DETROIT — To appreciate the streak – how long it has been, why it is incredible, what is at stake – stand inside the hallway that leads to the Detroit Red Wings’ dressing room and the Joe Louis Arena ice.

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Lining the walls are simple wooden plaques and team pictures screwed into the cinderblock, one for each edition of the Wings since Mike Ilitch bought the franchise in 1982. Each plaque lists the season and the names of the executives, coaches, players and trainers. The bottom line is the record.

Start at 1989-90, the last Wings team to miss the playoffs. Walk past the door to the training room. Count 18 plaques in a row on the left (including the 2004-05 season erased by a lockout), and keep going. Keep going past the door to the dressing room, turn around at the entrance to the ice and come back up the other side. Count four more plaques.

The Wings are riding a 21-season playoff streak, the longest in pro sports. And now, for the first time in more than two decades, they are fighting for a spot in the last days of the regular season.

There is a little room left on the wall, not much. What will the next plaque say?

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No matter your age, the 1989-90 plaque makes you feel old. Look at some of the names: Jimmy Carson, Bernie Federko, Gerard Gallant, Adam Graves, Petr Klima, Bob Probert, Borje Salming. Colin Campbell was an assistant coach. Yes, that Colin Campbell. Though Steve Yzerman was the captain, he was only 24 then.

Those Wings went 28-38-14. That last number was for ties, not overtime losses. They finished with 70 points, last in the Norris Division, second-to-last in the Campbell Conference.

Where were you in April 1990? Where are you now?

I was finishing middle school in the Detroit suburbs. I have since gone to high school, gone to college, gotten married and had kids. I have gone from writing for a black-and-white newspaper to writing for a website, which is funny, because in April 1990 the Internet did not yet exist. I have specks of gray in my hair, at least what’s left of my hair.

General manager Ken Holland was in Medicine Hat, Alberta, working as the Wings’ director of scouting. Assistant GM Jim Nill was playing for the Wings. Mike Babcock was starting his career coaching Canadian college hockey in Red Deer, Alberta.

“Made the playoffs every year,” he said, smiling.

No player in the NHL today was in the league the last time the Wings missed the playoffs. Nine of the franchises in the NHL today weren’t in the league the last time the Wings missed the playoffs.

The Wings’ oldest player, Todd Bertuzzi, was 15. The Wings’ youngest player, Brian Lashoff, was not even born yet.

The Wings' newest player, Danny DeKeyser, was born in Detroit on March 7, 1990, about a month before the franchise last missed the playoffs. His earliest playoff memory is the Wings’ run to the Stanley Cup final in 1995. He followed their Cup victories in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008 and everything in between. When he played at the Joe for Western Michigan, he used to look at the names on the wall and soak up the history. He signed with the Wings as a free agent March 30.

“It’s pretty special to be a part of it now,” DeKeyser said.

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