The Winged Wheel debuts this week

When the Detroit Red Wings swept the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley Cup in 1997, there was an explosion of joy and celebration in Hockeytown.

More than a generation of fans had gone without seeing their favorite hockey team win the championship as it had been a long, 42-year drought before the champagne finally flowed on June 7, 1997.

That pent-up frustration transformed into sheer exhilaration when captain Steve Yzerman hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup on the ice at Joe Louis Arena that night.

The ones who were the most joyful were those who had remained loyal through the dark years, including the "Dead Wings" era from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

Sticking with your team through the tough times makes the great times all the better.

That brings us to the 2019-20 NHL season, which remains on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is poised to resume with a 24-team playoff in coming months, as long as it is safe to do so.

Starting this week, the Red Wings are unveiling the first season of their new behind-the-scenes documentary series, The Winged Whee

The inaugural season has seven episodes, beginning with the return of Yzerman as executive vice president and general manager.

The Red Wings video team will reveal some never-seen footage, including defenseman Moritz Seider at the NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver last June, the dramatic victory at the NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City, the preseason visit to Kraft Hockeyville USA in Calumet, Mich., the Red Carpet walk on Opening Night at Little Caesars Arena, the trade with St. Louis for forward Robby Fabbri, Tyler Bertuzzi's All-Star experience in St. Louis, Valtteri Filppula's 1,000th career NHL game, the season sweep of the Montreal Canadiens and the quick trip to Washington, D.C. for the March 12 game that was never played because of the pandemic.

While the results were far from what the Wings had hoped for, especially being one of the seven teams left out of the 24-team playoff picture that the league and players agreed to, it is more about the beginning of the journey and the players who will take ownership moving forward.

When Yzerman addressed the media on Feb. 24, the day the Wings traded forward Andreas Athanasiou and defenseman Mike Green to the Edmonton Oilers, as well as picking up Dmytro Timashov on waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs, he spoke eloquently about what fans are experiencing now as the team builds toward a contending future.

"I think we're fortunate here that this is a hockey market, that people like the game, people play the game, adults play it, kids play it, boys and girls play it. So it's a hockey market so there's interest," Yzerman said. "Obviously they want the team to win, they want the team to do well. What I'm hoping people will embrace is Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Filip Zadina coming, Filip Hronek this year, embrace their careers and the development of their careers.

"We watched Filip Zadina come in, we kind of expected him to be in the American League this year. We brought him up out of kind of necessity but he did very well and it's encouraging. Unfortunately, he hurts his leg and he's out but we're seeing progress there, we're seeing progress in Filip Hronek, the Dylans and Anthony before he got hurt, we're seeing progress. So we're hoping next year if we can add another one and each of these kids takes another step, it's all part of the process of us becoming a really good team again and one day we look back on it and our fans look back on it and say, 'I remember when Zadina came in, I remember when Dylan came in, those years, whatever we're in, 2019-20, boy, what a year that was. You guys struggled through it and appreciate the whole process.' That's kind of what I'm hoping everyone embraces."

Being back for one year helped remind Yzerman what the Red Wings have in their fans, whose families' loyalty trace back to the Original Six days.

"The fan base has been pretty darn good," Yzerman said. "They've been extremely positive, they've been vocal and for the most part in our home games, even when we lose (that one) night against Calgary, we hung in there and made it an entertaining hockey game. Again, what I'm hoping people embrace this thing, takes some time. We've been through it before, the Red Wings did it in the '50s, we did it in the '80s and the '90s. We're going to have to do it again. I look at the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1984, they draft Mario Lemieux first overall and build a program and win two Stanley Cups and then they slip to the bottom again and they get Sidney Crosby and build this thing up and they've won three of them. Kind of what we're trying to do here as well.

"These cities that have been in it for a long time, they've seen the ups and downs and we're seeing a new generation of hockey fans who haven't lived it yet. Now they're living it."