The current Detroit Red Wings playoff streak at 24 straight seasons, is older than I have even been alive. It's the longest active streak in all four of the major professional sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) and it's actually older than a good handful of the players on the Red Wings roster. Another crazy fact about the streak is, they are the only team to make the playoffs every single year since the salary cap era began 10 years ago. Now that's impressive.
Well, will they?
Now this question gets brought up every single year - Will this be the year the streak ends? Will this finally be the year? I certainly wouldn't bet a whole lot of money on that. The odds are definitely not in your favor. The Detroit Red Wings last year, were at one point the best team in the Eastern Conference. They were atop the standings in the month of January. While they may have cooled down during the second half of the season, they still took the eventual Eastern Conference champions to 7 games and arguably, outplayed them in that game. The team this year roster wise, is extremely similar to last years. They lost Gustavsson, Weiss, Cole, and Zidlicky but they added Brad Richards and Mike Green. Gustavsson, Cole, and Weiss spent a good amount of their Detroit tenure injured, while Zidlicky was replaced with a better defenseman in Green. The only question marks is whether or not the loss of Mike Babcock will hurt them, and Datsyuks' health.
Prediction: While the loss of Babcock may hurt a little to some fans, I don't see it being a big loss to the team. Jeff Blashill has a history of winning, and the players are seemingly happy about the change. Regarding Datsyuks' health, if the 2013-14 (when Datsyuk and Zetterberg missed about half the season) team made the playoffs, this team certainly will. So yes, it looks extremely likely that this team will make the playoffs for the 25th consecutive season.
No comments:
Post a Comment