DETROIT -- Today the Detroit Red Wings and their fans find themselves up two games to none in this year's Stanley Cup Finals versus the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fans and media members alike might be surprised to know that just 14 years ago, the Wings played their first game in team history in the month of June.
Many fans might not realize how the month of June has changed the Detroit Red Wing organization, the most successful professional hockey team in the United States. The Wings, already boasting one of the most impressive pedigrees in all of professional sports, own a lineage that dates back to the now-demolished Olympia Stadium in 1926 at the intersection of Grand River Avenue & McGraw in Detroit. June is filled with dates to remember for reasons good and bad in the long history of the Red Wings, more than even the most fervent Red Wing fan might realize.
The month of June, by the numbers:
1st: Detroit defeated Chicago 2-1 in the 1995 Western Conference opener, marking the first time in team history the Red Wings played into the month of June.
2nd: Mike & Marian Ilitch purchase the team from owner Bruce Norris in 1982. The Wings were three years into a new era of hockey at Joe Louis Arena but were better known around the league as the 'Dead Things', 27 years removed from the last Cup victory of 1955.
3rd: The Red Wings trade Hall-Of-Fame netminder Terry Sawchuk in 1955 after winning the Stanley Cup. The Wings wouldn't win the Cup for another 42 years. In 1995, the Wings defeat Chicago 3-2 in Game Two of the Western Conference Finals in Joe Louis Arena.
4th: Last season, on this date, the Red Wings topped the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena to capture the team's 11th Stanley Cup. Former Red Wing defensemen Derian Hatcher was born on June 4, 1972.
7th: Darren McCarty's nifty goal in the 2nd period turns out to be the winning goal as the Red Wings break a 42-year drought and capture the eighth Stanley Cup in team history when they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, at Joe Louis Arena. Longtime Red Wings announcer Bruce Martyn called McCarty's game-winner of the memorable 1997 Finals.
8th: Perhaps one of the watershed days in the history of the team, a disappointed front office missed out on Waterford's Pat LaFontaine and instead drafted Steve Yzerman of the Peterborough Petes with 1983's 4th pick in the annual NHL Entry Draft. While brilliant when healthy, LaFontaine suffered from several concussions and retired in his prime. Yzerman became the longest-serving captain in NHL history, scored 692 goals and 1,755 points in the regular season and 70 playoff goals and 185 playoff points in his career. Yzerman will be a first-ballot Hall-Of-Famer when he becomes eligible.
9th: The Wings traded Roger Crozier to Buffalo for Tom Webster in 1970.
11th: Slava Kozlov, one of the acclaimed "Russian Five" the Red Wings boasted in the 1990s, scores the game-winning goal in double overtime as the Wings defeated Chicago in Game Five at Joe Louis Arena in 1995. The win pushed the Wings into their first Stanley Cup Finals since 1964, but the team was swept by the New Jersey Devils to extend a championship drought dating back to 1955.
12th: Jacques Demers was named Head Coach in 1986. Demers would earn a 137-136-47 ledger until he was released in 1990. Borje Salming was signed by the Wings in 1989 after a long stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
14th: Marcel Pronovost was born in 1930 in Lac-de-Tortue, Quebec, and the Wings traded Adam Oates in 1989, who they signed on June 27th, 1985, to the St. Louis Blues.
15th: Scotty Bowman, who coached the Montreal Canadians, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, was named Detroit head coach on this date in 1993. Bowman earned a 401-195-88-8 ledger with the Wings, winning three Cups in 1997, 1998 and 2002, when he retired from active coaching. Sergei Fedorov won both the Hart and Selke trophy on this date as well.
16th: The Wings drafted Sergei Fedorov in 1989 and the Russian defector remains the highest scoring Russian-born player in NHL history. In 1998 on this date, Fedorov and the Wings earn the ninth Cup in team history by defeating the Washington Capitals, 4-1, to earn a Stanley Cup Finals sweep.
19th: In 1996, despite a disappointing loss to the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals, Scotty Bowman wins the Jack Adams Trophy, Fedorov won the Selke Trophy while Mike Vernon and Chris Osgood shared the Jennings Trophy. Longtime winger John Ogrodnick was born in 1959 in Ottawa, Ontario.
20th: The Red Wings acquire longtime Minnesota North Star Dino Ciccarelli in 1992 from Washington for Kevin Miller.
23rd: In one of the worst trades in team history, the Wings trade future Hall-Of-Famer Marcel Dionne and Bart Crashley in 1975 to the Los Angeles Kings for Terry Harper, Dan Maloney and a 1976 draft pick.
24th: Two of the worst coaching ledgers in Red Wing history come from 1985. Harry Neale was named head coach on this date in 1985. Neale was canned after going 8-23-4 in 35 games. The Wings replaced Neale midseason with Brad Park, the longtime defensemen from the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins who finished his playing career with the Wings. Park went 9-34-2 to finish an abysmal season. How bad was the 85-86 campaign? Steve Yzerman was a -24 for the season.
29th: Detroit acquired goalie Mike Vernon in 1994 from the Calgary Flames for defensemen Steve Chiasson. Vernon would lead Detroit to the 1997 Cup, ending a 42-year title drought, when the Red Wings swept the Phiadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Finals. Vernon captured the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs for 1997.
30th: Kris Draper is traded from the Winnipeg Jets to the Red Wings for $1 and future considerations in 1993. Draper scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game Two of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals versus the Washington Capitals and has been one of the most proficient face-off men in the past 15 years in the NHL.
~T.C. Cameron is the author of Metro Detroit's High School Basketball Rivalries and Metro Detroit's High School Football Rivalries from Arcadia Publishing. Cameron has blogged about all things writing, refereeing, life & sport at this site since August 8, 2006.
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