The Detroit Red Wings clinched the post season for the 25th
consecutive season on Saturday afternoon, despite dropping their matchup with
the New York Rangers.
The Red Wings, now tied for third longest streak of qualifying
for the chance to claim hockey’s holy grail, have not missed the playoffs since
1991. Only the Boston Bruins, with 29 seasons, between the years of 1968 to
1996 and the Chicago Black Hawks, 28 seasons, from 1970 to 1997 have longer
streaks in the National Hockey League.
The streak is the longest current streak in all four of the major
North American sports. By comparison the longest streaks in the other three
major sports are, 19 by the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball
Association, seven seasons by the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots in
the National Football League and five by the St. Louis Cardinals in Major
League Baseball.
While the Red Wings lost 3-2 to the Rangers at Madison
Square Garden on Saturday, they still qualified for the playoffs after the Bruins
could not get by the Ottawa Senators at the TD Garden.
With the Bruins 6-1 loss to the Senators, the Red Wings were
able to lock up third place in the Atlantic Division and a rematch of their 2015
opening round playoffs opponents, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins were then eliminated from post season contention
after the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 at the Wells
Fargo Center. The victory for the Flyers locked up the eighth spot and a matchup
with the top seeded Washington Capitals.
On the Red Wings clinching the post season, first year head coach
Jeff Blashill told TSN.ca, “It is great,
our goal at the beginning of the year is to win the Stanley Cup, and to do that
then, our immediate goal then was to find a way to earn a way into the Stanley
Cup Playoffs.”
Forward Henrik Zetterberg added, “It feels really good, we had good chances to really find the back of
the net, but we just have to send a thanks to Ottawa. They showed up in Boston
and played a good game.”
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