Glory Days During the early years of the NHL the league’s future was uncertain Canadian fans loved hockey but the country’s population was too small to support the NHL Would fans in big American cities pay to watch hockey The NHL hoped so During the 1920s the league formed several new teams in the U S including one in Detroit Michigan That team actually got its start as the Victoria Cougars in the Western Hockey League WHL In 1925 and 1926 Victoria played for the Stanley Cup and won it once A group of investors soon bought the Cougars and moved the team to Detroit In 1927 Jack Adams was hired to run the club He would stay in that position for more than three decades After four seasons as the Cougars Adams changed the team name to the Falcons That lasted until 1932 when James Norris bought the club He changed the name to Red Wings During the 1930s Detroit finished first in its division three times The Wings won the 6
Stanley Cup in 1936 and 1937 Detroit’s top player was Ebbie Goodfellow a defenseman who skated and shot like a forward Other leaders during the 1930s included Herbie Lewis Larry Aurie and Marty Barry A new group of stars led Detroit into the 1940s including Sid Abel Syd Howe Jack Stewart Bill Quackenbush and Johnny Mowers They delivered a third Stanley Cup to Detroit in 1943 In the years after World War II Abel teamed with a pair of tough and talented young superstars Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe on the high-scoring Production Line This threesome led the Red Wings to three more Stanley Cups in the early 1950s Their teammates included center Alex Delvecchio defensemen Red Kelly and Leo Reise Jr and goalie Terry Sawchuk By the 1960s only Howe Delvecchio and Sawchuk remained from those great teams They formed the heart of a fantastic new squad From 1961 to 1966 Detroit made it to the Stanley Cup Finals four times Unfortunately the Red Wings fell short of the title each year despite the contributions of hard-nosed players such as Norm Ullman Bill Gadsby Marcel Pronovost and Roger Crozier LEFT Ebbie Goodfellow led Detroit to two Stanley Cups in the 1930s ABOVE Gordie Howe was the toughest player in team history 7
In the 1970s and 1980s the Red Wings struggled for the first time in team history They had some bad luck but they also made some poor decisions Mickey Redmond was an amazing scorer but he hurt his back Marcel Dionne set a record for most points goals plus assists by a rookie but he was traded away Reed Larson a defenseman with a great slapshot was also traded John Ogrodnick was one of the top left wings in the NHL but the team failed to surround him with good players Detroit’s luck began to change after it drafted Steve Yzerman in 1983 Yzerman was an elegant and creative player who could score at any time In 1988 89 he led the NHL in goals and assists However it was when Yzerman began focusing his efforts on defense in the early 1990s that the Red Wings became a championship contender At the time many hockey stars from Russia were coming to the NHL The Red Wings added Slava Fetisov Slava Kozlov Igor Larionov Vladimir Konstantinov and Sergei Fedorov Few forwards were better than Fedorov He had a very hard slapshot and seemed to be everywhere on the ice at once LEFT After Steve Yzerman arrived in Detroit the Wings became champions again ABOVE Sergei Fedorov was one of many Russian stars who played for Detroit in the 1990s 9
