For the Detroit Red Wings, the sting of missing the playoffs for a 10th straight season is wearing thin—especially for their rising star defenseman, Simon Edvinsson. At just 22 years old, he's already grown tired of the same end-of-season routine: sitting at a podium, analyzing what went wrong, and watching other teams compete for the Stanley Cup while Detroit watches from home.

"No one wants to be here," Edvinsson said after the final weekend of the regular season, frustration evident in his voice. "It's the worst feeling you have, not going to the playoffs, and you know you're so close. Everybody works so hard but we still don't get it done."

This year's collapse was particularly painful because the Wings showed so much promise early on. For much of the season, they flirted with the best record in the Eastern Conference, sitting comfortably in a playoff spot through January and February. Confidence was building, and the team looked poised to finally break their drought. But then injuries piled up, scoring dried up, and as rivals like Pittsburgh and Florida elevated their game down the stretch, the Red Wings faltered in the opposite direction.

"I know that everybody really wanted to make the playoffs and have a run," Edvinsson admitted, "but we're not there and we need to really find something in our group, find something in the organization, find something within the team to really take us past that step."

So what's the solution? Edvinsson believes it starts with a shift in mentality—specifically, playing a tougher brand of hockey around the net. He points to teams like the Penguins and Panthers as examples of clubs that make life miserable for opponents in the dirty areas. "Pittsburgh, you see and feel it out there on the ice," he explained. "They're very hard to play against."

For a young core that's tasted near-success but not the real thing, the message is clear: talent alone won't end this drought. It's time to get meaner, grittier, and more relentless—because no one wants to be sitting at that podium again next spring.