Detroit Red Wings' awful start in 2018-19 could always be worse

The Detroit Red Wings entered Saturday having lost their first seven games, setting a franchise record for the most losses to open a season. (But hey, they made it to overtime twice, earning two points!)

Free Press sports writer Ryan Ford takes a look at the franchise’s other historically bad starts since becoming the Red Wings in 1932:

1985-86: 0-8-1

Brad Park, a Hockey Hall of Famer as a player, began his lone season as the Red Wings' coach with a 6-6 tie against the North Stars on Oct. 10. Things went south from there; the Wings scored six goals combined in their next three games, all losses. In all, the Wings lost eight straight after the Opening Night tie. They didn’t pick up their first win of the season until Oct. 30, 6-3 against the Penguins. The season did not get much better; the Wings had winless streaks of six games, seven games and two each of nine games and won back-to-back games just twice en route to an NHL-worst 17-57-6 record (40 points). The Wings scored the fewest goals and allowed the most. Even Steve Yzerman had a bad year, scoring just 14 times in 51 games. For their woes, the Wings got the No. 1 overall pick and took Joe Murphy, who played just over three seasons with the team. It got better the next season, however: Yzerman was named the captain at age 21, and the Wings rebounded to make their first conference finals since 1965.

1982-83: 0-6-1

Mike Ilitch’s tenure as owner of the Wings started inauspiciously, with a 2-1 loss to the Blues on Oct. 6. The Wings tied the North Stars two nights later, then lost their next five by a combined score of 31-11. Then after managing to win three times in five games, the bottom fell out, as the Wings went winless (0-9-5). In all, the Wings finished 21-44-15, fourth-worst in the league. (They were also fourth-worst in goals scored and allowed.) John Ogrodnick led the Wings in goals (44) and points (41) at age 23. The fourth pick in the 1983 draft worked out pretty well for them, though, as they ended up with some guy named Steve Yzerman.

1980-81: 0-5-0

The Wings’ first full season at Joe Louis Arena wasn’t particularly pleasant, with five straight losses — four of them on the road — to open the year. The Wings finally got their first victory on Oct. 23, nearly two weeks after the start of the season. The losses continued to mount, building to a 3-14-3 record before Wings legend Ted Lindsay was removed from his coaching duties. The team finished with a 19-43-18 record, second-worst in the NHL. Their major problem was scoring, as the Wings finished 20th in goals out of 21 teams. The poor record didn’t get the Wings the No. 2 pick, however; they had already traded that to Los Angeles in 1979 in order to hold onto the rights to Dale McCourt after signing free-agent goalie (and future Hall of Famer) Rogie Vachon away from the Kings. Had the Wings held onto the pick, they could have had future Hall of Famer Ron Francis, who went fourth to the Whalers.

1975-76: 0-7-3

Three weeks. That’s how long it took Mickey Redmond and the Wings to get their first win of the year on Oct. 29 against the California Golden Seals (6-4). The Wings’ seven losses in the winless skid came by a 36-11 combined margin. Still, the 10-game winless streak was the longest such skid of the year for the Wings; they finished with a 26-44-10 record. They didn’t even finish last in their division, thanks to the awfulness of the second-year Washington Capitals, who went 11-59-10. Then again, the Capitals got three of their 11 wins on the year against the Red Wings, who finished with the league’s fourth-worst goals scored and the sixth-worst goals allowed. All that losing got the Wings the No. 4 pick, which they used on center Fred Williams; Williams played just 44 games in the NHL, scoring two goals for the Wings in 1976-77.

1973-74: 0-4-1

The Wings had begun their descent into the “Dead Wings” era the year before and were in their third season without Gordie Howe (who returned to hockey in the WHA in 1973). There were still some recognizable faces, however; Alex Delvecchio, at age 41, was entering his 24th NHL season. The Wings, under first-year head coach Ted Garvin, lost their first four games by a 21-9 margin before salvaging a tie against the North Stars Onc Oct. 18. Three days later, they got their first win of the year, beating the Golden Seals, 11-2. Still, the team was struggling. When they got to 2-8-1 following back-to-back shutout losses, Garvin was fired and Delvecchio retired and took over as coach. Delvecchio went 27-31-9 in his 67 games, but the Wings finished just sixth in their eight-team division.

1946-47: 0-4-1

This was a season of transition for the franchise; it was legendary coach Jack Adams’ final year behind the bench, the third season for Ted Lindsay and the first season for Gordie Howe, who played in 58 games at age 18, scoring seven goals and added 15 assists. The Wings tied the Maple Leafs, 3-3, in their opener at home on Oct. 16, then lost four straight by a combined score of 22-11. Things eventually got better for the Wings, as they finally picked up a win on Oct. 27, and finished with a 22-27-11 record, just making the four-team postseason. The next year, however, the Wings turned the corner under new coach Tommy Ivan. Ivan paired Howe and Lindsay with 29-year-old captain Sid Abel to create the “Production Line” and the Wings played for the Stanley Cup in seven of the next nine seasons.

Related:

Red Wings need a win. Here's what they need to do better

Body language is part of why Detroit Red Wings are winless. Here's why