The Sporting News article
April 13, 1998
by Larry Wigge

Stunned by tragedy last summer, the Red Wings had every reason to quit, but Steve Yzerman wouldn’t let them. As a result they can’t be counted out in their pursuit of a second straight Stanley Cup.

He looks you straight in the eye and chooses his words very carefully. He is not an amateur psychologist, but he has learned that if you look away from someone he might think you are hiding something. So, Steve Yzerman’s eyes never waver. Never.

Yzerman, the heart and soul of the Red Wings for 15 years, still has a wry sense of humor and is a pleasure to be around. But life has made him more than just a better leader, a better captain, than in years past. It also has made him a better man. Especially since this time a year ago, when he and his teammates were trying to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in more than four decades.

Yzerman, who will be 33 next month, is enjoying every minute of life now that his team has done away with its 1955 albatross and survived a horrific ordeal that began a week later, when teammate Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were nearly killed when a limousine they were riding in crashed into a tree. Both men suffered severe brain injuries and were in comas for months following surgery and long hospitalizations.

“I still drive by that Woodward Avenue median,” Yzerman says, trying to fight back tears. Just thinking about it can easily bring a grown man back to reality.”

The tree the limousine crashed into June 13, 1997, is gone now; it toppled during a thunderstorm a month later. So Mother Nature did what an out-of-control car couldn’t do when it slammed head-on into the wide trunk. The only reminder of the crash on the grassy median is a banner dangling from another tree nearby. It bears two words: “We believe.”

The heart of the Red Wings’ franchise and the city of Detroit were torn apart by the accident Forty-two years of waiting was over … and now this. But from the moment Yzerman heard about the accident, he became the team’s heartbeat. It was he who assumed the toughest job of all, that of calling his teammates to inform them what had happened. Then, with many of them standing behind him as he stood at the podium, he announced it to the media. Yzerman’s courage was unparalleled.

“I had watched and admired him from afar and battled against him on the ice,” says Rangers left winger Bob Errey, a teammate last season. “You never see the real person when you are on another team. Heck, you sometimes never really see a person for who he is, even if you are teammates.”

Although Steve Yzerman has been a Red Wing longer than any other player, it wasn’t until a 4-0 loss at St Louis in the first round of last year’s playoffs that his teammates really got to know him.

Usually a leader by example, he was so upset by the loss-Detroit’s second in four games without scoring a goal-that he was moved to make a speech. For 10 minutes in the locker room, Yzerman , delivered a heartfelt message: The stars weren’t carrying their share of the load and were largely to blame for the series being tied 2-2.

“He hadn’t played well, and he felt something had to be said,” third-line center Kris Draper says. “It’s no coincidence that everyone’s performance picked up after that.”

Indeed it did. The Red Wings won the next two games against the Blues, four straight against Anaheim, four of six vs. Colorado and four in a row against Philadelphia. Total goals for the 16 games: Detroit 53, opponents 29.

Says Yzerman, “I remember saying you only get so many chances at winning a Stanley Cup, and I thought this team had everything necessary to win it all, but not the way we were playing…. I think the last time I gave a speech like that was in high school. I think I got a ‘C.’ ”

He deserved an “A” for this one, plus the right to raise the Cup some six weeks later. After 13 seasons of wondering if the critics who said he couldn’t win the big game were right, Yzerman had proved them wrong.

When asked earlier this season about the impact a captain can have on a team, Dallas center Brian Skrudland had first-hand knowledge. Although he isn’t the Stars’ captain (Derian Hatcher is), Skrudland was captain of the Panthers two years ago, when that team advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.

“To me, the best captains pick their spots when to speak,” he said. “You could see how (Yzerman’s) teammates were looking to him for leadership in the finals last year, even Brendan Shanahan, Igor Larionov and Mie Vernon, guys who have been around this game for a long time.”

Glancing over at Yzerman in the Wings’ dressing room earlier this season, Shanahan expressed his theory as to why the veteran center-No. 2 on Detroit’s all-time scoring list to Gordie Howe-only now is starting to receive some of the recognition and appreciation denied to him earlier in his career. Shanahan says there are three main reasons: Wayne Gretzky. Mario Lemieux. Mark Messier.

“The recognition he’s getting now is well deserved. and it has been a long time coming,” Shanahan says. “Being a center in the era of Gretzky, Lemieux and Messier, three of the greatest centers in the history of hockey, it was just tough luck for Steve.”

Yzerman’s tough luck began in 1983, when he broke into the NHL at age 18 with a franchise that hadn’t had a winning season in 11 years or been to the postseason in five. The ‘83-84 Wings did make the playoffs, but they lost in the first round. Detroit didn’t make it past the first round, however, until reaching the conference finals in 1986-87 under Jacques Demers, Yzerman’s fifth coach in four years. It also was Yzerman’s first season as Red Wings captain, at 21 the youngest in club history.

Through it all, Yzerman persevered, sacrificing personal statistics to become a team player. Earlier this season, he became the longest-serving captain in NHL history, surpassing former Red Wing Alex Delvecchio at 11 years, 12 games. “The one thing that separates Steve from the pack is his work ethic,” Shanahan says.

Fair or not, hockey brands those who don’t win with a reputation. Not necessarily that of “loser” but certainly not that of “winner.” Winning the Cup last season erased past perceptions of Yzerman.

“Sure, I’ve noticed a difference in how people look at me-there is a different perception people have of guys who have won and know what it takes to win,” he says. “I don’t necessarily agree with that because I realize it doesn’t really take anything special that any other player can’t produce or doesn’t have.”

Even so, he is now looked upon as a winner. A leader.

“If Steve didn’t get to win the Cup, I don’t think it means he’s not a winner,” Shanahan says. “But we’re all aware as players that’s the ultimate goal, and whether it’s fair or not, the way you are looked at is you have to win before you are accepted as a winner.”

It was four months after the moment had passed and the celebrations were over that Yzerman, finally, decided to hang the picture in the new home he’d built recently outside Detroit.

It was a full color photo of him lifting the Stanley Cup over his head. His dream had become reality, the chase was over and he would never forget the joy, the exhilaration of the moment. Even now, finding the words to describe it is difficult for him.

“I love just looking at it,” he says. Winning the Stanley Cup helped Yzerman reach a pinnacle in a career that has had its share of ups and downs. Now that he knows the feeling, he wants to do it again. Not only for himself, but for Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov, two men who by fate will never do it again.