THE VERDICT: Original Six Rivals Become Division Foes Once Again

After many months of remote yearning, the Blackhawks are back. And with the new year, an old foe returns to the neighborhood.
The Detroit Red Wings. These two marquee franchises have exchanged pleasantries for almost a century, and a short National Hockey League schedule taps into long memories. Since 2013, they've met only once here and once there. But this season, the Blackhawks and Red Wings will play eight games, starting with the United Center opener on January 22.

Better yet, so as to limit plane travel during this pandemic, there are four two-game stands, three with an off-day in between and one a vintage back-to-back. Less altitude, more attitude, akin to when teams routinely vied home-and-away, on consecutive nights, familiarity inevitably begetting contempt.
Speaking of which, as a rookie, Stan Mikita introduced himself to Gordie Howe. Jamming with the Detroit icon in a corner, Mikita lifted his stick and cut Howe on the cheek, just below his eye. Howe wiped the blood with his glove, then opened a file on this uppity person of interest. Mikita, an admitted hellion in his youth, then chirped at Howe.
At intermission, Mikita had a brief locker room consultation with Ted Lindsay, a former teammate of Howe's.
"Maybe you shouldn't have done that," mentioned Lindsay. "Don't you know who that is?"
Mikita, incorrectly assuming Howe would forget the incident, soon learned. In a later game, Mikita was gliding up ice when he was flattened by Howe. Down on all fours, a dazed Mikita arose and wobbled to the bench. The wrong bench.
"Detroit players shoved me to go back where I belonged," recalled Mikita. "I was well acquainted with Gordie Howe at that point. And his elbows."

The Blackhawks and Red Wings have played 739 regular season games in various venues, including Wrigley Field, and 16 playoff series. The most recent was the 2013 Western Conference Semifinals, when the Blackhawks trailed 3-1 in games, rallied to advance and won their fifth Stanley Cup. They won their first against Detroit in 1934, and their second at Detroit in 1961.
That victory was special for goalie Glenn Hall, who earned the Calder Trophy as outstanding NHL rookie with the Red Wings in 1956. However, Hall befriended Lindsay, who dared mulling the concept of a players' union. Detroit management dispatched them both to Chicago, which then felt like "hockey Siberia," according to Hall. But the Blackhawks arose from the ashes with kids like Mikita and Bobby Hull, who frequently crossed paths on his left with Howe on his right and still respectfully cites "Gordon" as best ever.
In 1995, the Red Wings outlasted the Blackhawks in the Conference Finals, 4-1, with three overtimes. Head Coach Scotty Bowman said the series took such a toll on his Red Wings that they had little left for the Final, a sweep by the New Jersey Devils. By 1999, the Blackhawks were struggling and they dealt hometown star defenseman Chris Chelios to Detroit, a place he said he would "never" play.
When Chelios returned to the United Center for the season finale, Blackhawk fans gave him the business. But he was uplifted by a visit from close pal Michael Jordan, who dropped into the opponents' locker room, stunning the awed Red Wings. During the game, though, Bowman intuited that the hostile mood energized the crowd. So Bowman instructed Chelios to vanish and join Jordan in his suite.

Chelios would be the first to confess he is eminently booable, but Marian Hossa? The consummate professional? Well, it happened after Hossa left the Red Wings to join the Blackhawks in 2010. The greatest free agent signing in Chicago sports annals won three Stanley Cups here, but in Detroit his name was mud.
It's always something between the Blackhawks and Red Wings, even when they had a common boss, James E. Norris. He was a business partner in several ventures with Arthur Wirtz, whose wherewithal and commitment as owner eventually would allow the Blackhawks to escape "Siberia."
Since 1926, Chicago and Detroit have faced off. The Blackhawks and Cougars debuted in the American Division, the Cougars became the Falcons in 1930, and the Falcons changed to the Red Wings in 1932. In the early 1942, the National Hockey League settled into the Original Six, which lasted until 1967, and featured a 70-game season, opponents trading snarls 14 times.

When the NHL expanded to 12 franchises in 1967, the Blackhawks and Red Wings were part of an all-Original Six East Division. Then in 1970, the NHL grew to 14 teams and the Blackhawks switched to the West while the two newest members, the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks went East. Correct. Vancouver. East.
In 1974, the NHL split into four divisions, with the Blackhawks in the Smythe and Red Wings in the Norris. The Blackhawks and Red Wings were Norris components come 1981, then together in the Central, as of 1993. In 2013, the Red Wings moved to the Atlantic, joining seven other teams within the Eastern time zone.
At Detroit's bygone Olympia, when only eight playoff victories meant a Stanley Cup, a tradition began: an octopus would be tossed onto the ice, that cephalopod symbolically possessing eight arms (legs?). Chicago Stadium, may it rest in pieces, was chilly to all guests, especially the Red Wings.
More recently, when the Red Wings were hot and the Blackhawks not so hot, Detroit fans flooded the United Center, plenty of good sections available. After the Red Wings captured four Cups between 1997 to 2008, the Blackhawks took over the NHL and their building, where perpetual sellout crowds serenade the Red Wings. "DEE-TROIT PUCKS!! DEE-TROIT PUCKS!!" Or something like that.
Both franchises are retooling. Don't bet against Steve Yzerman, the Red Wings' legend who is now their general manager, figuring it all out. The Blackhawks dress three future Hall of Famers surrounded by youth and promise. And these two proud adversaries are armed and legged for eight main events between January and April.