You’re experiencing withdrawal, absently flipping from channel to channel, glancing at random NBA and NHL playoff games. It’s an empty feeling, a strange feeling, and you never want to experience it again.
It’s as if the Red Wings and Pistons hit the pause button, out of the playoffs simultaneously for the first time since 1983. It’s an eerie coincidence, but it’s not a fluke. Both franchises slogged through ugly seasons, shuttered their buildings and then pledged to start over at Little Caesars Arena.
I’m not here to bemoan their absence, but to determine how long they’ll be gone, and how they get back.