In Red Wings Land

Red Wings, Blackhawks paying for past glory | TSN

Ten years ago, the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks ushered in a new era of hockey – one built on speed, puck possession and an incredible pool of talent that ensured playoff contention every season.

But hockey, like most things, is cyclical. The state of the organizations in Detroit and Chicago is quite different in 2018. These two historic franchises wrote the playbook on how to build a contender in the modern era. But they also are writing a sequel – one that speaks to the importance of salary cap management and continuous player development

Those of us who follow the Red Wings closely could see the decline approaching before the bottom totally fell out. I feel like there are probably plenty of “what ifs” along the road to this point that could’ve slowed down the decline even more and maybe avoided it? But like the author says, it’s all cyclical and it would catch up to Detroit sooner or later.

Thankfully there is the 2008 Stanley Cup championship to look back on. If there was no Cup, the Wings downfall would be a much tougher pill to swallow.

Around the League

Top 100 NHL players of 2018–19: 100–51 | Sportsnet

There are no Red Wings players on this part of list and that leads me to believe there won’t be any in the top 100.