Red Wings at Oilers, G38 '10-'11

I watched the last Red Wing game against Philadelphia the other night. Mike Babcock was not happy, Mickey Redmond  was grumpy and the team looked disorganized. My guess is they arrive at tonight's game in a bad mood and the town team is going to need to play very well.

I'm old enough to remember when the Red Wings were terrible. "Darkness with Harkness" and the flushing of Mahovlich, McGregor and the rest. The period of time when Detroit ownership spent long months implying Mickey Redmond wasn't really hurt. A short period when their best forwards were men like Nick Libett and Bill Hogaboam, the long period when John Ogrodnick was a one man show.

The problem back then was poor leadership at the top. Ownership had their head up their asses and management was either in-fighting or trading away Mahovlich. Impact players arrived in Detroit and shortly thereafter began to scheme their way out (hello Marcel Dionne).

Detroit's hockey team was called the Dead Wings.

Mike Illitch took over from Bruce Norris in 1982. Five years later they were in the conference finals, the year after that they did it again. In 1995 they made the finals and they've won the Stanley four times ('97, '98, '02, '08).

Daryl Katz took over the Oilers in 2008. I think he'll have his arena by 2013.