While the Detroit Lions have gotten most of the local coverage and deservedly so the past week, the Red Wings have quietly started off another season with a 23-12-1 record. Although recently the Wings have lost a couple of tough games on the road to Vancouver and Calgary, they still have a great record at home, 14-2-1. Also, they are fourth in the Western Conference with 47 points, only three points behind division-leading Chicago. The Central division is one of the more competitive divisions in all of the NHL right now, with four of the five teams in the playoffs as of now.

The Red Wings are on pace to extend their longest streak of making the playoffs to 21 straight seasons, dating back to 1991. That is the longest current streak in North American professional sports.

The leaders of this team include Pavel Datsyuk, who leads the team in points with 38. However, the Red Wings have always been about the team. Johan Franzen leads the team in goals with 14, while two others are in double digits in the goal category. Oh, and Jimmy Howard has a 1.95 goals against average for the year with 22 wins.

It is quite apparent though that as the team plays well, so does Datsyuk. In an article on Mlive.com, Datsyuk talked about playing with Franzen and Todd Bertuzzi.

“They’re both big guys and they give (the puck) to me in the offensive zone and help me in the defensive (zone),” Datsyuk said. “They’re holding puck and they both can shoot and skate. Two big guys, I can’t miss them.”

Well, Datsyuk may not be able to miss his wingers but if you don’t start paying attention to the Red Wings now, you could blink and miss the Wings flying under the radar to a championship run like normal. But then again, Datsyuk and the Red Wings are used to it by now.