from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

The Detroit Red Wings are missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the sixth season in succession. With six games to go in the 2021-22 NHL regular season, they are limping pitifully to the finish line.

“This is brutal,” was how Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin described it following Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.

Yes it is. Frightingly brutal, in fact. More brutal than any six-season run in franchise history.

Worse than the Dead Wings? Yes, scarily enough. Much, much worse.

The Dead Wings era was the descriptive applied to Detroit’s dismal seven-season run without playoff hockey from the 1970-71 through the 1976-77 season. The Dead Wings went through seven coaches and three GMs.

The current Wings have gone with Jeff Blashill at the helm for all six non-playoff campaigns. It’s a rarity for a bad team to go through more GMs (Ken Holland, Steve Yzerman) than coaches.

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