The Red wings appear to have removed the “Hockeytown” logo from center ice at Little Caesars Arena, and the Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo has this to say about the change:
Still, in a sense, The Hockeytown moniker fits. Before the Red Wings’ developed widespread appeal by becoming championship-caliber, they had a strong nucleus of fans. Somebody, I forget exactly who or I’d credit them, said to me long ago – “There are only about 30,000 hockey fans in this town, but 20,000 of them show up for every game at Joe Louis Arena.”
Some of those hardcore hockey fans seem to have been priced out of Little Caesars Arena, but the Red Wings still drew considerably better there last season than the Pistons despite often lackluster, boring performances.
The Red Wings are an Original 6 franchise in a border city with Canada. Youth hockey remains strong in this area. Just look at all the NHL players this state continues to develop.
But a point can be made “Hockeytown” is a marketing slogan derived from the franchise’s salad days, and as such represents a constant look back rather than forward.
In that way, I don’t have a problem with it being removed for just the winged-wheel at center ice.
No sense suggesting Dylan Larkin is Steve Yzerman, Dennis Cholowski Nicklas Lidstrom, Filip Zadina Brendan Shanahan and Michael Rasmussen Sergei Fedorov. Hopefully, they will present the nucleus for a brighter future, and remove the constant urge to look back to the Red Wings’ salad days.
Caputo continues, and
