games because we got out of the gate and we hit the ground running."

ROBITAILLE: "The funny thing is, the first few games, we didn't play that well, but we found a way to win, and we kind of changed our system and started playing a trap because we knew we should be a team that just would play the puck possession. Slowly and surely, we didn't think we were playing well, but we kept winning. I think we lost against Calgary the first week at first but then we went on the road and we won a bunch of games. We were just playing this game, and we never killed teams. We were always winning 3-2, 4-2, 2-1, but we were winning all those games and there was never any doubt we were going to win those games."

FEDOROV: "It was an easy job because we understood what we wanted to do together on the ice. ... The whole team has to contribute something. We knew really good players play, also, on this particular team. It's a team sport, it's a team attitude. We understood that, Scotty changed that for us, for the best. It was fun to work no matter how difficult it gets."

SHANAHAN: "We worked hard, we worked really hard off the ice and on the ice and we took care of business. Igor would bring wine on the plane, then one of us would bring cheese and sausage and crackers. ... We were able to police ourselves and do what we wanted to do because we always came prepared. Scotty Bowman and Kenny Holland left us alone to pick our spots and have our fun. It wasn't just a team of assassins, it wasn't just a team of mercenaries. We grew together."

HOLLAND: "We clinched the Presidents' Trophy with about 10 games to go. We started to rest guys. Scotty Bowman and I had a conversation with 10 games to go. We decided to rest some people."

ROBITAILLE: "The goal was to play long term. I think Nick Lidstrom went for like three days in Florida or something like that. We came on the road trip on the West Coast and he gave me a day off to go see my family. A bunch of guys got a few games off towards the end of the year."

SHANAHAN: "We lost a bunch of games near the end of the season, we started to rest guys and we sort of fell out of our groove."

HOLLAND: "We couldn't get 'er going. Games 1 and 2 we lost at home to Vancouver."

ROBITAILLE: "We knew we had to win Game 3. Steve Yzerman didn't speak too often in the room. He led by example. But there was a few times he spoke that year, and the day before Game 3 he was so confident that he said, 'We're just going to go play our game, we know what it takes and we're going to win that game and we'll move on.' And the way he said it, it was so calming that you kind of just knew we were going to play a tight game the next game and we were going to win. We won that game, there was a fluke goal, but it was a 1-1 game and that was it. We never looked back."

SHANAHAN: "We faced elimination (in the Western Conference final) going into Game 6 in Colorado."

ROBITAILLE: "The next time (Yzerman) spoke was before Game 6 against Colorado when Steve said, 'We'll win Game 6 in Colorado, we're going to go home and we'll win Game 7, and we won't celebrate because our goal's to win the Cup.' It wasn't just to win the conference finals."

LIDSTROM: "(Down 1-0 in the Stanley Cup final against the Hurricanes), the second game we played at home was special. I scored (the winning) goal."

HOLLAND: "Huge Game 3 triple-overtime in Carolina."

HURRICANES OWNER PETER KARMANOS JR: "We were winning the game 2-1 with a minute left and as fate would have it Sergei Fedorov made an unbelievable play to keep the puck in our zone and it led to a goal by Mr. Hull. That's what sent us into triple overtime."

LIDSTROM: "When Igor Larionov scored in triple overtime down in Carolina, that was a special goal and a special game for us."

ROBITAILLE: "It was a big game to win. But I think our team felt all along, no matter what the situation that we were always going to win, no matter what. I think if (the Hurricanes) would've scored that goal, we would've won that series anyway."

HOLLAND: "That team, like most teams, your legacy is really going to be solidified by what you were able to do in the playoffs, and we were able to follow up a Presidents' Trophy-winning season with a Stanley Cup championship."

SHANAHAN: "We enjoyed the pressure of everyone saying, 'Anything less than winning the Stanley Cup is a complete failure for this collection of players.' ... We were all just very glad and relieved that we were able to finish the job that we know we were capable of and that we had committed to."

HOLLAND: "All four championships we had were different. '02 was the Hall of Fame team. ... Half that team is going to end up in the Hall of Fame, we had a Hall of Fame coach in Scotty Bowman. No doubt it's the most memorable because of so many dynamic personalities and so many Hall of Fame players."

LIDSTROM: "We had an all-star cast that played as a team, and guys accepted their roles even though you might not get the ice time that you got on other teams. You might've been a 40- or 50-goal scorer on other teams, but you accepted the role on our team and for the team's best (interest) and that's what won us the Cup that year."

ROBITAILLE: "It will never happen again. No one will ever be able to put a team together like that."

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