Food for Thought

On the Red Wings Twitter or Facebook page, you can do a survey for a chance to win a signed poster. The survey is all about promotions for the upcoming season. One of the last questions is what stirs your emotions as a fan of the Red Wings. It lists off all the facts we all know: 11 Stanley Cups, 19 consecutive postseasons, the usual.

I clicked "other." It prompted me to explain myself. Obviously, I went on a bit of a tangent, and I liked where I went with it. So I'm going to post it here and hope you readers agree with me. [Hey, it's hockey-related, at least.]

My reason may apply to everything that was an option in the question, so here it goes:

The sheer fact that after almost every postseason where we didn't win the Cup (or even when we do), the media and sports writers continually throw up the "DYNASTY OVER?!" banners and claim that the end is nigh; our core players are getting older, getting slower, getting less reliable, etc.

But every season following the "failure" of a postseason, we play strong. We play hard. We play charismatically. We play overall like our core players are barely into their mid-twenties. Even when we have off seasons, we still finish in the top of the rankings. We still make it into the playoffs. We still have the opposing team shaking in their skates waiting to see what we'll come up with to stump them to give us four victories.

We don't give up, despite the adversity we face. Do we disappoint from time to time? Of course, but what team doesn't? We can have our dull moments. We don't always have to be sparkling. We just have to play when it counts and 95% of the time, we do this. It's why we've been so successful these past nineteen years.

After every "bad" season, we always find a way to bounce back. We silence our critics, at least for a little while. And because of this, we always seem to have a good shot at winning another Stanley Cup to cement our team as a Dynasty in sports. And that is what stirs my emotions, not just as a Red Wings fan, but as a fan of hockey. To see a team be so successful for so long is inspiring.