Franchise history
When the Pacific Coast Hockey League folded in 1926, a deal was
made so that the most successful of the teams in that league, the 1925
Stanley Cup champion Victoria Cougars, would jump to the NHL. Since no
arena in the Motor City was ready at the time, the newly-renamed
Detroit Cougars played their first two seasons in Windsor, Ontario.
The Cougars made the playoffs for the first time in 1929 with
Carson Cooper leading the team in scoring. The Cougars were outscored
7-2 in the two-game series with the
Toronto
Maple Leafs.
In 1930 the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes
continued, usually finishing near the bottom of the standings. When
James Norris bought the team in 1932 the team was renamed the Detroit
Red Wings. Their first year with the current name they won their first
playoff series in the NHL, over the now-defunct Montreal Maroons. They
failed in the semi-finals against the New York Rangers.
In 1934 the Wings made the Stanley Cup finals for the first time,
with John Sorrell scoring 21 goals over 47 games and Larry Aurie
leading the team in scoring. However, the Chicago Blackhawks had an
easy time with Detroit in the finals, winning the best of 5 series in
four games.
The Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 1936, defeating
Toronto in four games.
Marty Barry led the team in scoring, Ebbie Goodfellow was one of
the top defensemen in the league, and
Jack Adams (whose name lives on in the NHL's coach of the year
award) was behind the bench. Detroit repeated its championship season
in 1937,
winning over the Rangers in the full five games.
The Wings struggled and finished at the bottom of the standings the
following season. They regrouped and made the playoffs again the
following year, and by the early 1940s they made the Stanley Cup
Finals in three consecutive years. In
1941 they
were swept by the
Boston Bruins, in
1942 they
blew a three-game lead against Toronto to lose the finals, but in
1943,
with
Syd Howe and
Mud Bruneteau scoring 20 goals apiece, Detroit won their third Cup
by sweeping the Bruins. They remained a solid team through the rest of
the decade, making the playoffs every year, and reaching the finals
three more times.
In 1946,
one of the greatest players in hockey history came into the NHL with
the Red Wings.
Gordie Howe, a right-winger from
Floral, Saskatchewan, only scored seven goals and 22 points in his
first season; and wouldn't reach his prime for a few more years.
By his second season, Howe was paired with
Sid
Abel and
Ted Lindsay to form one of the most productive lines in the league
at the time. Linday's 33 goals propelled the Wings to the Stanley Cup
finals, where they were swept by the
Toronto Maple Leafs. Detroit reached the finals again the
following season, only to be swept again by Toronto.
The Wings returned to the top in
1950,
with
Pete Babando scoring the game winner in double overtime of game 7
to beat the
New York Rangers in the finals.
After being upset by the
Montreal Canadiens in the
1951
semifinals, Detroit won its fifth Cup in
1952,
with the Production Line of Howe, Abel and Lindsay joined by
second-year goalie
Terry Sawchuk. Abel left the Wings for Chicago following the
season, and his spot on the roster was replaced by
Alex Delvecchio.
The 1952 playoffs featured the start of a Red Wings tradition - the
octopus
throw. The owner of a local fish market threw one from the stands and
onto the ice. The eight legs were symbolic of the eight playoff wins
the Wings needed to win the Stanley Cup. They swept both of their
opponents that year.
Following another playoff upset in
1953 at
the hands of the
Boston Bruins, the Red Wings won back to back Stanley Cups in
1954
(over Montreal, when Habs defenseman
Doug Harvey redirected a
Tony Leswick shot into his own net) and
1955
(also over Montreal in seven games). Detroit and Montreal once again
met in the
1956 finals, but this time the Canadiens won the cup, their first
of five in a row.
In 1957
Ted Lindsay, who scored 30 goals and led the league in assists
that year, helped start the
NHL Players Association. The rest of the team didn't hold up their
bargain though, losing in the first round to the Bruins. By
1959 the
Red Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 21 years.
Within a couple of years, Detroit was rejeuvenated and made the
finals for four of the next six years between
1961 and
1966.
However, they wouldn't win the Cup any of those four times - despite
having Howe, Delvecchio,
Norm Ullman and
Parker MacDonald being consistent goal scorers, and Sawchuk and
later
Roger Crozier between the pipes.
By the late 1960s, the Wings started to flounder and entered a funk
that they wouldn't get out of for almost 20 years. Between
1967 and
1983,
Detroit only made the playoffs twice, winning one series.
Detroit lost Howe to the upstart
World Hockey Association in
1972.
Through the decade, with
Mickey Redmond having two 50-goal seasons and
Marcel Dionne starting to reach his prime (which he didn't attain
until he was traded to the
Los Angeles Kings), a lack of defensive and goaltending power
continually hampered the Wings.
In 1983
the Wings drafted a centre from
Cranbrook, British Columbia named
Steve Yzerman. He led the team in scoring in his rookie year, and
started the Wings' climb back to the top. That season, with
John Ogrodnick scoring 42 times and
Ivan Boldirev and
Ron Duguay also with 30-goal seasons, Detroit made the playoffs
for the first time in six years.
By 1987,
with Yzerman joined by
Petr Klima,
Adam Oates,
Gerard Gallant, defenseman
Darren Veitch and new head coach
Jacques Demers, the Wings made it to the semifinals for the first
time in the modern era, losing in five games to the powerhouse
Edmonton Oilers. They repeated the performance in
1988 with
a similar result.
In 1989,
Yzerman scored a career-best 65 goals, but Detroit was upset in the
first round by the
Chicago Blackhawks. The following season Yzerman knotted 62 goals
but the team didn't even make the playoffs. Demers was fired, and the
Red Wings haven't missed the playoffs since. Yzerman was joined by
Sergei Fedorov (who defected from the
USSR) and
enforcer
Keith Primeau, two of the most familiar faces of the Wings in the
1990s. In
1992 the team acquired
Ray Sheppard, who had a career-best 52 goals two years later; and
top defenseman
Paul Coffey. Also joining the Red Wings around this time were
draft picks like
Slava Kozlov,
Darren McCarty,
Vladimir Konstantinov and
Nicklas Lidstrom.
Scotty Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, joined the Red
Wings in 1993.
In his second season, the lockout-shortened
1994-1995
season, he guided Detroit to its first finals appearance in 29 years.
They were swept by the
New Jersey Devils.
The Wings kept adding more star power, picking up
Slava Fetisov and
Igor Larionov in trades. After a third-round playoff loss to the
new
Colorado Avalanche in
1996,
Detroit, joined by
Brendan Shanahan and
Larry Murphy during the season, once again reached the finals in
1997,
beating the
Philadelphia Flyers in four straight games. It was the Wings'
first Stanley Cup since
1955,
breaking the longest drought in the league at that time.
Tragedy struck the Wings days after their championship. Vladimir
Konstantinov suffered a brain injury in a car accident, and his career
had to come to an abrupt end. Their
1997-1998
season, which also ended in a Cup victory (a sweep over the
Washington Capitals), was dedicated to Konstantinov, who was
carted out in a wheelchair that night to touch the Cup.
The Wings built up a fierce rivalry with the Avalanche by this
time. With the Red Wings beating the Avalanche in the third round in
1997, and
Colorado beating Detroit in the second round in both
1999 and
2000, the
battles between these two teams has become one of the fiercest in
sports. During one game, a brawl ensuded between Colorado goalie
Patrick Roy and his Detroit counterpart
Chris Osgood.
In 2001
Detroit, the league's second-best team in the regular season, suffered
a first-round playoff loss to the
Los Angeles Kings. They landed free-agent goalie
Dominik Hasek and right-wing
Brett Hull in the off-season, and ended up the odds-on favorite to
win the Cup in
2002.
They did not disappoint, having the league's best record in the
regular season and capturing another Cup, in five games over the
Cinderella
Carolina Hurricanes. Scotty Bowman and Dominik Hasek both retired
after the season.
In 2003,
with new coach
Dave Lewis and goalie pickup
Curtis Joseph, the Wings were upset by the
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in four straight games in the first round.
Hasek has come out of retirement, and has joined the Wings for the
2003-2004 season, although this means that Detroit has three goalies,
with Curtis Joseph and
Manny Legace as backups. Joseph, despite being one of the highest
paid players in the NHL, has had to spend part of the season with
Detroit's
American Hockey League affiliate.
Players of note
-
Hockey Hall of Famers:
- Current stars:
- Not to be forgotten:
- Retired numbers:
Detroit Red Wings