It has been six seasons now since the NHL’s realignment, when the Red Wings were heralded as big winners.



“Is anybody happier about this news than Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch?” wondered CBS at the time — and with fairly good reason. Back then, Detroit may not have been a Stanley Cup-level powerhouse, but it was still the damn Red Wings. They would benefit from an easier travel schedule and play earlier games, the thinking went. Importantly, they would also get away from a Western Conference that featured the Blackhawks and Kings, two juggernauts in their prime. Instead, they would mosey into a division with Toronto and Buffalo, teams in a very different place. Hell of a swap, at the time.



But an inescapable thought this week, as the Red Wings rolled into Buffalo for a Thursday night game against the Sabres, was that six years later, the division in which Detroit now resides is going to be one of the most precarious obstacles of its rebuild.