Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Sabres slip by Red Wings as Detroit celebrates 1996-97 Stanley Cup team

Buffalo Sabres v Detroit Red Wings

DETROIT, MI - DECEMBER 27: The 1997 Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings celebrate their 20 year reunion prior to a game between the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres at Joe Louis Arena on December 27, 2016 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Reunions are almost universally wistful experiences, particularly if the present doesn’t quite match up to the past.

That’s likely the feeling many Detroit Red Wings fans wrestled with on Tuesday, as the 2016-17 version of the team fell 4-3 to the Buffalo Sabres while the team celebrated the Stanley Cup-winning 1996-97 squad.

Detroit dominated the shot counts (43-22), Evander Kane scored two goals including the game-winner and Jack Eichel blew our minds. But a lot of the action took a backseat to pondering the past.

Here’s video of the ceremony:

Again, there were a lot of mixed feelings in the air. Feeds like these capture much of that spirit, although this GIF - without comment - probably says as much as anything else:

Ouch.