THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW THE STANLEY CUP CAME HOME TO THE MOTOR CITY AFTER 41 SEASONS AWAY
Stanleytown
25 YEARS LATER
THE ROSTER
EDITOR
Gene Myers
DESIGNER
Ryan Ford
COPY CHIEF
Owen Davis
HEADLINES
Ryan Ford
COPY EDITORS
Beth Myers, Adam Engel, Keith Gave
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Kirkland Crawford
COVER DESIGNS
Ryan Ford
PHOTO IMAGING
Ryan Ford
FREE PRESS WRITERS
Helene St. James, Keith Gave, Jason La Canfora, Mitch Albom, Adam Engel, Steve Schrader, Gene Myers, Bill Dow, Bill McGraw, Tom Henderson, Shawn Windsor, Owen Davis, Steve Crowe, Viv Bernstein
FREE PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS
THE COVER
Along Woodward Avenue, Steve Yzerman held the Stanley Cup aloft for one million fans to see during the championship parade.
CRAIG PORTER/DETROIT FREE PRESS
PAGE 1
At Joe Louis Arena, Steve Yzerman flashed a gap-tooth smile as the Red Wings celebrated their first Stanley Cup in 42 years.
MARY SCHROEDER/DFP
GABRIEL B. TAIT/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Who said Hockeytown wasn’t heaven? On June 10, 1997, one million fans jammed Detroit for a parade that amazed the Wings. “Everyone has shown incredible class,” Steve Yzerman told the masses.
Mary Schroeder, Julian H. Gonzalez, Gabriel B. Tait, Kirthmon F. Dozier, David P. Gilkey, Alan R. Kamuda, Nico Toutenhoofd, William Archie, Mandi Wright, Craig Porter, Richard Lee, Ryan Garza, Francisco Kjolseth, Stephanie Sinclair, Kim Kim Foster, Karin Anderson, Mike McClure, Andrew Johnston, J. Kyle Keener, Tony Spina PUBLISHED BY
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
ABOUT THE BOOK
“Stanleytown 25 Years Later” condenses more than a quarter-century’s worth of the best coverage of the Red Wings from the Detroit Free Press and includes new columns and stories. Follow the Wings daily online at www.freep.com and with a print subscription at 800-395-3300.
SPECIAL THANKS
Peter Bhatia, Chris Fenison, Megan Holt, Laurie Delves, Dave Robinson, Bob Ellis, Brian James, Free Press sports copy desk in 1996-97 (led by Ken Kraemer), Amy Parravano Drummond, Morgan & the Pussycats, Eros & Schrodinger
photocopying, recording or by an information storage system, without the permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. Printed in Canada.
THE CONTENTS
THE GLORY
6 Reviewing Hockeytown’s ascent from Hopelesstown.
THE
SEASON
22 Inside the Wings’ yearlong trek toward redemption.
THE PLAYOFFS
56 Four teams — led by the dreaded Avs — stood between the Wings and the Cup.
THE TEAM
112 From The Captain to The Grind Line, here’s who got it done.
THE AFTERMATH
166 It was a summer of love for the Cup — but also a summer of tragedy.
ODDS & ENDS
196 Inside the Wings’ weird, wild and wacky route to hockey history.
A CUP ABOVE
Bringing the Stanley Cup back to Detroit in 1997 was more than just an on-ice triumph, wrote Helene St. James. It was an indelible testament to never-forgotten dreams.
SBy Helene St. James
teve Yzerman wanted to take everyone with him for that first lap with the Stanley Cup: his teammates, Scotty Bowman, Mike Ilitch.
When the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup on June 7, 1997, the celebration ended four decades of futility for the franchise and a decade of heartbreak for Yzerman and Ilitch. It was the night Detroit became Stanleytown, and, a few days later, when one million people gathered downtown for the parade, Hookytown.
And it’s the reason the Detroit Free Press decided that the 25th anniversary of these remarkable events demanded this commemorative book. With fresh insights and dynamic storytelling, “Stanleytown 25 Years Later” recaptures the magic and the memories of the 1996-97 season: The Captain’s Cup quest, the Russian Five, the Grind Line, Fight Night at The Joe, Hockeytown, Shannytown, and, finally, Stanleytown.
The Wings won the Cup again in 1998, 2002 and 2008, but that Saturday night in 1997 was the one for the ages. It had been 42 years since the city had
KARIN ANDERSON/DETROIT FREE PRESS
With the Red Wings in Philadelphia for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, fans flocked to the arena on the Detroit waterfront for Joe Vision.
celebrated when the Wings hoisted the Cup, during the franchise’s glory days of the 1950s when Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Red Kelly and Terry Sawchuk were the stars everyone recognized. Mike and Marian Ilitch purchased the Wings for a song in 1982 and hired Jimmy Devellano to be their
general manager. Devellano told the Ilitches to give him eight years, and he would give them a Cup. It took almost twice as long.
It took drafting Yzerman in 1983 and drafting Nicklas Lidstrom, Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov in 1989. It took bringing in Bowman, who already had won six Stanley Cups when he was hired in 1993. That was the year the Wings had been eliminated by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, and Yzerman wept in a back room at Joe Louis Arena until 4 a.m.
More tears followed. For all their talent on the ice and behind the bench, the Wings could not win their last game of the season. In 1995, the Wings advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1966. The Cup was closer than ever. The Wings were favored. And then they were swept by the New Jersey Devils.
The next year was arguably worse: The Wings set a regular-season record by winning 62 games. Claude Lemieux ended Kris Draper’s season with a dirty hit from behind in the Western Conference finals. And then the Avalanche ended the Wings’ season later that night in Denver.
Mathieu Dandenault videotaped Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe celebrating the championship. GABRIEL B. TAIT/DETROIT FREE PRESS
But those events made the next spring that much sweeter, so much more satisfying. Red Wings fans will never forget them. Covering the team for the Free Press, I will never forget them.
On March 26, 1997, the Wings and Avs met at The Joe for the fourth and final time of the regular season. Lemieux had missed the other game in Detroit. Fans booed when he skated onto the ice and cheered when Darren McCarty pummeled him. There were 10 fights in that game and an emotional ending when McCarty scored the game-winner in overtime.
It was the night the Wings came together as a team.
The night they celebrated that togetherness came 10 weeks later when they finally won the last game of the season, and Yzerman held the Stanley Cup above his head, his gap-toothed smile an instant iconic image. He skated over to the bench so Mike and Marian Ilitch could touch the Cup. He then took it for a captain’s traditional lap around the ice. Later, Yzerman explained that he would have liked to “go as one big group.”
All the hardship and heartache faded as the Stanley Cup once again belonged to the Red Wings and the city of Detroit.
“Stanleytown 25 Years Later” stands as a tribute to this team of indelible memories, its faithful and frenzied fans, and the power of believing in your dreams.
Enjoy. Again.
Helene St. James has covered the Red Wings for the Detroit Free Press since 1996 and as its beat reporter since 2005. In 2017, she was the second woman selected Michigan sportswriter of the year, as voted by her peers in the National Sports Media Association. In 2020, Triumph Books published her first book, “The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings.”
25 Years Later 5
The Glory
They called it Hockeytown, but was it really?
More than four decades without lifting the only Cup that matters, the drought was almost too much. But there were memories ... and hope.
With a handful of seconds left in the Stanley Cup clincher, the CBC’s Bob Cole said, “There she goes,” as the puck slid harmlessly into the Detroit zone. For the next 105 seconds the only sounds heard on the broadcast were the fans erupting, the final horn, the players (such as Brendan Shanahan) and coaches going crazy, fans with horns tooting, fireworks exploding and “Oh, What a Night” blaring. Then came Ron MacLean’s voice from ice level as he congratulated and started to interview Mike Ilitch. “Well, it’s a great feeling,” Ilitch said. “Look at this, it’s helping bring our city together. … It’s beautiful.”
The Glory 7
WAIT LIFTERS
Of course, it was a sweep. Not just of the Flyers, noted Shawn Windsor, but of all the history that had weighed down a franchise — and a city — for more than 40 years.
By Shawn Windsor
In the end it wasn’t close. It couldn’t have been. Not after what the Red Wings had been through the previous two seasons. Not after what the fans had been through the previous 41. A sweep?
Of course.
It had to be that way. And when the final seconds ticked off in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and captain Steve Yzerman leaped into the arms of goalie Mike Vernon, and the Wings finally — FINALLY! — had won the Cup, it felt like relief.
But also joy.
Unadulterated. Boundless. Liberating.
The kind of joy only felt when a franchise and those who loved it slip out from four-plus decades of … well, misery? Heartache? How about history? Even now, 25 seasons later, the rumble from old Joe Louis Arena reverberates.
The elation lasted for days, weeks, heck, throughout that summer of 1997. You could hear it on the streets, where cars blared their horns. You could see it there, too, as drivers festooned their windows with
Lowered from a helicopter, a 25-foot Stanley Cup made its debut on the Wayne County Building the morning after Game 4.
RICHARD LEE/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
the New Jersey Devils two seasons before, after all that, the Wings grabbed the hearts of everyone. And made them whole again.
No wonder folks crammed, jammed and stuffed themselves onto Woodward Avenue to celebrate, whooping and howling and serenading Yzerman and Vernon and Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov and Kris Draper and Igor Larionov and Darren McCarty, who scored the put-away goal in Game 4 on a slick crossover that’s still talked about today.
A million people showed up at the parade that day. A million more would tell you they were there. That’s how it goes when you make history, and everyone wants a piece of it.
flags of the Winged Wheel, flapping in the breeze, a red-and-white rainbow that stretched from the Ambassador Bridge to the Mackinac Bridge and back. Hockey might not have the broad appeal of football or even baseball, and we can debate where basketball falls into the mix. But on the June night the Wings clinched the Cup, after all the pain and disappointment and the finals sweep at the hands of
And that’s how it goes for the 1996-97 Wings, who scuffled a bit through the regular season, who looked, at times, as if they’d missed their window when they lost in consecutive playoffs after blistering opponents both winters, who couldn’t quite shake the questions about toughness and grit and, let’s just say it: heart.
Not that those questions were fair. Hockey is like that. Puck luck and all that.
Still, when the Wings welcomed the Colorado Avalanche in late March — OK, welcomed isn’t quite
nized the team.
From there, the Wings bullied their way through the playoffs, dismantling the Blues and the Mighty Ducks before performing an exorcism against the Avalanche. By the time they reached the Flyers in the finals, there was no question. And no chance … for Philadelphia.
What felt impossible six weeks earlier felt inevitable in the lead-up to the series. Yeah, Philadelphia was big. Yeah, the Flyers had Eric Lindros, the future of the league at the time. Which only added to the motivation for the Wings.
Not that they needed it.
Besides, there was always someone else, right?
When Yzerman was in his prime, gliding across the ice like few others, he did so in the shadow of Wayne Gretzky and then Mario Lemieux. He was a great player, an all-time player, but the third-best player of his generation.
You could say that was a metaphor for the franchise he made his own, and for the city he played in as well. All of that played into the euphoria when he and the team finally won the Stanley Cup on June 7, 1997. And all of it played into the region, too.
You want to know why a million people celebrated together and a few million more celebrated apart the rest of the summer?
right. How about when the Wings suited up at The Joe on March 26 to play the Avs after having lost to them the three previous meetings that season, the questions were growing louder.
Could they skate with their rival? Or, more accurately, their nemesis?
Colorado knocked them out of the playoffs the season before. Handled them easily, truthfully. And the pattern held through the next season until that night in late March, and McCarty pummeled Claude Lemieux, and the teams brawled, six-on-six for a while.
The Wings won in overtime. They answered a few questions.
Mostly their own.
“It was that one game where we felt like everything sort of came together for us against Colorado,” Shanahan said two decades later. “That was the real switch for us and Colorado, where we gained a psychological advantage and carried that into the playoffs and really played well against them in the playoffs.”
Shanahan said that game was the most important of that era. Not just the fighting, but how it galva-
There it is.
As Yzerman said the night the Red Wings clinched the Cup:
“They always say, ‘He’s a good player, but he didn’t win it.’ And now they can’t say that anymore. No matter what, they can’t say it.”
He was talking about himself, of course. But he was talking about his city, too. The Wings’ city. And the moment four decades of weight faded away. You don’t have to try hard to feel the freedom even now.
MARY SCHROEDER/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Soon after Brendan Shanahan lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time, Mitch Albom referred to him in the Free Press as “The Mother of All Facial Hair Growers.” Asked whether winning the Cup matched his dreams, Shanahan told Albom: “Match it? It exceeds it! I want to do it again!”
RISEN FROM THE DEAD WINGS
How did the Red Wings go from the NHL’s model to its mausoleum?
Two writers who chronicled the franchise’s descent into darkness (with Harkness and without) relive the dark ages in Detroit.
By Gene Myers
Detroit natives who loved hockey, the Red Wings and newspapers, Tom Henderson and Bill McGraw covered the team for the Free Press during the sport’s darkest days in Detroit.
They chronicled the chaos as a once-proud franchise that owned the 1950s and played for the Stanley Cup four times in the 1960s became a laughingstock of the National Hockey League in the 1970s and 1980s.
Over the next several pages, Henderson and McGraw, on a professional and personal level, shed light on the darkest of decades in the ’70s and ’80s and the dawn of a new championship era in 1997.
Our tale begins while they were college students
in October 1969 — Henderson at Michigan State, McGraw at Wayne State. Their journalism careers continue to this day, although each has reached his 70s and each has been elected to the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.
In October 1969, more than 14 years since the Wings won their last Stanley Cup and more than three years since their last playoff appearance, the new hockey season opened with back-to-back victories.
Owner Bruce Norris promptly fired coach Bill Gadsby for reasons never fully explained. Norris rambled on about how the franchise needed a “sophisticated” coach — like football icons Vince Lombardi and Paul Brown.
What needed no explanation was that Norris, a notorious boozer, and Gadsby, an old-school defenseman, didn’t like each other. After his firing, Gadsby
bemoaned: “I heard so much Lombardi I thought he was going to be the coach.”
Instead, Norris installed his general manager, Sid Abel, as the interim coach, double duty that against his wishes would last the entire season. A Hall of Famer like Gadsby, Abel also hardly fit the profile of a modern coach: His NHL playing days started before World War II.
So what happened? A highly successful season. Which turned out to be the beginning of the end. Under Abel, the Wings recorded 95 points, a 17-point jump, and finished third in the NHL’s East Division, only four points behind Chicago and Boston. The Wings had talent: the New Production Line (Frank Mahovlich-Alex Delvecchio-Gordie Howe), which set an NHL record of 118 goals a season prior; Garry Unger, a 42-goal scorer; Carl Brewer, third in the Norris Trophy voting; and a skilled goalie tan-
dem (Roger Crozier and Roy Edwards).
The Black Hawks, though, swept the Wings in the first round — four games with identical 4-2 scores. Detroit would make the playoffs only once over the next 13 seasons.
In May 1970, Norris hired Cornell’s Ned Harkness as his next coach. He did so poorly that halfway through his first season Norris, because he was Norris, promoted him to GM. Harkness’ first move was to replace himself as coach. Then came an endless series of failed trades. An era unaffectionately known as Darkness with Harkness descended over Olympia Stadium.
Over the next decade-plus, Delvecchio failed as
coach and then GM, and Ted Lindsay failed as GM and then coach. Fans routinely called the Red Wings by a new name: the Dead Wings.
Despite a new arena (Joe Louis Arena in December 1979), a new owner (Mike Ilitch in June 1982) and a new hope (Steve Yzerman in June 1983), the franchise didn’t turn the corner until late in the 1980s. All told, from 1967 through 1986, the Wings won a single playoff series, a best-of-three against Atlanta in 1978. From October 1969, when Gadsby coached his two games before Norris fired him, until Ilitch hired Nick Polano in August 1982, the Wings burned through 12 coaches; used Delvecchio, Doug Barkley and Billy Dea in multiple stints behind the
Tom Henderson and Bill McGraw posed during the final game at Olympia on Dec. 15, 1979. It ended in a 4-4 tie with the Quebec Nordiques. McGraw wrote: “The Red Wings sank to the occasion.”
DETROIT FREE PRESS
bench; and rotated coaches (officially or unofficially) countless times.
When Henderson moved onto the Wings beat in February 1976, Delvecchio was the GM and, at times, the coach, maybe on the bench or maybe via walkie-talkie to Dea from the press box. The Wings missed the playoffs by 20 points. By the time Henderson left the Free Press after the 1978-79 season, Lindsay had replaced Delvecchio as GM. The Wings missed the playoffs by 18 points.
Henderson recommended McGraw as his replacement. They had played hockey together in St. Clair Shores and had worked their way up from the bottom at the Free Press.
McGraw oversaw the demise of Lindsay’s regime in 1980, Norris’ sale to Ilitch in 1982 and the drafting of Yzerman when the Wings missed out on local hotshot Pat LaFontaine in 1983. Then McGraw moved to the Tigers beat — for one magical season, 1984!
Henderson went on to be a finance and technology reporter for Crain’s Detroit Business, a nationally regarded running writer and an author of true-crime books. McGraw has spent parts of six decades at the Free Press, also as a freelance writer, a news reporter, its Canada correspondent, a metro editor and a columnist. He co-founded an online website, Deadline Detroit, and created two iconic books, “The Quotations of Mayor Coleman A. Young” and “The Detroit Almanac.”
McGraw made the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2014, Henderson in 2021.
And now for their tales from the dark side of their careers …
How could Brendan Shanahan tell he wasn’t in Hartford any longer?
After his first practice at Joe Louis Arena, he said:
“Meeting Ted Lindsay this morning was a thrill. Just to see a guy like that walking around the dressing room. … I was like, ‘There’s Terrible Ted.’ There’s such a history. And it’s exciting to be a part of that history.”
MARY SCHROEDER/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
WELCOME TO SHANNYTOWN
If ‘good things are worth the wait,’ then the Wings got greatness, as they pulled off a blockbuster deal one week into the season.
By Mitch Albom
The phone rang around 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. Paul Boyer, the equipment man, picked it up.
“Who wears No. 14 for us?” Scotty Bowman asked.
“Aaron Ward,” Boyer said.
“Make a new No. 14 with the name ‘Shanahan.’ Give Ward No. 27. You think he’ll mind?”
“No,” Boyer said, smiling, “I don’t think he’ll mind.”
This is how Opening Day of hockey in Detroit began: with a phone call, and a new number. Boyer called East Side Sports, where the uniforms were made, and two hours later, it was in his hands. He took a roll of two-sided tape, and stuck a red “A” onto the white sweater’s chest.
They come and they go. That’s a famous line about athletes — and it sure held true Oct. 9, 1996. In the morning, center Keith Primeau and defenseman
Paul Coffey were still Red Wings. By the afternoon, they belonged to Hartford, and Brendan Shanahan, at 27, the much-coveted forward with the physical reputation, was on a fast plane to center ice in his new home, the Motor City.
“It’s been a pretty hectic day,” Shanahan said, after his first night was over and the Wings had defeated Edmonton, 2-0, in their home opener. “I was really nervous when I got here. But the first thing someone said when I got to the locker room was they were waiting for me, so we could all skate out for warmups as a team. That was nice.”
That was just the start. Shanahan was introduced to the Joe Louis Arena crowd, and his very name brought an explosion of noise — “AT FORWARD, NO. 14, BRENDAN SHANAHAN” — and as he skated out, the anticipation had to be burning inside. Anyone who had played in the lifeless Hartford Civic Center would think he died and went to heaven waking up in the hysterics of The Joe.
“I was thrilled,” Shanahan admitted. And just a few minutes later, he was skating up the ice alongside Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov, the “A” on his sweater, stuck on with Boyer’s two-sided tape — only in hockey can you be the alternate captain on a team before you even know your teammates’ names — and before five minutes had passed, Shanahan was in a fight with Edmonton’s Greg de Vries, and he went to the penalty box.
Hmm. Felt like he had been here a lifetime.
“Are you ready for the pressure of the expectations?” someone asked Shanahan after the game. “Some people see you as the missing piece of the puzzle.”
“Well, I am that … a piece,” he replied. “But just a piece. I’m not the guy who’s going to change things.” Maybe so, maybe no. The Wings expected big noise from this young man, twice a 50-goal scorer, and they gave up a lot to get him. Granted, Primeau didn’t want to play in this town anymore, tired of
playing behind Yzerman and Fedorov, and Coffey was 35 and in Bowman’s doghouse, but not so long ago, Detroiters mentioned those guys near the top of the team’s “stars” list.
Of course, Shanahan brought value as well. A powerful left winger at 6-feet-3 and 220 pounds who could score 50 or more goals with an offense like Detroit’s, he’s a guy who had been waiting for a team like this all his life.
“When I heard the crowd cheering tonight, I looked around, and I felt great,” he said. “Compared to the events of the last few days, this was the feeling I wanted.”
The No. 2 pick by New Jersey in the 1987 draft (which was held at The Joe), Shanahan had been booed in Hartford when he let it be known he wanted out.
Speaking of the events of the last few days, a moment here for Coffey, who for the second straight game showed up for work and got sent some place else. Last Saturday, before the season opener in New Jersey, Bowman told him he could go home, thank you, go wait for a trade. When that trade never came, Coffey had to return to practice. For two days, he endured the embarrassing looks, like a man doomed to execution. Then, Wednesday night, he drove to work again, only to be told he could leave once more, thank you, the deal was done.
“I was only there a few minutes, and I saw the trainers’ faces and I knew something had happened,” Coffey said from his Birmingham home at 9 p.m. He was watching TV. Not the hockey game. The baseball game. “I figure I’ll get away from hockey for a night.”
You had to feel for Coffey, a surefire Hall of Famer. A week ago, he was a star on arguably the league’s best team. Now he was the property of one of its most dismal. It’s not that Coffey got bad all of a sudden. It’s not that he lost his skills. He was two things management fretted about today: He was old and he
was well-paid.
So now he’s gone. “Forget about it, it’s over, it was great, but it’s done, that’s all you can say, it’s time to move on, you know, what can you do?” Coffey said this in that staccato tone that he used when his thoughts were rambling, and he sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as anyone else. In his 20 minutes at the rink, he only got to say good-bye to a handful of players.
He didn’t bother to talk to Bowman.
“On my way out, someone said Scotty wanted to talk to me,” he said. “What for? It didn’t take a brain
Two days before the big trade, defenseman Paul Coffey and coach Scotty Bowman couldn’t have been closer but more distant during practice. The Wings rallied behind their befuddled and emotionally beat-up teammate. “Obviously,” Steve Yzerman said, “it’s put Coff in a pretty uncomfortable situation, especially for someone of his stature.
… The more situations like this that occur, the more the gap grows between players and management.”
surgeon to figure out what had happened.”
“Besides,” Coffey added, his voice bitter now, “if he wanted to talk to me, he should have talked to me at 1:15 in the afternoon.”
He was right. That’s when the deal was done. Bowman still resented the way Coffey played in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals and the 1996 Western Conference finals, but come on, the man gave his all here, he played in pain, he played when his back was so stiff he walked around with an ice pack tucked in his belt. He gave an air of experience to the Detroit locker room, and while it’s true these Wings didn’t
JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
Brendan Shanahan needed only three minutes and 31 seconds to engage in his first fight for his new team. Edmonton’s Greg de Vries absorbed most of the punishment, and they each sat for five minutes in the sin bin. “There is pressure,” Shanahan said. “I welcome it. It’s what I want.”
win the Stanley Cup with him, it’s also true they didn’t get to the Cup finals until he arrived. They come and they go.
While Wings fans had a right to be giddy — “We got Shanny!” — no one should figure the trade was anything more than a smart risk. In nine years, Sha-
nahan had reached the conference finals only once. If Wayne Gretzky joining Brett Hull didn’t work for the Blues, nothing was guaranteed in the NHL.
Having said that, on paper, this looked good. In the paper, the Free Press blazed as its big headline: “Shannytown.” But on paper, the Wings should have
DOCTORED RESUME
Besides a reputation for toughness and putting the puck in the net, left wing Brendan Shanahan brought more personality to the Red Wings.
Various team media guides listed Shanahan as an accomplished saxophonist, an actor, a pro soccer goalie, a cattle rancher, a tennis ball boy during an Andre Agassi match at the U.S. Open and a mountain climber.
“That just all started because my summers are too boring to put down in the media guide,” Shanahan said.
“I told a few white lies the first year and after that, I was getting letters from people contributing what they thought would be a good idea.
“I had to put a stop to it. It was getting out of control.”
won it all after their 62-victory season in 1995-96.
“The Red Wings’ game is to win a Stanley Cup, and that’s my game, too,” Shanahan said. “I don’t look at this as the end of something, I look at it as the beginning.”
That was a good approach. The Wings saw it that way, too. They gave away old, they gave away unhappy, they got young and hungry. Most of the time that worked.
“I don’t know how many players are like him in the league, a power winger that can score,” Bowman said. “And, obviously, that’s what we’re expecting.”
Meanwhile, you had to marvel at the quick-changing fortunes of pro sports, where a veteran, in one night, went from playing hockey to watching baseball, while another guy with a sticky-taped “A” on his uniform got a standing ovation.
They come and they go, they come and they go. It’s the start of a long parade, this hockey season. From the look of it, we’d better buckle up.
JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DETROIT FREE PRESS
3
The Playoffs
The road to the Cup would be, well, on the road, at least when it mattered. First up, the Blues and Ducks. But after that ... hello again, Colorado. And then? Doom loomed in Philly.
Despite two black eyes from an injury in practice, Aaron Ward didn’t hesitate to come to Slava Kozlov’s defense and ended up in a long, brutal — yet pretty even — battle with Colorado’s Sylvain Lefebvre. With 6:34 left in Game 4 and the Wings up, 6-0, Claude Lemieux grabbed Kozlov’s jersey and took several liberties with his stick. Kozlov, despite a 25-pound disadvantage, refused to back down. Lemieux, in typical fashion, refused to drop his gloves. That left Ward and Lefebvre to go toeto-toe. Ten-minute misconducts at the time went to Lemieux, Lefebvre and Mike Keane for Colorado and Ward, Darren McCarty, Joe Kocur and Bob Rouse for Detroit.
The Playoffs 57
GABRIEL B. TAIT/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
Even
with a so-so finish to the regular season, the Wings were expected to steam through St. Louis. Instead, Grant Fuhr and Brett Hull made them work for six games.
Hitting all the high notes
By Jason La Canfora
The mission began April 16, 1997, at Joe Louis Arena. The Stanley Cup was a distant hope.
The Red Wings, the third seed in the Western Conference, had stumbled into the playoffs with no incentive to move up in the regular-season standings. Their opening round against the sixth-seeded St. Louis Blues would be a struggle, and it proved to be the toughest series of the playoffs. The Wings outscored St. Louis by one goal, 13-12, in six games. They were shut out twice by future Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr, including 2-0 in the opener, when they
failed on seven power plays and committed 10 penalties, several of them retaliatory.
“We need more traffic in front,” said Sergei Fedorov, who opened the playoffs as a defenseman. “We didn’t get enough scoring chances.” He moved to forward when the Russian Five was reunited for a late power play, but they couldn’t produce even a shot.
In Game 2, Kris Draper provided the first indelible image of the spring.
The Wings hadn’t scored in 104 minutes. Fuhr had stopped 53 consecutive shots. Coach Scotty Bowman moved Fedorov all over the ice and made sweeping line changes. Still, the Blues led, 1-0, in the third period thanks to a goal by a former Wing, Marc Bergevin, his second in a playoff game since
The first round pitted Steve Yzerman against Brett Hull — two of the NHL’s biggest stars and future teammates on a Cup champion in 2002.
MARY SCHROEDER/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Their Stanley Cup hopes in dire straits — the Wings hadn’t scored in the first 104 minutes of the playoffs — Kris Draper delivered a shorthanded goal with 15:55 left in Game 2 against the Blues. Although it only tied the game at 1, Draper and The Joe celebrated as if the goal had won the series. It didn’t do that, but it might have kept the Wings from another early elimination.
JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
In the first round, Grant Fuhr, at age 34, posted two shutouts en route to a 2.18 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
GABRIEL B. TAIT/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
GAME BY GAME
GAME 1 BLUES 2, RED WINGS 0
St. Louis 2 0 0 — 2
Detroit 0 0 0 — 0
FACTS: April 16, 1997, at Joe Louis Arena.
GOALS: Detroit —
None. St. Louis — Geoff Courtnall, Pierre Turgeon (pp).
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (25 of 27).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (30 of 30).
SERIES: Blues lead, 1-0.
GAME 2 RED WINGS 2, BLUES 1
St.
FACTS: April 18, 1997, at Joe Louis Arena.
GOALS: Detroit — Kris Draper (sh), Larry Murphy. St. Louis — Marc Bergevin.
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (22 of 23).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (31 of 33).
SERIES: Tied, 1-1.
GAME 3 RED WINGS 3, BLUES 2
Detroit 1 2 0 — 3
St. Louis 1 1 0 — 2
FACTS: April 20, 1997, at Kiel Center.
GOALS: Detroit —
Kris Draper, Brendan Shanahan (pp), Steve Yzerman (pp). St. Louis — Brett Hull, Joe Murphy (pp).
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (24 of 26).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (26 of 29).
SERIES: Wings lead, 2-1.
GAME 4 BLUES 4, RED WINGS 0
Detroit 0 0 0 — 0 St. Louis 2 0 2 — 4
FACTS: April 22, 1997, at Kiel Center.
GOALS: Detroit — None. St. Louis — Geoff Courtnall, Pavol Demitra, Courtnall (pp), Chris Pronger.
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (19 of 23), Chris Osgood (4 of 4).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (28 of 28).
SERIES: Tied, 2-2.
GAME 5 RED WINGS 5, BLUES 2
GAME 6 RED WINGS 3, BLUES 1
FACTS: April 25, 1997, at Joe Louis Arena.
GOALS: Detroit —
Steve Yzerman, Slava Kozlov (pp), Darren McCarty, Brendan Shanahan, Larry Murphy (pp). St. Louis — Al MacInnis, Jim Campbell (pp).
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (19 of 21).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (28 of 33).
SERIES: Wings lead, 3-2.
FACTS: April 27, 1997, at Kiel Center.
GOALS: Detroit — Slava Kozlov (pp), Brendan Shanahan (pp), Kirk Maltby. St. Louis — Brett Hull.
GOALIES: Detroit — Mike Vernon (24 of 25).
St. Louis — Grant Fuhr (27 of 30).
SERIES: Wings win, 4-2.
Red Wings such as Sergei Fedorov and Vladimir Konstantinov kept a wary eye out for Brett Hull, a 42-goal scorer during the regular season. He managed only two goals in the six playoff games, but he had seven assists. His nine points tied Wayne Gretzky’s team record for a six-game series. His nine points and plus-four rating were tops among all Blues and Wings. Still, in the end, Hull concluded: “It’s so depressing.”
MARY SCHROEDER/ DETROIT FREE PRESS
Fedorov began asserting himself, assisting on Slava Kozlov’s goal that gave the Wings a lead they never lost. Fedorov was skating with authority, looking for his shot, even taking the body on occasion. Shanahan was forthcoming with his praise of Fedorov, and it proved prophetic.
“I thought that was the best game Sergei Fedorov
has played,” Shanahan said. “I think he’s the next player to really break out.”
Fedorov went on to lead the Wings in playoff scoring.
The Russian Five rekindled the flair and creativity they honed on the hardened ice of their native land. World-class skills, the byproduct of a hockey-only existence and years of service to Mother Russia,
were on display again.
“Everybody was excited before the game when Scotty told us we were going to play together,” Igor Larionov said. “We know each other real well. We play the same hockey.”
“I missed the Russian Five,” Kozlov said, “since we didn’t play much in the regular season.”
The Blues tried to intimidate the Russians with a scrum at the end of the second period, but it didn’t work. Fedorov put Scott Pellerin on his back twice.
“It felt great,” Fedorov said. “You do that when you have to do that.”
The Wings won the series in Game 6 at St. Louis, overcoming a first-period 1-0 deficit. They took a 2-1 lead when Shanahan scored in the second period. It was his first series clincher of the playoffs — and not his last.
Good fortune also was on the Wings’ side.
Pierre Turgeon was alone in the crease and scored what appeared to be the tying goal with 52.8 seconds left in the second period. The series could have turned right there.
But Turgeon’s skate was barely in the crease before the puck.
No goal. No tie. The Blues were irate, but in the twisted world of the NHL at the time it was the right call. The Wings won, 3-1.
“They’ve got to really refine this rule,” Bowman said. “I would feel terrible if it happened to our team.”
Nothing like that would happen to the Red Wings in this spring of springs. In retrospect, this moment might have been the first sign that maybe their 42year curse was about to end.
This was the year.