End of an Era

[SpikeDDS]

It is now official. The streak is over. 25 years, and that will be all.

 

But who could complain, really? It's been a darn good 25 year run. 4 Cups, and at its pinnacle, arguably the best assembly of talent in the history of the NHL in 2002, the kind of team when our kids and grandkids think their team is something else, we will be able to chuckle and say, "They're good, but they aren't 2002 Red Wings good." It still boggles my mind that Luc Robitaille and Igor Larionov were on the 4th line on that team! They just weren't good enough to crack the top 3 lines! With the cap, that kind of team will never again be assembled except on All-Star weekends.

 

@yave1964, BTW Kris Draper called and told me to tell you that your "24 and counting" sig line still needs to be changed. None of the words in that sig line are true anymore. He said something about "cease and desist" but I wasn't really paying much attention. But hey, if you can change your avatar, changing your sig line should be no biggie!

 

It it is encouraging that our young talent seems to be coming to the fore. Athanasiou and Mantha are now 2nd and 3rd in goals for the Wings this season, and Tats has finished strong as the leading goal scorer. Now, to build on those things. Get Larkin back to better form. Really tough season for him. We won't be sorry to see his sophomore season go. Better days to come methinks. Do we see Svechnikov next season?

 

And then, amass some more young talent, develop it to get what we need to return to Red Wing prominence, not just a new playoff run in Mediocrityland. Develop to keep in our system, but ALSO to be ready to leverage that talent to acquire what we need if necessary. (And yes, it will be necessary.) Those decisions are the hard ones, because of the uncertainty. Those decisions can't be made in fear. We can't be afraid of making a mistake to the point where we don't move anyone until it is too late. That is the way it has been, and that needs to change. Soon.

 

We've got a D core that cannot remain the same. To make it better, other things will have to change too. We can't be afraid to change to allow ourselves to become better. This run has seen a lot of stability in the lineup, overall, because of the lasting talent we had. We cannot expect that kind of stability to continue. We must be willing to shake things up to improve the D core, even if it may mean losing forwards and/or prospects.

 

That pesky Jimmy Howard is making decisions more difficult again. He has made a case this season where he may actually be worth closer to what he has been being paid than many of his critics--myself included--have thought. Combine that with a bad season for Mrazek, and you've got another tough decision to make, unless Howard goes in the Vegas draft. (Doubt it, but ya never know...)

 

But first, we will need a coaching change. It took FAR too long for the power play to even show signs of mediocrity, much less total ineptness. It is not all Jeff Blashill's fault that the streak has ended. Look at the team he has. You can't make a Cabernet out of lemons. But a new voice is needed. A locker room reset. A disciplinarian than can show these young kids how to become competitive on a daily basis and become prominent pros in this league. I reall don't know why we haven't already done that, but that would be the best first step they must take to turn this around.

[WingNut722]

We all knew it was coming, but it still kinda stings a little bit now that it's official.  25 years is a long time.  Consider the following from ESPN.com:

• George H.W. Bush was the president of the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall was two months away from being demolished. The unification of East Germany and West Germany was being negotiated. Nelson Mandela was enjoying his first two months of freedom after spending 27 years in South African prisons.

• The population of the United States was 249 million.

• The internet was five months away from becoming a thing. A smart phone was something that operated from a plug and a long cord in your house and had an answering machine that recorded messages onto a tiny audiotape. A tweet was the exclusive message of a bird.

• General Motors topped the Fortune 500 as the most valuable company. Passengers were sweating through the second month of a ban on smoking on all U.S. domestic flights.

• "Escapade" by Janet Jackson, "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles and "Vogue" by Madonna were burning up the airwaves. That is to say, those songs were being played by radio stations. Gloria Estefan left a New York hospital after suffering a broken back in a bus accident.

• Popular movies of the month were "Pretty Woman," with Richard Gere as a john and Julia Roberts as a prostitute (I know, right?), and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Coming later in the year would be "Goodfellas," "Dances With Wolves," "Home Alone," "Total Recall," "Ghost" and "Rocky V." "Driving Miss Daisy," starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, had just been awarded the Oscar for best picture. A TV show called "Twin Peaks" aired its two-hour pilot episode -- and unless you had a beta or VHS recorder, you couldn't fast-forward the commercials. With his four-year contract to do the TV series "21 Jump Street" expiring, Johnny Depp said he would prefer to do movies. A little-known actor named Brad Pitt was cast for a bit part in the flick "Thelma and Louise."

• Jack Nicklaus played in his first senior tour event, which he promptly won. Nick Faldo was a week away from successfully defending his Masters title. The Miami Hurricanes and San Francisco 49ers has recently won championships. Derrike Cope had recently won the Daytona 500. Liverpool was on the verge of winning its 18th -- and so far, last -- English Football League title.

 

• The Boston Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy with 101 points on a record of 46 wins, 25 losses and 9 ties. Last place among the 21 teams in the NHL was held by the Quebec Nordiques, who went 12-61-7. Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings won the Art Ross Trophy with 142 points; Mark Messier was second with 129. Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues led goal scoring with 72; Steve Yzerman was second with 62 goals. Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens led the league with a .912 save percentage; Mike Liut of the Blues was tops in goals-against average, at 2.53.

• Dylan Larkin was six years away from being born. Danny DeKeyser was a month old. Brad Richards was 9. Pavel Datsyuk was 11. Coach Jeff Blashill was 16.

On a more personal note...I was eight years old, in second grade, catholic school with a nun for a teacher.  I had a very tough time learning cursive and had to repeat it over and over again until my hand cramped.  I still can't do it, I print all my letters.

[ScottM]

Ironic, is it not, that the longest active streak ended on the same night that the Oilers' record-tying streak for most seasons missing the playoffs ended?

[WingNut722]

8 minutes ago, ScottM said:

Ironic, is it not, that the longest active streak ended on the same night that the Oilers' record-tying streak for most seasons missing the playoffs ended?

 

It's quite zen, actually...Everything in balance...

[yave1964]

So many memories, the Wings were rotten beyond belief in my childhood and it became so satisfying that around the time that I came home from the Army that Demers helped turn them around and made them respectable. I have grown and raised children with kids of their own who have no memory of the Wings missing the playoffs. It might be a good thing if we learn from it and take a hard honest look at where we are as a team and address the problems with real solutions instead of bandaids.

 

  Datsyuk leaving had zero to do with the streak ending, the money saved allowed us to sign Vanek and Nielsen who were not the problem.

 

Truthfully it shoulda happened a few years ago, it was a fun run. Long live the Wings.

[yave1964]

Oh and @SpikeDDS I have a guilty admission to make I would happily change my damn signature, I have meant fp for over a year but cannot figure out where to go to change it.

[WingNut722]

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

Oh and @SpikeDDS I have a guilty admission to make I would happily change my damn signature, I have meant fp for over a year but cannot figure out where to go to change it.

 

Looks like you managed to change it successfully!  Nice new picture, by the way!

[SpikeDDS]

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

Oh and @SpikeDDS I have a guilty admission to make I would happily change my damn signature, I have meant fp for over a year but cannot figure out where to go to change it.

 

What he isn't telling us is that for a year, I kept telling him to just cut and paste a new sig line for his posts, and for weeks he kept repasting the same sig line he printed out onto his screen wherever his posts ended. You should have heard him curse when he had to scroll!