The Decrease In Support of The New Generation Of Red Wings

Congrats Red Wings on winning the Cup!  They completely dominated the regular season and playoffs in beating Pittsburgh in 6.  With the previous Wings titles, though, it was true Hockey Town pandemonium.  It’s all anyone cared about or talked about around this time.  The Pistons were just starting to get good again back then, and the Tigers were suffering through their annual bout of awfulness. 

I remember going to a B-Dubs in 2001 when the Pistons had Chucky Atkins and Jerry Stackhouse, and Ben Wallace was playing his first season there, and they had won 50 games.  It was the final Game 5 of the first round for the Pistons (this was before the league extended first round games to 7), I think against the Celtics (ironically).  And it was Game 2 of the opening round playoffs for the Red Wings. 

I was pumped to watch the Pistons because it would have been their first playoff series win in a long time.  But at the bar, they only had the Pistons game going on a small TV in a corner; all the big screens, and even all the rest of the smaller TVs had the Wings.  It ended up being a hell of a game for the Pistons, as they came up with the victory, although I would’ve enjoyed it much better if they would have put it up in front.

This year, the Red Wings had trouble filling the Joe during the regular season, and even for the playoffs, while the Pistons sold out every game and captured most people’s attention.  I was really hoping the Wings would hold off the Penguins in Game 5 so they could win it in front of the home crowd and generate more excitement around here.  But what is it about the new generation of Red Wings?  Is it just not the same without The Captain, Stevie Y?  Do we not relate as much to this high-finesse team as we did the old rough and tumble, knock-your-teeth-out-to-beat-you teams of the past?  I have to say, it was great seeing Darren McCarty flash that toothless grin as he talked about how it felt to win his fourth cup.