Meaningful games in March and April. That was the goal last fall, supposedly, so by that metric we should consider the 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings’ season a success. Of course it’s not that simple.  With a seemingly-massive lead in the playoff race after tearing through their January and February schedule, it looked like those meaningful games might be played even later into April, or maybe even May. Obviously that did not happen. Back in December I asked what these Red Wings were and my best answer was that they were better than last season but still had streaky goal scoring and goaltendin ..read more

Another possible Utah NHL team name has entered the fray: Utah Outlaws. A trademark application for that name was filed by Uyte, LLC, on Friday.  Uyte is the company that filed trademark applications for five names on Tuesday and added one for “Utah Yetis” on Thursday. It should be noted that the connection between Uyte and Smith Entertainment Group, who owns the currently-unnamed Utah NHL franchise, has seemingly not been confirmed.  The names they’ve filed applications to trademark are ones Ryan Smith has spoken about.  Additionally, they’re spending a lot of money to remain a ..read more

I said last week that I expected the search for what was then a potential NHL Utah team name to be much different than what we’ve seen in the past and that’s already proving to be true. Since then, the NHL Board of Governors has met and officially voted to establish a new franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the hockey operations assets of the Arizona Coyotes transferred to the new team.  New owner Ryan Smith said the team was likely to first take the ice in generic jerseys. That said, I’ve been monitoring domain name registrations and trademark applications, and something somewhat int ..read more

Stupid Stat of the Day for April 16, 2024; Montreal Canadiens vs. Detroit Red Wings. Stupid Stat of the Day: The Red Wings are winless all-time in their final game of the regular season when their previous two games went to overtime. #LGRW #RedWings https://www.detroithockey.net/2024/04/16/ssotd-red-wings-vs-canadiens-4-15-2024-2/ [image or embed] — DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey.net) Apr 16, 2024 at 11:59 AM ..read more

Well, it’s over. The Detroit Red Wings’ up and down season ended with a whole lot of up but it wasn’t enough as they didn’t control their own fate and the Washington Capitals’ win over the Philadelphia Flyers put the Caps in the playoffs and the Red Wings out. I’ll have more to say later, I’m sure, but I just have to call out how this season ended, as this was one of the crazier playoff chases I’ve seen. To avoid relying on the results of Wednesday’s Penguins/Islanders game, the Red Wings needed a win over the Canadiens and a loss by the Capitals to the Flyers.  Controlling their own dest ..read more

Stupid Stat of the Day for April 15, 2024; Detroit Red Wings vs. Montreal Canadiens. Stupid Stat of the Day: Since the NHL's Great Expansion in 1967, the Red Wings have never made the playoffs in a year when their regular season home finale was a loss to the Montreal Canadiens. #LGRW #RedWings https://www.detroithockey.net/2024/04/15/ssotd-red-wings-vs-canadiens-4-15-2024/ — DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockeynet@social.detroit.hockey) April 15, 2024 ..read more

Stupid Stat of the Day for April 13, 2024; Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings. Stupid Stat of the Day: In the last 50 years, the Red Wings are unbeaten in their antepenultimate game of the season when it is played against the Toronto Maple Leafs and followed by a home-and-home series. #LGRW #RedWings https://www.detroithockey.net/2024/04/13/ssotd-maple-leafs-vs-red-wings-4-13-2024/ — DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockeynet@social.detroit.hockey) April 13, 2024 ..read more

If you’ve been following this space for long enough, you know that I have an interest in sports branding and, historically, have been able to get some ideas of what new teams might be called by monitoring domain name and trademark registrations. I had predicted that Vegas would probably be the Golden Knights months before the team announced it (though I assumed they’d be “Las Vegas” instead of just “Vegas”) and I had Kraken as an option for Seattle before they’d even been granted an expansion team, only ruling it out along the way because one of the Seattle beat writers explicitly said it was ..read more

Stupid Stat of the Day for April 11, 2024; Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Detroit Red Wings. Stupid Stat of the Day: The Red Wings are winless all-time against the Pittsburgh Penguins in games played on April 11. #LGRW #RedWings https://www.detroithockey.net/2024/04/11/ssotd-penguins-vs-red-wings-4-11-2024/ — DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockeynet@social.detroit.hockey) April 11, 2024 ..read more

Stupid Stat of the Day for April 9, 2024; Detroit Red Wings vs. Washington Capitals. Stupid Stat of the Day: April 9 is the latest in the schedule calendar that the Red Wings have ever faced the Washington Capitals in a regular season game. However, Game 78 is the earliest that the Red Wings have ever faced the Capitals in a game in April. #LGRW #RedWings https://www.detroithockey.net/2024/04/09/ssotd-red-wings-vs-capitals-4-9-2024/ — DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockeynet@social.detroit.hockey) April 9, 2024 ..read more