Wow, the Detroit Red Wings track record in the Eastern Conference has been a sad, sorry tale. Sure, they had some success early on, but they've yet to even win a playoff series as members of the East's Atlantic Division.
Talk about trading Western glory for whatever you want to call their current stint in the Eastern Conference. And if there's any real upside, it's that they're in the same division with three Original Six teams - the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Boston Bruins.
Still, looking back at what was in the West, and the dawn of something spectacular once upon a time, I mean, they had six conference championships between 1981-82 when the NHL fixed its geographic issues and 2012-13, their last year in the West, to go with four Stanley Cups, 16 division championships, and six Presidents' Trophies.
The Detroit Red Wings defined success during their glory days in the West
I mean, that's an impeccable run, and it's what made the Wings time in the West so great. These teams were gritty, ultra-talented, and it got to the point where, hockey fan or not, when you heard the name 'Red Wings,' you immediately attributed them to success.
During our Fourth of July cookout, my cousin, who doesn't typically follow hockey, said, "It seemed like the Red Wings were always in the playoffs," after I told him it'd been nine seasons since they last cracked the postseason. Obviously, the residual effect of success tied to their name is still there.
Then, the 2013-14 NHL realignment happened, and the Wings, alongside the Columbus Blue Jackets, switched conferences, leading to an imbalanced 16 teams in the East while 14 resided in the West until the Vegas Golden Knights (2017) and Seattle Kraken (2021) evened things out.
The move East coincidentally marked the beginning of another Dead Wings era
Unfortunately for the Red Wings, the dominance they enjoyed from the mid-1990s until their loss in the Conference Semi-Finals in 2013 was about to fall into decay as they shifted East. They still made the playoffs during those first few seasons in the East but, as noted, lost in the First Round each time.
And, the nine-year drought that followed lives on as I write this. Now, I'm not saying that if the NHL held another realignment tomorrow that would allow the Wings to shift back West would change their fortunes, but sometimes it makes you wonder from a superstitious standpoint.
It wasn't long after the Wings joined the Clarence Campbell Conference in the 80s did they start looking like the team that would ultimately dominate in the 1990s, 2000s, and even into the 2010s, even if they didn't make deep playoff runs in the latter decade.
Maybe it's why I wouldn't mind seeing the NHL return to Atlanta, even if it might not be the most popular pick among fans. Still, if something like that happened, and if, against all odds, they put a 34th team in Quebec City, it'd be enough to shift the Wings back to the West.
Maybe, and I'm saying maybe while that superstitious side of me is guaranteeing it, the latest Dead Wings era will extinguish. And the Wings will, once again, climb back up the league's rankings and reclaim that glory they earned in the West.
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