Everything ends. Badly, for the most part.

The Detroit Red Wings were officially eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday night, ending the club's remarkable 25-year postseason streak.

It was the longest active playoff streak in pro sports, and ends tied for the third-longest in NHL history.

It was a most productive generation. Detroit won six Presidents' trophies, made six trips to the Stanley Cup Final since 1991, and ended up hosting four Stanley Cup parades. It was the kind of streak all sports franchises aspire to, containing greatness both on the team and player levels.

"Right now it's hard to talk about, because you're a big reason why it's not continuing," captain Henrik Zetterberg said, writes NHL.com's Nicholas J. Cotsonika.

It's hard to fathom springtime in Detroit without hockey, but that's the reality. The Detroit Tigers will undoubtedly have a lot more eyes on them as the MLB season gets going.

"We've given the fans wonderful hockey for a quarter of a century," Jimmy Devellano, the Red Wings' senior vice president, said. "It had to happen. It had to happen."

The club won more than 1,100 regular-season games during the streak, and enjoyed its best season in club history in 1995-96, when Detroit finished a remarkable 62-13-7. While that campaign ended in a third-round playoff defeat, two Stanley Cups would follow in 1997 and 1998.

Steve Yzerman. Sergei Fedorov. Ken Holland. Scotty Bowman. Nicklas Lidstrom. Pavel Datsyuk. Tomas Holmstrom. Brendan Shanahan. What a run.

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