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Detroit Red Wings:
Chaseing A Tenth Cup
By John Halligan
NHL.com

They have had, inarguably, one of the greatest hockey players of all time, Gordie Howe.

They have had, inarguably, one of the greatest goalies of all time, Terry Sawchuk.

"The Production Line" -- (left to right) Howe, Abel and Lindsay -- was the highest scoring forward unit in the first half of the 1950s.

They have had, inarguably, one of the greatest defensemen of all time, Red Kelly.

They have had, inarguably, one of the greatest forward lines of all time, The Production Line.

And they do have, inarguably, the greatest coach of all time, Scotty Bowman.

They are the Detroit Red Wings, 75 years young next season and in rapid pursuit of a 10th Stanley Cup title, the third-highest total in National Hockey League history.

Born as the Detroit Cougars in 1926, the team changed its name to the Falcons in 1930 before finally settling on Red Wings in 1932. “Red Wings” quickly became synonymous with success, and playing out of their cozy Olympia Stadium home, the Stanley Cups began to flow.

There were seven of them in a 20-year span between the seasons of 1935-36 and 1954-55. These were the glory years of a proud and historic franchise, one that even reached dynastic proportions with four Cups in six seasons from 1950 to 1955.

Right from the outset, the Red Wings were about consistency. The team had only five coaches in its first 42 seasons, a startling statistic by today’s coaching standards.

For 35 of those seasons, they had only one general manager, Jolly Jack Adams, a legendary player of an earlier era who grew into an equally legendary coach and general manager.

Adams was behind the bench for the Wings’ first three Stanley Cups in 1936, 1937 and 1943. The Wings of 1936 and 1937 became the first United States-based team to win back to back Stanley Cups.

Star players of the era included goalie Normie Smith, defenseman Bucko McDonald, who was one of the fiercest bodycheckers of his time, plus forwards Ebbie Goodfellow, Syd Howe, Marty Barry and brothers Hec and Wally Kilrea.

Sawchuk continues to hold the NHL record for most shutouts by a goaltender with 103.

But it was to be a much lesser-known Red Wings forward, Modere (Mud) Bruneteau, who permanently etched his name into the NHL record books during the first game of the 1936 playoffs, the Red Wings versus the Montreal Maroons.

A rookie right wing at the time, Bruneteau merely scored the goal that ended the longest game in NHL history. Bruneteau’s goal, the only one of the game, came in a sixth overtime period after 116:23 of extra play, a record that still stands today. The game lasted until 2:25 A.M.

Bruneteau and Syd Howe were still around six years later when the Wings won Stanley Cup number three on a war time team in 1942-43. They were joined by goalie Johnny Mowers, defenseman Black Jack Stewart, and forwards Sid Abel, Don Grosso, Carl Liscombe and Harry Watson.

By 1949-50, the Red Wings had been completely re-tooled by Adams, who was now serving strictly as general manager after turning over the coach reins to Tommy Ivan.

Three years earlier another chap by the name of Howe, first name Gordie (and no relation to Syd), had joined the Wings to begin one of the most magical careers in NHL history. Over the next quarter of a century, Howe would simply re-write the NHL record book and set virtually every meaningful offensive record in Detroit history.

Gordie Howe, a strapping presence on right wing, teamed with Abel at center and their scrappy left wing, Ted Lindsay, to form The Production Line, arguably the most effective forward line in NHL history. Lindsay, Abel and Howe finished 1-2-3 in NHL scoring in 1949-50.

Upon Abel’s retirement, center Alex Delvecchio moved between Howe and Lindsay.

With Red Kelly anchoring the defense and peerless Terry Sawchuk in goal, the Red Wings of the 1950s became a dynasty. They rarely lost at home, using the friendly confines of Olympia (complete with all the home team bounces and caroms) to their full advantage.

Following the Stanley Cup win of 1955, the Red Wings hit a Cup drought of epic proportions--42 years between sips of champagne from hockey’s “Holy Grail”.

The arrival in 1993 of Scotty Bowman, himself an Adams-like figure in some ways, brought the Red Wings back to great prominence with back to back Stanley Cups in 1997 and 1998.

Superstars Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov, Slava Fetisov, Larry Murphy and goalie Mike Vernon became household names and the Red Wings once again took Detroit, now known as “Hockeytown, USA”, by storm.

Today, there are even rumblings of another dynasty like that of the 1950s. And with Bowman, the NHL’s most successful coach ever, at the helm, who would bet against them?

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Page Updated Sun May 14, 2000 7:38pm EDT