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Paul Grant, ESPN.com 8y

What the world was like the last time the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs

If you're 26 or younger, you've never seen the Stanley Cup playoffs without the Detroit Red Wings. With the Boston Bruins' loss on Saturday to the spoilin' Ottawa Senators, the Red Wings qualified for the postseason for the 25th consecutive season.

The last time the Red Wings missed the playoffs? (The 2004-05 NHL season was lost due to a work stoppage, so that doesn't count.)

The math takes you back to April 1, 1990. No fooling. What the world was like 26 years ago:

  • George H.W. Bush was the president of the United States. Mikhail Gorbachev was the president of the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall was two months away from being demolished. The unification of East Germany and West Germany was being negotiated. Nelson Mandela was enjoying his first two months of freedom after spending 27 years in South African prisons.

  • The population of the United States was 249 million.

  • The internet was five months away from becoming a thing. A smart phone was something that operated from a plug and a long cord in your house and had an answering machine that recorded messages onto a tiny audiotape. A tweet was the exclusive message of a bird.

  • General Motors topped the Fortune 500 as the most valuable company. Passengers were sweating through the second month of a ban on smoking on all U.S. domestic flights.

  • "Escapade" by Janet Jackson, "Black Velvet" by Alannah Myles and "Vogue" by Madonna were burning up the airwaves. That is to say, those songs were being played by radio stations. Gloria Estefan left a New York hospital after suffering a broken back in a bus accident.

  • Popular movies of the month were "Pretty Woman," with Richard Gere as a john and Julia Roberts as a prostitute (I know, right?), and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Coming later in the year would be "Goodfellas," "Dances With Wolves," "Home Alone," "Total Recall," "Ghost" and "Rocky V." "Driving Miss Daisy," starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, had just been awarded the Oscar for best picture. A TV show called "Twin Peaks" aired its two-hour pilot episode -- and unless you had a beta or VHS recorder, you couldn't fast-forward the commercials. With his four-year contract to do the TV series "21 Jump Street" expiring, Johnny Depp said he would prefer to do movies. A little-known actor named Brad Pitt was cast for a bit part in the flick "Thelma and Louise."

  • Jack Nicklaus played in his first senior tour event, which he promptly won. Nick Faldo was a week away from successfully defending his Masters title. The Miami Hurricanes and San Francisco 49ers has recently won championships. Derrike Cope had recently won the Daytona 500. Liverpool was on the verge of winning its 18th -- and so far, last -- English Football League title.

  • The Boston Bruins won the Presidents' Trophy with 101 points on a record of 46 wins, 25 losses and 9 ties. Last place among the 21 teams in the NHL was held by the Quebec Nordiques, who went 12-61-7. Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings won the Art Ross Trophy with 142 points; Mark Messier was second with 129. Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues led goal scoring with 72; Steve Yzerman was second with 62 goals. Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens led the league with a .912 save percentage; Mike Liut of the Blues was tops in goals-against average, at 2.53.

  • Dylan Larkin was six years away from being born. Danny DeKeyser was a month old. Brad Richards was 9. Pavel Datsyuk was 11. Coach Jeff Blashill was 16.

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