“The tie goes to the veteran.”
A classic hockey adage in the same vein as “We like our team” or “kicking tires” that Wings fans have a nearly-autonomous reaction to. It’s been used to shove a lot of questionable hockey decisions down our throats over the years and, in its various iterations, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon.
Is it so bad though? Commenter AndrewNalian asked in a recent Quick Hits article for us to go more in-depth about how the veteran-vs-kid matchup decision gets made.
There are two schools of thought here: the tie going to the veteran, and the tie going to the rookie.