The Detroit Red Wings posted a thoughtful question today on Twitter…
Need to know all your favorite #RedWings memories… Tell us below! ⤵️
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 18, 2025
And I’ve got a fairly long answer.
On September 22nd, 1991, I was a 13-year-old kid who beginning to fall in love with hockey and the Detroit Red Wings. My friend Joe Kim kept on telling me about how great this Russian guy named Sergei Fedorov was, and over the summer of 1991, I started collecting hockey cards, but I had to see a game for myself.
So dad picked up exhibition game tickets (upper-bowl, $22 a ticket) for a Red Wings-Toronto Maple Leafs game at Little Caesars Arena.
We headed down to LCA through Greektown, stopping for burgers at the old Athens Bar, where dad’s dinner was half delicious hamburger and coffee and cigarettes as he was a chain-smoker. We would board the People Mover to get down to the Joe, and after a circuit around the massive, dark concourse of the Joe, we took our seats.
There were a lot of Maple Leafs fans in the crowd, so the atmosphere was electric, even though it was an exhibition game. I was super excited to take part in it.
I still remember that the Red Wings, donning their 1992 “DETROIT” jerseys opposite the Leafs’ throwbacks for the NHL’s 75th anniversary, played a spirited battle. Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Bob Probert scored in regulation for the Red Wings, but the Leafs clawed back, as they always do, and in overtime, rookie Martin Lapointe scored the game-winner.
By the end of the game, I was sold on NHL hockey as “my sport” after 13 years of playing organized soccer but never really latching on to any sport, despite dad’s attempts to get me into football, basketball, baseball, etc. etc. I just couldn’t find anything that I really loved, regardless of my utter lack of athletic ability, and the speed, grace and poise of hockey was the perfect combination for me–with players like Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom and Vladimir Konstantinov just breaking into the league as I began to follow the team.
Sadly, my dad would pass away in May of 1992, but not before taking me and Joe Kim to get Sergei Fedorov’s autograph at the Goalie’s Den in Troy on a cold January night, with dad battling through immense back pain to make his son happy. I still have that puck and I still treasure it.
There’s more to the story, both happy and sad, but this is a good start as to the importance of September 22nd in my life, and how I became a Red Wings fan.
If you want to share your favorite Red Wings memory, hit the Wings up on Twitter, or share with us in the comment section.
I was a young fan and newly-minted player and following the Wings was everything. The early seventies only offered a paltry number of televised games, so Bruce Martyn’s ideal voice brought the game to life. I would hook my small transistor radio on the rail of my upper bunk bed, close to my ear so my parents wouldn’t know I was up listening. On snowy nights I would peel back the drapes and watch huge flakes fall in the streetlights, while I listened to my early Red Wing heroes on the road or at home.
Wow, my favorite memory dates to the 1992 season as well — my buddy and I had season tickets and after classes at Wayne State used to rush straight to the Joe, changing into our jerseys and red satin Wings jackets in the car, then we’d grab a hot dog and beer for dinner and make our way to our seats (which were not the best, but we were happy to have them). I still have my 75th anniversary Red Wings commemorative puck somewhere, and so many memories. Mostly it was wonderful to watch that team start to gel, with the talent of Federov and Yzerman, alongside the muscle of Probert, and rising stars like Lidstrom and Konstantinov (who was a favorite of mine from the start).