It’s amazing when you run into fans of the Detroit Red Wings-they act as if the 1970’s and 80’s never existed.
Sure they’ve won the Stanley Cup four times in a decade & a half, but were where these “fans” when Roy Edwards and Jimmy Rutherford were tending goal, when Colin Campbell was a mainstay on the blueline and when the most consistent & prolific forward was Nick Libett ?
Into these convenient memory lapses comes broadcaster Rob Simpson who has put together a beautiful book titled, “The Winged Wheel – A Half Century of the Detroit Red Wings in Photographs.”
The great moments through photographs are plentiful: Steve Yzerman, Nik Lidstrom, the Russians & of course the Cup.
The historic shots are there too: Sid Abel, Terry Sawchuk, Alex Delvecchio and of course, Gordie Howe.
But Simpson doesn’t shy away from the photos of the Red Wings of his youth, the “Dead Wings”, the coaching carousel, the ruggedness of the Olympia and the hockey despair that existed year after year, essentially until 1997.
Michigan is a great state.
And Detroit, at the core, is a great American city.
True, they’ve been battered in recent times, but the evolution of the hockey team, from bleak to perennial contenders might just serve as a model of faith for the state and the city going forward.
Red Wing fan or not, “The Winged Wheel” is a beautiful book.
I’m Fred Wallace