DETROIT -
The year was 1990.
Mario Lemieux hadn’t won a Stanley Cup yet. The Toronto Blue Jays hadn’t won a World Series yet. The Toronto Raptors hadn't won anything yet, still half a decade away from entering the NBA. And budding Red Wings star Dylan Larkin, well, he hadn’t yet been born, his arrival on this earth still six years away.
In April of that year, forward Jim Nill and his Red Wings teammates cleaned out their lockers in the bowels of musty Joe Louis Arena, a disappointing 28-38-14 mark in the 1989-90 regular season having sealed their fate of missing the playoffs.