75 YEARS IN THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

The Detroit Red Wings enter their 75th season in the National Hockey League as one of sport's premiere franchises.

As the NHL's most storied American team, the Red Wings have featured some of the greatest players, coaches and executives the game has ever known. Throughout the 1900's, names like Adams, Howe, Abel, Lindsay, Sawchuk, Kelly, Delvecchio and Hall became very familiar to hockey fans. And the list continues today with the likes of Bowman, Yzerman, Lidstrom, Shanahan and Fedorov.



The first 74 seasons saw Detroit win nine Stanley Cups, which is third to only the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The tradition of excellence continued into the new millenium as the Red Wings won consecutive Stanley Cup Championships in 1997 and '98, posted the NHL's best record in the decade of the 90's and became the benchmark to which teams throughout the NHL measured their own success.
The roots of the Red Wings go all the way back to the old Western Hockey League, where the Victoria (British Columbia) Cougars were members until their roster was sold to a group from Detroit on September 25, 1926. The Detroit group, which featured former pro goaltender Percy LeSueur, had been awarded an NHL franchise on May 15, 1926.

The team began play as the Detroit Cougars in the fall of 1926 while playing its home games in Windsor. Despite the fact that the Victoria Cougars had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and were Cup finalists in 1926, the Detroit Cougars finished 12-28Ð4; the NHL's worst record for the 1926-27 season.
The same players had made the trip from Victoria to the banks of the Detroit River. But the men who had been superstars out west like goaltender Happy Holmes, Frank Fredrickson, Jack Walker and Frank Foyston had succombed to age and were no longer as effective as they once had been.

Not only did the team struggle on the ice, but it performed poorly on the ledger sheet as well where the Cougars were more than $80,000 in debt.

Help came, the following season, in the form of Jack Adams as the team's coach and general manager. Adams had played in the old Pacific Coast league and in the NHL with the Toronto St. Pats and the Ottawa Senators. Adams' tenure as coach and GM would last until the 1962-63 season, when Sid Abel took over as the team's general manager for the 1962-63 season.

The team also moved across the Detroit River and into the brand new Olympia Stadium for the 1926-27 season. A Detroit and professional hockey landmark, the Olympia would serve as the home for the franchise through the midway point of 1979-80 season.

Under Adams, the team improved and made the playoffs for the first time in the 1928-29 season. However, they were still among the NHL's have nots and perpetually close to bankruptcy. Willing to try anything, Adams even changed the name for the 1930-31 season to the Detroit Falcons.

After the depression, the team went into receivership and Adams was forced to use his own money to make payroll. It was so bad financially, that Adams joked that if the Montral Canadiens' superstar Howie Morenz were available for $1.98, the Red Wings still couldn't afford him. Things weren't much better on the ice as the team had only made the playoffs twice in its first six seasons.

But in 1932 the financial problems ended when grain millionaire and shipping magnate James Norris purchased the team. Norris, like Adams, was a Canadian turned American. He had once played hockey for the Montral Amateur Athletic Association Winged Wheelers, whose logo was a winged wheel.

When the two men met, Norris suggested to Adams that the team's new logo would be a winged wheel and that it would be named the Red Wings. Norris also gave Adams a year as the team's G.M. and coach to use the now available money to improve the team.

The franchise already had a few players who would contribute to the team's first two Stanley Cups in 1936 and 1937 such as Ebbie Goodfellow, Larry Aurie, Herbie Lewis, Hec Kilrea and John Sorrell. But Norris' money and Adams ability to wheel and deal added such players as Carl Voss, Syd Howe, Marty Barry, goaltender Normie Smith, Bucko McDonald and others. The Red Wings had outstanding seasons in 1932-33 when Voss won the franchise's first award by winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie and 1933-34, advancing to the semifinals against the New York Rangers in 1933 and lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Chicago Blackhawks in 1934. Detroit slumped to under .500 and missed the playoffs in 1934-35, but came back in 1936 to win the first Stanley Cup in the franchise's history, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs three games-to-one in the Finals.

The Red Wings went on to repeat as Cup Champions in 1937, winning three games-to-two over the New York Rangers in the Finals. However, one of the most memorable moments in Red Wings and NHL history came in Game 1 of the first-round series against the Montral Maroons at the Montral Forum on Mach 24, 1936. In the longest game ever played in NHL history, the Red Wings defeated the Maroons 1-0 on rookie Mud Bruneteau's goal, which came 16:30 into the sixth overtime period. That contest also began a playoff shutout run of 248 minutes and 32 seconds for Normie Smith. That still stands as the longest Stanley Cup Playoff shutout streak for a goaltender.
The 1936 and 1937 teams featured two of the greatest players ever to wear the winged wheel in Ebbie Goodfellow and Syd Howe. Goodfellow played with the Red Wings from the 1929-30 season until 1942-43. He was a forward for the first five seasons and led the team in scoring in the 1930-31 and 1931-32 seasons and was even second in the NHL in points with 48 in 1930-31. But because the team had a surplus of good forwards, Adams asked Goodfellow to move to defense for the 1934-35 season. He made the move and helped the team win the Cup in 1936 and 1937 and was a First Team All-Star on defense in 1936-37 and 1939-40 and a Second Team selection in 1935-36. Goodfellow was a player-coach in his final season, in which the Red Wings won their third Stanley Cup.

Syd Howe was also a versatile player as he manned every position but goaltender during his 17-season NHL career, which spanned from 1929-30 until 1945-46. He played with the Red Wings for the last 111Ú2 seasons of his career.

Syd Howe played with the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Quakers, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Senators again before the franchise moved to St. Louis and was known as the Eagles. Howe went with them, but the financially strapped team sold Howe and defenseman Ralph (Scotty) Bowman no relation to the Red Wings' current coach to Detroit for Teddy Graham and $50,000.

He went on to help the Red Wings win their first three Stanley Cups and holds the team record for goals in a game with six on Feb. 3, 1944 against the New York Rangers at the Olympia.

When Howe retired in 1946, he was the NHL's all-time leading scorer with 528 points
Goodfellow was elected to the Hockey Hall of fame in 1963 and Howe in 1965.
A young man from Melville, Saskatchewan joined the Red Wings for part of the 1938-39 season. Sid Abel played only 15 games with Detroit that season and 24 the next as he split time between the NHL and the American Hockey League, but he became a regular in 1940-41. Abel finished fifth in league scoring with 49 points in 1941-42 and became the Red Wings' captain in 1942-43.

Detroit's blue line also got an addition in 1938-39 when Jack Stewart was introduced to the NHL. His dark features and physical game earned him the nickname ÒBlack Jack Stewart and he terrorized opposing forwards with bone- crushing hits and his great strength.

The Red Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1941 and 1942, losing to the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Bruins swept the Red Wings in four games as Detroit was thwarted by the spectacular goaltending of goaltender Frank Brimsek, who lived up to his nickname of ÒMr. Zero by only allowing the Red Wings six goals in the series. The Red Wings won the first three games of the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals against the Maple Leafs, but Toronto rallied to win the next four and win the Cup. It was the first and only time a team has come back from a three games- to-none Cup Finals deficit and only one of two times in NHL history that a team has lost a playoff series after winning the first three games (the other occasion came when the Pittsburgh Penguins blew a 3-0 advantage against the New York Islanders in 1975).

But the Red Wings got their revenge on the Bruins and Brimsek by winning the third Stanley Cup in team history in a four-game sweep of Boston in 1943. Detroit had also finished first overall with 61 points and a 25-14Ð11 record in 1942-43, the first season of the ÒOriginal Six six-team NHL (the league had ranged from four-to-10 teams from it's beginning in 1917-18 until 1941-42).

That season began what has become known as the NHL's ÒGolden Age, which lasted through the 1966-67 season, after which the league doubled in size to 12 teams.
The 1944 season saw an offensive explosion in the NHL as many of the league's best, and defensive players were serving in World War II (both Abel and Stewart served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943-44 and 1944-45). The NHL's leading scorer, Boston's Herb Cain, had 36 goals and 82 points and the Red Wings' Carl Liscombe finished fourth in the scoring race with a team record 36 goals, 37 assists and 73 points.

Detroit wouldn't capture the Stanley Cup again until 1950, but the late '40s would see the arrival of a group of players who would become not only Red Wing legends, but the makings of NHL lore.

With the promotions of Ted Lindsay (1944-45), Gordie Howe (1946-47), Red Kelly (1947-48) and Terry Sawchuk (1949-50) to the NHL and the return of both Abel and Stewart from the RCAF, one of the greatest dynasties in NHL history was set in motion.

Adams handed the coaching reins to Tommy Ivan after the 1946-47 season. Detroit finished second overall during the 1947-48 regular season, five points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs. But the team then ran off a streak of seven- straight first overall finishes from 1948-49 until 1954-55 and won four Stanley Cups (1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955).

Lindsay, Howe and Abel terrorized the NHL as members of the ÒProduction Line, Kellybecame the NHL's top offensive defenseman and Stewart provided more physical play on the blue line before being traded after Detroit won the 1950 Stanley Cup. The Red Wings can thank Pete Babando for that triumph as he tallied the clinching goal eight minutes and thirty-one seconds into the second overtime period in Game 7 to defeat the New York Rangers 4-3.

Detroit proved to be a talented and deep squad in the 1950 playoffs when Gordie Howe suffered a serious head injury in the Game 1 of the first-round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Howe almost died and would miss the remainder of the playoffs, but he was out of the hospital in time to join his teammates for the on-ice celebration after Babando's goal in Game 7. The first round of the 1950 playoffs had also featured overtime heroics as Leo Reise scored the OT winner in both Games 4 and 7.

Veteran goaltender Harry Lumley backstopped Detroit to the 1950 Stanley Cup victory. But Sawchuk was so impressive in a seven-game call-up from the minors while Lumley was injured, that Lumley was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks before the 1950-51 season began to make room for Sawchuk.

Other future Red Wing greats arrived during this period. Defenseman Marcel Pronovost was with the team during the 1949-50 season but didn't play. He made his Detroit ice debut the following season as did Alex Delvecchio.

Sawchuk staged one of the greatest performances in Stanley Cup Playoff history when Detroit captured the 1952 Stanley Cup. He only allowed five goals in eight games as the Red Wings swept both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montral Canadiens in four games. Even more incredibly, Sawchuk didn't give up a single goal in any of the four games played at Detroit's Olympia Stadium.

That was also the first appearance of an octopus on Detroit ice at a hockey game. The eight tentacles represented the eight games that a team needed to win to capture the Stanley Cup.

Another significant event came during the first round of the 1952 playoffs. After Lindsay and Howe had received death threats if they played in Game 4 in Toronto, both played and the Wings' won to end the series. After the game, Lindsay playfully chided the Toronto fans when skated to center ice and held his stick like a machine gun and pretended to shoot into the crowd.

The 1953-54 season was Ivan's last as coach and the Red Wings gave him a grand send off with their third Cup in five seasons. The Wings then repeated as Cup champs the next season in Jimmy Skinner's first season behind the Detroit bench. The Red Wings defeated the Montral Canadiens in the finals both seasons, winning in five games in 1954, thanks to Tony Leswick's OT goal in Game 5, and in seven games in 1955.

After dropping the 1956 Finals to the Canadiens in five games, it seemed that the Red Wings' dynasty would go on for the near future but questionable trades by Adams gutted the team of many good and great players.

Stars like Sawchuk, Lindsay, Kelly and young players like Glenn Hall and Johnny Bucyk were traded from 1955 to 1960 and the team got little in return. Sawchuk did return to Detroit, but one of the players sent to the Bruins to reacquire him was Bucyk, who went on to become one of the best left wings in NHL history.

Detroit didn't return to the Stanley Cup Finals until 1961, when it lost to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Red Wings went on to advance to the Finals in three of the four seasons from 1963-66, but lost each time. The team, now coached by Abel, lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1963 (five games) and 1964 (seven games) and to the Montral Canadiens in six games in 1966.

It would be 29 years before the Red Wings would return to the Cup Finals and 31 years before they would record another Stanley Cup Finals victory.

But there had been jubilation at the Olympia on Nov. 10, 1963 when Howe broke Maurice ÒRocket Richard's record for most career NHL goals with his 545th against Richard's former team, the Montral Canadiens, and goaltender Charlie Hodge.
Detroit reached the playoffs four times from 1966-67 until 1985-86, a period that was highlighted by the veteran line of Howe, Delvecchio and Frank Mahovlich during the 1968- 69 and 1969-70 seasons, Mickey Redmond becoming the first Red Wing to score 50 goals in a season in 1972-73 (he did it again the following season), Marcel Dionne's 121 points and Danny Grant's 50 goals in 1974-75.

The team also moved to Joe Louis Arena in 1979 and it hosted the NHL All-Star Game in January, 1980. The contest featured 50-year old Gordie Howe, who was in his last season with the Hartford Whalers after returning to pro hockey in 1973-74 in the World Hockey Association he had retired from the Red Wings following the 1970-71 season.

The Norris family finally sold the Red Wings in 1982 to Mike and Marian Ilitch, who owned Little Caesars Pizza.

One of their first hires was Jimmy Devellano as the team's general manager and he selected a shy, 18-year-old center named Steve Yzerman with the fourth overall pick of the 1983 NHL Draft.

Detroit made the playoffs in both the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons but lost in the first round each season. The Red Wings collected only 40 points in 1985-86 to finish last overall in the NHL, but the disappointing campaign would prove as one step backward before Detroit would take several steps in the right direction.

Detroit hired Jacques Demers, who had been the coach of the St. Louis Blues, as its coach. Not only did the Red Wings make the playoffs in each of Demers first two seasons, but it advanced to the Campbell Conference Finals each season and lost to the Edmonton Oilers in five games both times.

Demers made the then 21-year-old Yzerman the team's captain. The squad featured other young players like Gerard Gallant, Petr Klima, Bob Probert, Shawn Burr, Adam Oates, Joe Kocur and Steve Chiasson and veterans like Dave Barr, Lee Norwood, Tim Higgins, Gilbert Delorme and Harold Snepsts.

Demers won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year in both 1986-87 and 1987-88.

In 1988-89, Yzerman set team records for goals, assists and points with 65 goals, 90 assists and 155 points which is the highest point total in NHL history for a player not named Gretzky or Lemieux and he and linemates Gallant and Paul MacLean combined for 319 points, the most by any line in Red Wings' history. Despite the stellar play of Yzerman and his linemates, Detroit lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The 1989-90 season saw the Red Wings miss the playoffs, ending Demers run as the Wings' head coach. Demers was replaced by former Washington Capitals' coach Bryan Murray, who was also named the team's general manager. The disappointing 1989-90 season was the last time Detroit would miss the playoffs as the Wings have now gone on to post-season play for 10 consecutive years.

Young players like Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Vladimir Konstantinov, Slava Kozlov, Keith Primeau, Martin Lapointe, Darren McCarty and Chris Osgood reached the NHL with the Red Wings and veterans like Dino Ciccarelli, Paul Coffey and Ray Sheppard were acquired via trade. All but Primeau, Ciccarelli, Coffey and Sheppard contributed to the the Red Wings' Stanley Cup victories in 1997 and 1998.
The Red Wings made the playoffs in 1990-91 but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the St. Louis Blues. Over the next three seasons, the Red Wings were one of the most prolific offensive teams in the NHL and one of the best during the regular season. Detroit finished third in goals in 1991-92 and advanced to the second round before being eliminated by Chicago.

The Wings led the NHL in scoring the following two seasons, but were eliminated in the first round both years (Toronto and the San Jose Sharks).
Fedorov came of age during the 1993-94 season as he finished second in the league in scoring with 120 points (56 goals and 64 assists) and won both the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP and the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the league's best defensive forward. Sheppard also scored 50 goals (52-41Ð93) to give the Red Wings the first 50-goal pair in their history.

Murray was fired as coach after the 1992-93 season and the legendary Scotty Bowman was hired to replace Murray behind the bench. And after the team was eliminated by the Sharks, Murray was fired as G.M. He was replaced by a combination of Devellano, who had become the team's senior vice president when Murray was hired in 1990, assistant general manager Ken Holland and Bowman; who would serve as the player personnel director.

Bowman did what many considered unthinkable as he took the league's most potent offensive team and began to emphasize defense. He and associate coaches Barry Smith and Dave Lewis instituted the ÒLeft-wing lock system and veteran defensemen Bob Rouse and Mike Ramsey were signed as free agents. The team also traded defenseman Steve Chiasson to the Calgary Flames for veteran goaltender Mike Vernon during the off-season. That gave the team an experienced goaltender to go along with a young Chris Osgood, who had come up during the 1993-94 season and had been forced to play in the playoffs.

The Red Wings were ready to go, but the NHL regular season didn't begin until January because of a lockout by the owners. When the season did begin, the Red Wings were the best. Coffey won the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman during the regular season and the Wings won the Presidents' Trophy, which goes to the team with the NHL's best regular-season record and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1966. But the Wings were not able to reach their ultimate goal when they were swept by the New Jersey Devils in the Cup finals.
The following regular season was even better as the team's 62 victories broke the NHL record for the most wins in a season. Not only were the Red Wings a success on the ice, they were also a huge story off it.

Early in the season, Detroit sent Sheppard to the San Jose Sharks for veteran center Igor Larionov. He teamed with Fedorov, Kozlov, Konstantinov and veteran defenseman Slava Fetisov who had been acquired from New Jersey at the trade deadline the previous season to form the first all-Russian five-man unit in NHL history. The ÒRussian Five dazzled opponents with their skill and skating ability and became the Red Wings' personality.

Individually, Bowman won the Jack Adams Award , Osgood and Vernon shared the Jennings Trophy (which goes to the team with the lowest goals-against average), and Fedorov repeated as the Selke Trophy winner.

Coffey became the first defenseman to collect 1,000 assists, Yzerman scored the 500th goal of his career during the 1995-96 season and Bowman broke the record for most NHL games coached.

Yzerman also discovered how Red Wing fans felt about him once and for all. With rumors of a trade swirling, he received a tremendous and deafening ovation when he was introduced at the home opener at Joe Louis Arena. Fans shouted, ÒStevie! ÒStevie! ÒStevie!

That moment made it clear that Yzerman would remain a Red Wing for life.
But it was playoff disappointment once again for Detroit as it was eliminated in the Western Conference Finals by the Colorado Avalanche, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup. That series began the fierce rivalry between the Red Wings and the Avalanche. The most significant incident came in Game 6 when Claude Lemieux drilled the Wings' Kris Draper into the boards from behind and Draper suffering several serious facial injuries as a result.

Ciccarelli was traded during the off-season and, early in the regular season, the Red Wings sent Primeau, Coffey and a first-round pick in the 1997 draft to the Hartford Whalers for left wing Brendan Shanahan and minor-league defenseman Brian Glynn.
Shanahan was one of the final ingredients in Detroit's Stanley Cup puzzle and went on to score 46 goals that season. Veteran defenseman Larry Murphy was acquired at the trade deadline and Kocur, who had been traded to the New York Rangers in 1991, returned to Detroit as a free agent.

But the regular-season's most memorable Red Wing moment came on March 26, 1997, when McCarty exacted revenge on Lemeiux for the hit on Draper. It came during an on-ice brawl, which featured Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon a slugfest at center ice. The frenzy helped rally the Wings from a two-goal deficit to a 6-5 in overtime victory as McCarty got the winner. When Detroit went on to win the Stanley Cup, each player pointed to that game as the moment they became a team.
In the playoffs Detroit defeated the Blues in six games, swept the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in four games (all but three, including Game 4, went into overtime), took the Avalanche in six games in the Western conference Finals and swept the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Finally, the Red Wings and the fans had their first Stanley cup in 42 years. Joy, relief, exuberance, satisfaction all emotions were personified in Yzerman's smile as he accepted the Stanley Cup and skated around the JLA ice. Vernon was voted the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the Playoff MVP.

But tragedy struck just six days later when Konstantinov and masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were critically injured in a one-vehicle limousine accident. Fetisov was also in the limousine but his injuries weren't nearly as serious and he returned to play the following season. But Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov both saw the end of their careers.

Vernon, who wanted a three-year contract, was dealt to the San Jose Sharks. Holland had also become the team's general manager that summer.
Despite the loss of one of the NHL's best defensemen in Konstantinov, the Red Wings played like champions throughout the regular season. The fact that the team was never truly able to celebrate its Stanley Cup victory and the constant thoughts of their stricken teammates propelled a driven Red Wings team into the Stanley Cup playoffs. After defeating Phoenix, St. Louis and Dallas in the first three rounds, Detroit swept the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Finals. Yzerman won the Conn Smythe Trophy. After accepting the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive years, the Captain placed it on the lap of Konstantinov and the entire team joined in for an emotional scene that touched fans throughout the sports world. Media from around the NHL wrote that never had one team deserved to repeat as much as this Red Wings squad.

The Red Wings were eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Avalanche the next two seasons. But there was plenty of individual achievement.
In 1998-99 Murphy passed Tim Horton to become the all-time games-played leader among defensemen in NHL history. A surprise came at the trading deadline when longtime Red Wing nemesis Chris Chelios was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks.
Another surprise acquisition was made the following November when former Dallas Star Pat Verbeek was signed as a free agent.

That set up a season of milestones for the Red Wings in 1999-2000. Yzerman scored goal No. 600, Verbeek tallied No. 500, Shanahan collected No. 400 and Fedorov earned No. 300. Yzerman also recorded his 1,500th point and 900th assist while Verbeek scored his 1,000th point.

By the end of the season, only Gordie Howe had played more NHL games than Murphy. The post-season honors continued as Yzerman won the Selke Trophy and was among three Red Wings along with Shanahan and Lidstrom, who were selected as First Team All-Stars.