MichiganRadio

Red Wings Have Been Great for 20 Years ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - Red Wings' fans are upset their team got knocked out of the playoffs in the second round.

But it's worth remembering they've made the playoffs for 20 consecutive years - the longest active run of any team not just in hockey, but in any major sport. The last time the Red Wings didn't make the playoffs, George Bush was just getting started - George H.W. Bush, that is.

That 1990 team was decent, but nobody thought it would spark a streak of twenty straight playoff seasons.

To do that, the Red Wings have stayed at the top of their game with four different coaches, 25 goalies and hundreds of players. Not one has spanned the entire streak. But the team has been led during the entire stretch by just two captains: Steve Yzerman and Niklas Lidstrom - and no team has ever had better leaders than those two.

Detroit was a playoff team during the wide-open era of the Edmonton Oilers, and the oh so boring defensive style of the New Jersey Devils. But then they developed their own style: a wonderful hybrid of hardcore North American hitting, and European-style skating and passing. They can play with anyone, any way you like - and they'll beat you doing it.

The Wings were on top ten years ago when the referees didn't call anything - like clutching, grabbing, and hooking - and they've stayed on top after the refs started calling everything, like coughing and sneezing.

The Wings' streak survived the lockout of 1995 and the lock out of 2005, and they didn't miss a beat.

The Wings won three Stanley Cups before the salary cap was put in place five years ago. Everyone said would be the end of their dynasty, until they won another Cup in 2008, with not a dime more than everyone else had.

The Wings have done all this while playing in the NHL's Western Conference, even though Joe Louis Arena is a few miles east of the Piston's home, and they play in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Go figure.

No team in the four major sports has traveled more than the Red Wings, who have to play Conference foes in Dallas and Denver, Edmonton and Anaheim, Phoenix and Vancouver. They don't complain about it. They just win, get on the plane, and do it again.

The Red Wings have done all of this with zero - zero - off-ice scandals. They've played through the Minnesota Vikings' sex boat escapades, Pete Rose and Mark McGwire's confessions, Ben Roethlisberger and Lawrence Taylor and Tiger Woods. They've earned a reputation as genuinely good guys. They even take pay cuts to make sure they can keep their teammates.

In his autobiography, Born Standing Up, comedian Steve Martin said the hardest thing to learn is not how to be great. On a given night, almost any comedian can do that. No, the hardest thing, he said, is to learn to be good, night after night, no matter what.

The Red Wings have not only been good, night after night, they've been great. And they've been doing it for almost 2,000 nights. They are the honest accountants, the loyal employees - the guys who do their jobs so well for so long, you barely notice.

Well, hockey fans, you should. Because teams don't come along like this - ever.
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