April 1, 1990 is, to put it mildly, a long time ago.
Some of you weren’t even born yet. I was nine years old. The Toronto Blue Jays current MLB-leading playoff drought was four years away from starting.
On April 1, 1990, the NHL’s regular season ended without the Detroit Red Wings having qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It hasn’t done that again since.
For a little context, the last time the Red Wings missed the playoffs…
…67,678 fans watched the Ultimate Warrior beat Hulk Hogan to win the World Championship belt in WrestleMania VI, held at Toronto’s SkyDome.
…Ken Griffey Jr. was about to start his second season in the major leagues. Sandy Alomar Jr. was about to begin his AL-rookie-of-the-year campaign. They retired five and eight years ago, respectively.
…Jack Nicklaus appeared on the PGA’s Senior Tour for the very first time. And he won the tournament.
…A mostly unknown band named Nirvana was in discussions with producer Butch Vig to record an album called Sheep. It would take another 14 months to record and produce and release the album, which would eventually be called Nevermind.
…A rap group named Digital Underground released a video for a song called The Humpty Dance. In the background of the video, a lesser member of the young group, some guy named Tupac Shakur, can be seen dancing along with the beat.
…An American president named George Bush was debating whether or not to go to war in Iraq, for the first time.
…Director Ridley Scott was casting a film titled Thelma and Louise and decided a handsome bit part actor named Brad Pitt could fill a small role.
…A small group of computer scientists had just completed a test of a computer system that would “link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will”. Presumably they were still looking for a catchy name for their world wide…computing system? No, that doesn’t sound right. Well, they’d eventually come up with something.
…Six of the players wearing Red Wings jerseys in their OT loss to the Canadiens last night that clinched a 24th straight playoff appearance were not yet born, including their leading goal scorer in 2014-15 (Tomas Tatar).
…Their second leading goal scorer, Gustav Nyquist, was exactly seven months old and No. 2 defenceman, Danny DeKeyeser, had just turned 25…days old.
So yeah, it’s been awhile.
If you’ve got better ones than these, add them in the comments, or let us know @Sportsnet or @TheGameSheet.