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As reality begins to set in across Red Wing land that this season is most likely the end of the playoff streak (barring an unlikely miraculous turnaround). I just want to say thanks to what the Red Wings have personally provided me over the past 20+ years. My earliest memories of watching the Wings are from 23 years ago watching the 1993 / 1994 season with my Dad. That of course was the year the Wings lost in in the first round in seven games to the San Jose Sharks. As a 9 year old boy, my feeble mind could simply not understand how a first seed could lose to the lowly Sharks. That was followed by a devastating lost to the Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals which was equally devastating for me. But good things were soon to follow and that has led to a lifelong passion of all things Red Wings. I want to personally thank the following: Illitch's - thanks for being great hockey owners and supporting the team throughout the years Holland - While I think its time to move on, Its incredible the success you were able to bring this organization since 1997 including 3 cups (2 if you don't give him any credit for the '98 win). Classy players who were World Class - Yzerman, Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Zetterberg...thanks for all the sacrifices you made over the years and for being such classy players who always gave it their all. Joe Louis Arena - A great Arena with many personal memories. You will be missed. Babcock - I think he is one of the greatest coaches of all time and is a big reason why the Wings stayed as perennially contenders well into the cap era. Mickey Redmond - Since I was 9 years old, I've listened to Mickey night in and night out. Please never retire! Four Cups - Four cups in 23 years of watching in a league of 30 teams and increasing parity in the later years...incredible stuff! The road ahead may be tough for a while, but I'll stick by these Wings. I believe that brighter days will once again return to this iconic original six franchise. It may take longer than we all would like, but I recognize how spoiled I have been as a Wings fan and am truly lucky to have identified with them for as long as I have. THANK YOU!!!

This thread lol.

The team right now is nothing like the team during the Dead Wings era. I know it's wishful thinking to prove your point, but most of the teams in the league are equally as bad or equally as good , however you want to put it. There's 10 teams in the league a few points within each other of a playoff spot. The Dead Wings era would make sense if we we're one of the few terrible teams. We aren't. We're around the level of 14 of the 30 teams in the league as far as points are concerned. That's primarily the reason why this thread has no merit whatsoever.

This is a really cool post greenrebellion! Its nice to see something that is not doom and gloom around here. My 4 teams are the Red Wings, Lions, Blue Jays, and Raptors and since 1991 (also 9 years old, and the first year I started following sports) no team has come close to giving me as much enjoyment as the Red Wings, its really not even close. They were contenders pretty much every single year between 1994 and 2011 give or take a year on both ends. Other then maybe the SA Spurs, what team can say that?

Since we're throwing around the names of coaches we're interested in, I'll play too. Top of my list is Todd Richards. He did a lot with a little in Columbus and got fired when he shouldn't have (the Gallant treatment, if you will). His teams play relentless, aggressive, and fast paced. And he did very well developing several young centers (Johansen and Jenner), which appeals to me with Larkin and AA needing to take over in that regard. I'd also be interested in Ralph Kruger, though admittedly I only know him from the World Cup and would need to do more digging before finally endorsing him.

As far as drafting goes, it is one of the few things management of this team has done right. In a parity salary cap league, you need high-end players to compete. They are difficult to find when the highest you draft in the last 20+ years is 15th. Trading down to rid Datsyuk's contract definitely hurt this team going forward. But the team would also be worse right now (which I think would have been for the best, for the record). Regardless, time times were ahead no matter what Holland has done. My frustrations stem from personnel decisions being made with the playoff streak being the obvious number one priority of the franchise when I personally think it should come second to developing young talent. Dark days were gonna happen even with the best interest of the future of the team in mind. This is why I am mentally prepared for a basement season to kick start eventual contention. While we haven't seen it yet, more teams are gonna go through this same ordeal. It's happening to the Wings now because they've been in the playoffs for 25 years. That was never going to be sustainable in today's NHL. In time, we absolutely will see the same thing happen to the likes of the Blackhawks and Penguins. I use these two as examples as they are the only two teams to have such sustained success for a long period of time since the Wings have done so. Even the likes of Vancouver and Boston had very short lived times at the top of the standings. When Duncan Keith starts to decline in a few seasons, the Blackhawks will likely begin to experience what we did when our defense started to drop like flies. Lacking talent on the back end, and unable to obtain more while their forwards have some prime years left. It's simply a bummer of a reality after many years of loving a team that can solve problems with money and trading first round picks. Fingers crossed that things head in the right direction when living up to 25 straight years in the playoffs is no longer a burden for Holland and Blashill to try and uphold.

Years '02 through '11. Ten years worth of picks, Detroit's first pick compared to all the other players taken at that spot during that time frame. I only went up to 2011 because anyone taken in that draft has more or less shown what he's going to be by now. Drafts after that, you can make an argument that they're still young enough to improve. The first player is the Wings' pick that year, other players are picks at that spot in other years. 19th Kindl, Koreis, Getzlaf, Korpikoski, Mitera, McMillan, Sbisa, Kreider, Bjugstad, Klefbom, 21st Sheahan, Babchuk, Mark Stuart, Wolski, Rask, Sanguenetti, Smith, Gustaffson, Moore, Noesen 27th Smith, Morris, Tambellini, J. Schultz, Finley, I. Vishnevsky, Ross, Carlsson, Paradis, Visentin, Namestnikov 30th McCollum, Slater, Shawn Belle, Rogers, Mihalik, Corrente, Ellington, Despres, Nelson, Rackell 32nd Ferraro, Vas, Ryan Stone, Bolland, T. Plante, Sneep, MacLean, Voynov, Knight, Rattie 35th Jurco, Nemec, Glazachev, Stephenson, Vlasic, F. Bouchard, Ross, Deschamps, Clifford, Rensfeldt 41st Emmerton, Lindstrom, Smaby, Bickell, Pavelec, Marshall, Sauve, Budish, Nemeth, Jeskin 58th Hudler, Colliton, Lyamin, Hagemo, Vasyunov, Spaling, Kugryshev, Blacker, Simpson, Kucherov 64th Howard, Jason Ryznar, Karsums, Barnes, Junland, Korostin, Paquette, Barrie, Renhart, Trochek 97th Franzen, Monych, Donelly, Vandeveldt, Osala, Omark, Arniel, Szwarz, Cunningham, Didier So on average, at those spots you get one good player a year outside the top 20. 58 and 64 actually turned out better than 41. Wings got the best player 2 of the ten years when they took Franzen and Howard. Hudler and Kucherov are close. They didn't do much with any picks before 58 unless you still have hopes that Sheahan will stop playing like he's made of glass and Smith can grow a brain, but a lot of the players taken in those spots, other than 19, didn't do a whole lot either. In other words, the wings are pretty average at drafting.

It's hard to be that much worse than everyone else now with the parity. Between the cap and the extra point for losing in OT, you have to REALLY suck to be very far out of the playoff race before the all star game.

Yea this franchise is terrible and they have made me nothing but miserable for the 25 years I have been a fan, I mean what kind of fan wouldn't want their team to make the playoffs every year, and in that time have some of the best players of the era ( Yzerman, Lidstrom, Hasek, Fedorov, Shanahan etc...), play a very exciting brand of hockey and win 4 Stanley Cups in that time. There are up and downs in everything and we are on a downswing right now, no denial. The city of Detroit, it's hockey fans and this franchise I think are way too proud to just throw in the towel and hit the panic button. Things need to change but I will take this 25 year stretch and be very happy with what I have seen and watched.

I'm sure you will misinterpret this post as me defending the Wings which it isn't. They are not playing well right now and I am not going to sugar coat that, but since when did ROW overtake Points as the ranking system in the NHL? ROW is a tiebreaker and nothing more. The Wings are 20th in the league right now in a 5 way tie, with tiebreaker they are 24th. You don't need to say they are "bottom 3" to make a point about their poor play, you know what get that accross...their poor play! All that does it make you sound over the top and hurts your credibility as a poster. Hyperbole just annoys people.

Being very bad, then being contenders for almost 20 years and winning 4 cups, then taking a downturn.....I think any sports fan would be ecstatic to have their team go through this. A true testament to what the Itlitch Family, Devellano, Holland, Bowman, Babs etc. have done for this franchise.

Just as long as the new guy isn't a "players' coach". They don't seem to get as much out of the teams here.

I would give this a solid nope. We're struggling now because of that success - that's how the Cap and draft system is designed. And to recognize the larger picture is to be realistic and not get too down on the current state of things during tough times.

Green an offensive genius... Oh wow. I don't... forget it.

Hear, hear! I love this team and will stick by them through thick and thin.

ALL ABOARD THE PAIN TRAIN

I will defend Blashill just a little. He isn't the one putting together the roster. He can only play the hand he has been dealt. Yes he needs to be better at that. But Blashill isn't teaching Nyquist to fall down everytime someone thinks about checking him, nor is he telling Tatar to shoot over the top of the net and hit the glass everytime, nor is he teaching Sheahan to hit the GK in the belly button each time he shoots. The cold hard trueth is the talent level isn't good enough on this team. The young guys with talent are not yet ready and the old vets are declining at a faster rate than the youth is improving. Blashill most likely gets a 3rd year unless Holland retires/gets fired. The the new GM will hire a new coach.

What no nickname yet? You're slacking Frank... PuljaGODvi? PuljaMUHAMMEDvi? PuljaIMTHEBESTESTvi?

Mantha struggled big time in his first AHL year (compounded by breaking his leg), then continued his struggles in the second before finally putting it together in the AHL at the beginning of this year. Saying someone is getting used to the league faster than that is not much of a compliment. If I were to summarize that article for you, I would say: Svech struggled a lot at the beginning of the year, but things have looked better since he's working on some shortcomings in his game although the results have not translated in production as they will need to for the young scorer continuing to develop.

You can't even compare this garbage to the Dead WIng-era teams. The Dead Wing teams had some star power, had some old favourites that were beyond their primes AND it had to 2 toughest SOBs the league had ever seen... The games were still alot of fun to watch. This team is so bloody boring. I fell asleep (again) during last nights game it the shots after half the game were LA 19 - Detroit 6... 6 flipping shots on net in almost 2 periods? I'm thinking we could do a whole-sale swap with the Griffin's and we'd be in better shape then now... couldn't be any worse.

The problem with Nyquist and Tatar, in my view, is they can work well playing with other top end talent, but don't necessarily make other players around them better (like the Datsyuks, Crosby's, Kane's of the world). They are more supportive offensive talents rather than game changers themselves. Thus, given this teams current roster, they struggle.

You can buy dippin dots while watching them lose?

Ya but the Pens were just playing bad where as the Wings this year lack talent and play bad

I have a feeling you were waiting years to make this thread. That's the only way ROW of all things could be used as a supporting argument lol.

I'm mad too, but you can also say they are only 6 points out of being the 2nd seed in their division. Remember also, the 2009 Penguins were out of the playoffs at this point as well...isn't this fun?