Detroit — The Stanley Cup playoffs will begin tonight, and they will begin without the Red Wings for the first time since 1990, back when Russia was still the Soviet Union and the World Wide Web didn’t exist.
So this was hardly business as usual Tuesday, as the players gathered at Joe Louis Arena to pack their belongings and pose for the annual team photo.
“We’ve known for some time now it wasn’t gonna happen,” veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “But it’s a weird feeling. It’s a lot of emotions at once.”
None of them particularly pleasant, either.