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Detroit Red Wings

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams based in U.S. and 6 in Canada. They have a regular season and playoffs leading to the Stanley Cup, which is the NHL Championship final.

The roots of the Red Wings go all the way back to the old Western Hockey League, where the Victoria, British Columbia Cougars were members until their roster was sold to a NHL franchise group from Detroit on September 25, 1926. The team began to play as the Detroit Cougars in the fall of 1926 while playing its home games in Windsor, Ontario. The Victoria Cougars had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and were Cup finalists in 1926. For the 1930-31 season they changed their name to the Detroit Falcons.

The Red Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1941 and 1942, losing to the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Detroit proved to be a talented and deep squad from Game 1 of the first-round playoff series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning the 1950 Stanley Cup. Detroit reached the playoffs four times from 1966-67, 1983-84, 1984-85 and1985-86, the 1968-69 and 1969-70 seasons were highlighted periods.

The team moved to Joe Louis Arena in December 1979 and it hosted the NHL All-Star Game in January 1980. In 1985-86, a disappointing campaign would prove as one step backward before Detroit would take several steps in the right direction. The Red Wings made the playoffs in 1990-91 but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. Over the next three seasons, the Red Wings were one of the most prolific offensive teams in the NHL and one of the best during the regular season. Detroit finished third in goals in 1991-92 and advanced to the second round.

The Red Wings finished with the league's second best record in 2000-01, but were eliminated by the Los Angeles Kings during the first round of the 2001 playoffs. In 2002, a league-best 116 points culminated with the franchise's 10th Stanley Cup.

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