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Even if they miss the playoffs, Wings remain a modern-day marvel |
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If the Detroit Red Wings stop playing hockey when 13 other teams do in a week or so, one of their most remarkable records – an NHL-best 24 consecutive seasons qualifying for post-season play – will come to an end. And although Wings fans and players will be disappointed and frustrated if they miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1989-90 campaign, what should quickly follow is an intense gratitude for an organization that set the standard for success at hockey’s greatest level.
The fingers and knives will come out to poke and prod at GM Ken Holland, head coach Jeff Blashill and certain members of the roster, but in the more honest appraisal focused on the longer term, the Wings’ current playoff run – the best in any pro sport at present, and the fourth-best in NHL history – is simply astonishing, and surely buys the franchise's management group a while longer to get back on the right side of the post-season picture.
Now, it’s fair to hold management to account as you would in every other season, and certainly, the notion the past gives you a free pass is one former Wings head coach Mike Babcock would bristle at. But before you get too nasty and set out to carve Holland & Co., consider this: the three teams that have had longer playoff streaks (the Boston Bruins, with 29 consecutive playoff seasons; the Chicago Blackhawks, with 28; and the St. Louis Blues, 25) have a combined two Stanley Cup championships during the streaks – and both were won by the same team.
The Red Wings, on the other hand, have earned four championships since 1991. And if they do finish out of the post-season this year, their 24 straight seasons qualifying for the playoffs will leave them tied for fourth in that category with the Montreal Canadiens of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. Yes, we’re putting them in the same rarified air as the most recent, and for my money, the best Habs dynasty. The Canadiens won an otherworldly eight Cups in that stretch, but in a post-season salary cap era, it’s highly unlikely that modern-day record ever will be broken.
Sure, the Hawks have overtaken Detroit in recent years in terms of dominating at the highest levels, but even with three Cup wins in six years, Chicago hasn't reached Detroit's four Cups level. Any number of factors may prevent that from happening, and that’s what’s so marvellous about this 24-year record that may soon be over – think of all the things that can (and often do) go wrong for a team: injuries, salary cap issues, coaching changes, to name a few. The Wings managed to deal with anything that came into their path over that span, and held it together long enough to not only give themselves a berth in the greatest tournament in sport, but to win six Presidents’ Trophies and play in six Cup Finals.
They made the playoffs dealing with a steadily-spinning carousel of goalies – that included three-headed goalie monster in Dominik-Hasek-and-Manny-Legace-and-Curtis-Joseph one memorable year, and Tim Cheveldae and Ty Conklin in other years. They made the playoffs despite major injuries to numerous players, they made the playoffs long before and long after the cap was implemented in 2005-06, and they made the playoffs by weaving new generations of top talents into the mix virtually without flaw.
They did that by drafting cannily and trading judiciously, and by teaching those new generations what it meant to wear the Winged Wheel. They got there by taking on the temperament of cornerstone blueliner Nicklas Lidstrom – they weren’t going to flash-and-dazzle you to death or overwhelm you with physical intimidation, but they were going to be smarter and more patient than you, and they were going to be the most fundamentally-sound and demand the most of themselves in a way other organizations couldn’t or wouldn’t.
Are those types of qualities sustainable year-in and year-out for more than a quarter-century for a franchise at this point in the NHL’s history? Perhaps the Hawks will prove that to be possible. But perhaps not, and that’s what’s worth celebrating for Wings fans whenever this playoff streak ends. Holland and his team have whiffed on a number of key decisions in recent years, but ownership owes him the chance to weather this storm and come out the other side for another lengthy streak of playoff appearances.
Stanley Cups are the easiest signifier of a team’s success, but arguably the most accurate metric of a franchise’s achievement is the number of players, coaches, GMs and management members who eventually branch off on their own with other organizations.
In this sense, the Wings remain the best the league has to offer. There’s Jim Nill in Dallas. There’s Brendan Shanahan and Mike Babcock in Toronto. There's Steve Yzerman in Tampa Bay, Luc Robitaille in Los Angeles and Bill Peters in Carolina. That’s what nearly 25 straight years of playoffs gets you – and in the past half-century, nobody other than those iconic Canadiens has been able to match what they've done.
It’s still OK if you’re a Wings fan playing the could’ve-would’ve-should’ve game in the next few weeks, but a little perspective might put you in a better mood.
All streaks have to end, and, like Lidstrom, few have ever been more worthy of admiration than the one that may end for Detroit in a matter of days.
Blogger •NHL Columnist • 
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