It came down to the wire, but the Detroit Red Wings extended their quarter-century long playoff streak despite a loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
The club qualified for the post-season, finishing third in the Atlantic Division, after the Boston Bruins fell 6-1 to the Ottawa Senators.
The Red Wings now have the longest active playoff streak (25 years) in all of major North American pro sports, ahead of other leaders in their respective leagues such as the San Antonio Spurs (19 years), Green Bay Packers (seven years), New England Patriots (seven years), and the St. Louis Cardinals (five).
Here are the five longest playoff streaks in NHL history:
1) 29 — Boston Bruins (1968-96): The Bruins began an incredible run with two Stanley Cups (1969-70 and 1971-72) and were one of the most productive teams over the next decade with a loaded roster that included Hall of Fame players such as Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Johnny Bucyk, and later Brad Park, Ray Bourque, and Cam Neely. The team made it back to the Cup final five more times throughout the 29-year run but didn’t win another championship until the 2010-11 season, over a decade after their playoff streak had ended.
2) 28 — Chicago Blackhawks (1970-97): The Blackhawks were a consistent playoff team across almost three full decades but did not win a championship over the 28-year-period. However, Chicago made it to the Stanley Cup Final on three different occasions. The franchise took off into the early 1970s when they were moved to the West Division and had star players such as Tony Esposito, Bobby Hull, and Stan Mikita and remained productive throughout the ’80s and most of the ’90s.
T-3) 25 — Detroit Red Wings (1991-present): The Red Wings’ streak is even more impressive when you consider they’ve been able to maintain their success through the salary cap era.
The Red Wings have done such a great job of drafting and developing over the past three decades and have they’ve uncovered hidden gems such as Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, and Tomas Holmstrom. They also got great production out of other homegrown players such as Nicklas Lidstrom, Steve Yzerman, and Sergei Fedorov. The team is starting to fade a little bit now but it’s a major accomplishment that they keep finding more and more talent.
T-3) 25 — St. Louis Blues (1980-2004): Similar to the Blackhawks’ run from 1970-97, the St. Louis Blues never won a championship over their 25-year playoff run. Heck, they didn’t even make it to the Stanley Cup final at all. Despite that, St. Louis had plenty of great players throughout this streak including defencemen Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger, forwards Brett Hull, Adam Oates, Brendan Shanahan and goaltender Curtis Joseph just to name a few.
5) 24 — Montreal Canadiens (1971-94): The Canadiens are the most successful franchise in NHL history, winning a record 24 Stanley Cups, but they fall to No. 5 on this list. This is undoubtedly, however, the most spectacular run because the Canadiens dominated the 1970s with six Stanley Cup championships (including four straight from 1976-79) and later winning two more in 1985-86 and 1992-93. You’ll likely never see a run like this again.
