The Sporting News article
Jun 16, 1997
by Larry Wigge

With Steve Yzerman fulfilling his destiny as a Captain Courageous, the inspired Red Wings end Detroit’s 42-year Stanley Cup frustration with a sweeping gesture.

Oh say can you ‘C’: Yzerman, the captain of Detroit’s long overdue championship vessel, hoists the Stanley Cup as jubilant Red Wings teammates share in his triumphant moment.

An elderly man walks up to Steve Yzerman outside the Red Wings’ locker room. His body is slightly hunched and his face bears the scars of a long, successful playing career. But he still has that vice-like handshake, and the competitive fire that burned long ago still has a flickering ember. He hugs Yzerman, wishes him luck in the potential Stanley Cup clincher and whispers in his ear: “Remember your dream. Do it for that 9-year-old kid in you.”

Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, the player referred to affectionately as Terrible Ted, still remembers that April 1955 day when his Red Wings defeated Montreal, 3-1, in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals-the last time a Detroit captain had raised the Cup in victory. “It was our fourth title in six years, but the owner began to sell off the players,” says Lindsay, holding up the ring he still wears to commemorate that 1955 championship. “It was a special time for a special team. You know, I really think we could have won eight or nine Cups if that team had been kept together.”

His voice trails off, then picks up steam as he fires off the names: Gordie Howe, Red Kelly, Terry Sawchuk, Al Arbour, Marcel Pronovost, Bob Goldham, Tony Leswick, Alex Delvecchio. Lindsay has added a lifetime of memories since that magic moment in 1955-a year in which the Cleveland Browns won the NFL title, the Syracuse Nationals reigned as NBA champions and the Brooklyn Dodgers won their long-awaited first World Series. Of all those champions, only the Red Wings still are playing in the same city. “I’ve seen a lot of cementheads come through here (Detroit) since 1955,” Lindsay says. “Most of them didn’t care a hoot about this team. But not Steve Yzerman. This young man is all class. He has been a great representative for the city of Detroit for 14 years. He’s quiet, plays the game hard and fair and new er stops working-for himself and the team.”

Yzerman was a shy, wide-eyed 9-year-old when it first occurred to him how special a Stanley Cup victory can be. The revelation occurred while watching television with his father at their home in Cranbrook, British Columbia. “I remember seeing (NHL president) Clarence Campbell hand the Stanley Cup to Bobby Clarke (captain of the Flyers) in 1974, and I thought how wonderful it would be to be in his shoes,” Yzerman says. Now he knows. Cinderella’s skate fit Yzerman when he tried it on last Saturday, the culmination of Detroit’s Cup finals sweep of the Flyers and the end of the NHL’s longest championship drought at 42 years.

“The sheer joy of winning, raising the Cup, that’s the only reason you play,” Yzerman says in a champagnesoaked locker room after the 2-1 clinching victory over the team Clarke now serves as general manager. “Teddy was right: I did it for that 9-yearold kid in me and the kid in all of these wonderful Detroit fans who have waited so long for this day.

“When I came here (as the fourth overall pick in the 1983 draft) all we talked about was making the playoffs. The team had only made the playoffs once in something like 13 seasons. It had gotten so bad we couldn’t even sell out in the playoffs that year against St. Louis.”

Yzerman has not been in Detroit through the entire drought but it did seem that way to him sometimes. He has had his loyal supporters, those who badly wanted him to get his championship like long-time Detroit baseball favorite Al Kaline finally did when the Tigers won the 1968 World Series. He also has had his critics, those who questioned his leadership, character and ability to win when it counts.

Since that 1974 moment at age 9, Yzerman can recall missing only one Stanley Cup presentation ceremony-two years ago, when he ducked quickly into the Meadowlands Arena visitors’ dressing room after the Wings had been swept by New Jersey in the finals. “I just couldn’t watch,” he says.

It was on that night that the kid in Yzerman learned a hard reality of life: You don’t give up your dreams, but you have to pay the price for them every day, for as long as it takes. That’s a lesson Flyers captain Eric Lindros has yet to learn. Lindros did not answer questions when his coach, Terry Murray, said his players were in a “choking situation” after falling behind 3-0 in the series. Yzerman has always been there to face the music.

Captains don’t bail out on their teammates; they stand up and take the heat when necessary Lindros would be well advised to watch Yzerman-carefully. A photo in the Red Wings’ locker room shows a Stanley Cup ring with these words scripted alongside: “If the ring isn’t on your mind, it won’t be on your finger.” Yzerman stands near the sign after the Game 4 victory. The ring definitely is on his mind and the force of pride and leadership he brought to the successful 1997 playoff run can be felt throughout a triumphant clubhouse.

After averaging 44.5 goals through his first 10 NHL seasons-including a six-year stretch when he averaged 55.2, Yzerman took a serious look at the captain’s “C” that adorns his sweater, listened to his coaches and his heart and began giving more of himself, digging harder in the corners and diving to block shots. The goals came less frequently, but the wins began piling up.

“The whole team has bought into the system, sacrificing and playing defense and playing together,” says Panthers G.M. Bryan Murray, who spent four seasons as Detroit’s general manager and had a big part in building this team. “I don’t think our teams (back in 1993 and ‘94) bought in or were ready to buy in. We had a lot of young players who didn’t realize how much the Stanley Cup meant and how hard it is to win. We weren’t ready.

“In fact, I remember Stevie Yzerman coming up to me earlier this season and saying, ‘I should have been satisfied with being a 20goal scorer sooner, instead of trying to score 50 every year.’” Yzerman scored 22 goals during the regular season, but he led the Red Wings with 63 assists and finished second with 85 points. The concept is simple: There is no “I” in team.

Yzerman acted like the captain he saw in Bobby Clarke back in 1974, the first of the Flyers’ back-to-back title years. He learned from outgoing newcomer Brendan Shanaha and helped youngsters Darren McCarty and Martin Lapointe become more than just sheep following the shepherd. Yzerman’s words, the ones spoken from the middle of the locker room after a 4-0 loss to St. Louis that tied a first-round playoff series at two games apiece, still ring in his teammates’ ears seven weeks after the fact. “He hadn’t played well, and he felt some thing had to be said,” says third-line center Kris Draper, who listened to Yzerman chal lenge the team’s top players to demand more of themselves and the role players to make the most of their time on the ice. “Everyone’s play picked up.”

The Red Wings, two losses from a humiliating first-round elimination, won 14 of their next 16 games. Before Yzerman’s challenge, he had man aged one point in four games. Shanahan had two and Sergei Fedorov had none. Yzerman scored a goal in each of the first three games against the Flyers and finished the playoffs with seven. Yzerman, Shanahan and Fedorov were key factors throughout the Cup run.

“It’s not a coincidence,” right winger Joey Kocur says. “I don’t think some of the guys realized that to win in the playoffs, the best players on your team have got to outplay their best players. “The playoffs are a totally different game, and everyone stepped up another notch after that.”