Detroit Red Wings: So, What If The Red Wings Miss The Playoffs?

"Why have you changed?"

"It never used to be this way."

"I miss the old you."

Sound familiar?

A bit like an ex-girlfriend? Hell, maybe your current girlfriend?

Given the chance, these are the types of things Red Wings' fans would ask their team right now.

Sitting 10th in the conference with 15 games into the season is hardly what fans have grown accustomed to over the past decade and a half.

And, despite the fact that there's still tons of hockey left to play, bloggers, sports writers, fan posts, and even Red Wings Senior VP Jimmy Devellano are suggesting that perhaps, the Red Wings 18-year run of playoff appearances may come to an end this season.

Let's suppose they're right.

Let's suppose that this year, the Red Wings fail to make the playoffs and leave scores of fans wondering what to do with themselves come mid-April.

What happens after this?

Well, one thing is certain, the entire team, including GM Ken Holland and owners Mike and Marion Illitch will do everything in their power to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen in 2010-11.

For an organization, so singularly focused on winning, missing the playoffs would be a huge call to action.

There won't be any finger-pointing, heads won't role in the front-office, and franchise players won't be put on the trade block in hopes of making a quick-fix.

No, the Red Wings will understand that they have an organization that is talented and capable enough to identify what changes are needed, make the changes, and go about building another winner.

How can we be sure of this?

Because, for over two decades, this team has done precisely that.

The Red Wings drafted, perhaps the greatest leader in hockey and now, Hall of Famer, Steven Gregory Yzerman in 1983.

At that time, the commitment was made to build a winning team around this scrawny, yet terribly gifted young hockey player from Cranbrook, BC.

Players came and went, but Yzerman remained at the center of the Red Wings plans for building a Stanley Cup winning team.

The Red Wings made more draft picks, most of them, not flashy or even noteworthy at the time.

Some Swedish guy named Lidstrom, a couple of Russians, Fedorovm and Konstantin-something, and a 12-year-old looking kid named Osgood.

They brought in veteran players searching for a Stanley Cup, Slava Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Mike Vernon, and Brendan Shanahan.

They built this team for 14 years, and then, in 1997, success!

A 42-year Stanley Cup drought was ended, and that once scrawny kid from Cranbrook, now a man, raised Lord Stanley's Cup over his head.

But this team was no one-trick pony.

Lord Stanley stayed in Hockeytown the next year and made return visits in 2002 and 2008.

Why?

Because this franchise is dedicated to winning.

This year is no different.

Despite multiple roster losses in the off-season, the Red Wings took their time and made frugal, low-risk decisions on replacements.

Having already secured two core players in Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen during the 2008-09 season, the team ensured that, despite the impending loss of players to free-agency, they would not lose the most important ingredients to their winning recipe.

Having laid all this out, explicitly stating just how dedicated this organization is to winning, fans are furious with this team's record this season and demanding nothing short of perfection.

Wow, with fans like these...

Look, no fan wants to see this team struggle the way it has, especially since they are capable of playing so much better.

It is frustrating.

But Red Wings fans need a little perspective before they start burning their jerseys in protest.

There are fans in this league who have been behind teams that haven't won anything in decades.

Los Angeles Kings fans, Toronto Maple Leafs fans, Philadelphia Flyers fans, and Boston Bruins fans are all dedicated to the team and willing to wait just one more year for a championship.

They buy the jerseys, attend the games, and purchase the Center Ice package because they believe, at times against all odds, that their team will someday be a winner.

If those fans could exhibit that level of dedication to those teams, how is it that the Red Wings can't get the same?

Eighteen straight playoff appearances, six trips to the finals, four Stanley Cups, and now, possibly, one non-playoff year, and what?

That's just unacceptable? The team let us down?

Look, in all likely hood, given this team's roster and record of success, they will , once again, be in the playoffs this year.

But, someday, they won't.

Someday the winning, the trophies, the dominance, will end for good and the team will need to start from scratch and find a new player to build around.

But regardless of what the future holds, Red Wings fans have absolutely no reason to feel betrayed or let down by a team that has done little else but win for nearly two decades.

They won for themselves, but they also won for us.

We were there for the good times, for the glory and the celebrations.

Its what they have come to expect from us, our undying support.

Given what this franchise has done, they deserve it.