Mike Ilitch bought the Detroit Red Wings in 1982. “I can’t believe the team owners in town,” Ilitch said at the time. “I’d spend every penny to be the best. That’s what sports are all about. That’s what a team owner should be all about. It’s a matter of pride – if you don’t have it or aren’t willing, then stay the hell out and let somebody else do it.” Ilitch knew that Red Wings fans needed a reason to come to Joe Louis Arena, which was three years old at the time.
Joe Louis Arena, nicknamed “The Joe,” was named for Joe Louis Barrow and was the site of countless Red Wings memories. Ilitch was behind these memories but had an advantage as there was not a salary cap in the NHL at that time. He and his wife Marian invested their savings to open the first Little Caesars Pizza restaurant in Garden City, Michigan, in 1959. Ilitch also bought the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball ten years later. Mike Ilitch did not have the same amount of success with the baseball team in Detroit as he did with the hockey team that he owned, as the team never won a World Series with him as team owner.
The Red Wings moved from Joe Louis Arena to Little Caesars Arena seven years ago. In that time the Red Wings have not played in a Stanley Cup Playoff game. The closest the team has come was being eliminated from the playoffs on the last day of the 2023-24 NHL season. The Washington Capitals defeating the Philadelphia Flyers eliminated the Red Wings, who defeated the Montreal Canadiens in a shootout.
The Red Wings played the 1997-98 season with heavy hearts. Defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were both injured in a limousine accident after a team golf outing during the offseason. Konstantinov is now wheelchair-bound after suffering serious head injuries. “Believe” became the rallying cry for the team as they went 44-23-15 during the season, finishing in second place in the then Central Division of the NHL.
It has now been eight years that the Red Wings have played at Little Caesars Arena. In that time the team has undergone a rebuild. These are the consequences of the team making the Stanley Cup playoffs an astonishing 25 seasons in a row. In these 25 seasons the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup three times. Such a feat is all but impossible in a salary cap world. Teams that win the Stanley Cup in today’s world are virtually dismantled immediately after.
Christopher Ilitch took over as chairman and CEO of the Detroit Tigers and governor, president and CEO of the Detroit Red Wings after his father passed away. In that time Ilitch has come under some scrutiny for not spending enough money on the two teams. Ilitch did hire former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman as general manager of the team in April of 2019. In that time Yzerman has proven that he is willing to do whatever it takes to remake the team’s roster. A rebuild of the magnitude of the Red Wings’ takes time and now expectations are that the team makes it back to the playoffs, if not outwardly from the front office than certainly internally.
It could be argued that if not for a streak of games where newest Red Wing Alex DeBrincat did not score, the Red Wings would have made the playoffs. The team lost its way during this streak as captain Dylan Larkin was injured. For the team to play so poorly during Larkin’s absence only cements how important he is to the Red Wings’ team as captain. The Waterford, Michigan native recently turned 28-years-old. The pressure is now on Larkin and the rest of the Red Wings’ roster to finally lead the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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