Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The franchise is one of the so called Original Six teams of the league. Founded in 1926, the team was known as the Detroit Cougars until 1930. For the next two seasons, the team was named the Detroit Falcons, before changing their name to the Red Wings in 1932.

The Red Wings have won the most Stanley Cup championships of any NHL franchise based in the United States (11), and are third overall amongst active teams in total Stanley Cup championships, behind the Montreal Canadiens (24) and Toronto Maple Leafs (13). The Wings played their home games at Joe Louis Arena from 1979 until 2017, after playing for 52 years at Olympia Stadium. They moved into Little Caesars Arena beginning with the 2017–18 season. The Red Wings are one of the most popular and successful franchises in the NHL; fans and sports commentators refer to the Detroit area as "Hockeytown", which has been a registered trademark owned by the franchise since 1996.

Between the 1931–32 and 1965–66 seasons, the Red Wings missed the playoffs only four times. They struggled between the 1966–67 and 1982–83 seasons, only making the playoffs twice in that stretch. After that, however, from 1983–84 to 2015–16, they made the playoffs 30 times in 32 seasons, including 25 straight from 1990–91 to 2015–16 (not including the canceled 2004–05 season); in 2006, this became the longest active streak of postseason appearances in all of North American professional sports and finished tied for the third-longest streak in NHL history. Since 1983–84, the Red Wings have tallied six regular season first-place finishes and have won the Stanley Cup four times (1997, 1998, 2002, and 2008).

Following the 1926 Stanley Cup playoffs, during which the Western Hockey League (WHL) was widely reported to be on the verge of folding, the NHL held a meeting on April 17 to consider applications for expansion franchises, at which it was reported that five different groups sought a team for Detroit. During a subsequent meeting on May 15, 1926, the NHL owners voted, 6 to 2, to approve a franchise to the Townsend-Seyburn group of Detroit and named Charles A. Hughes as governor. WHL owners Frank and Lester Patrick made a deal to sell the league's players to the NHL and cease league operations. The new Detroit franchise purchased the players of the WHL's Victoria Cougars, who had won the Stanley Cup in 1925 and had made the 1926 Stanley Cup Final, to play for the team. The new Detroit franchise also adopted the Cougars' nickname in honor of the folded franchise.

Since no arena in Detroit was ready at the time, the Cougars played their first season at the Border Cities Arena in Windsor, Ontario. For the 1927–28 season, the Cougars moved into the new Detroit Olympia, which would be their home rink until December 15, 1979. This was also the first season behind the bench for Jack Adams, who would be the face of the franchise for the next 36 years as either coach or general manager.

The Cougars made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 1929, with Carson Cooper leading the team in scoring. The Cougars were outscored 7–2 in the two-game series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1930, the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes continued, as they usually finished near the bottom of the standings, even though they made the playoffs again in 1932.

In 1932, the NHL let grain merchant James E. Norris, who had made two previous unsuccessful bids to buy an NHL team, purchase the Falcons. Norris' first act was to rename the team; earlier in the century, Norris had been a member of the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA), a multi-sport club whose winged-wheel emblem derived from its cycling roots, and whose hockey team won the first Stanley Cup in 1893. Norris decided that a red version of the MAAA "Winged Wheelers" logo would be perfect for a team playing in the "Motor City", and on October 5, 1932, the club was renamed the Detroit Red Wings. Norris also placed coach Jack Adams on a one-year probation for the 1932–33 NHL season. Adams managed to pass his probationary period by leading the Red Wings to their first-ever playoff series victory, over the Montreal Maroons. The team then lost in the semifinals to the New York Rangers.

In 1934, the Red Wings made the Stanley Cup Final for the first time, with John Sorrell scoring 21 goals over 47 games and Larry Aurie leading the team in scoring. However, the Chicago Black Hawks defeated the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final, winning the best-of-five series in four games to claim their first title. Two seasons later, the Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup in 1936, defeating Toronto in four games. Detroit repeated as Stanley Cup champions in 1937, winning over the Rangers in the full five games. In 1938, the Montreal Canadiens and the Red Wings became the first NHL teams to play in Europe, playing in Paris and London. The Wings played nine games against the Canadiens and went 3–5–1. They did not play in Europe again until the preseason and start of the 2009–10 NHL season, in Sweden, against the St. Louis Blues.