USA Today article
October 17, 2000
by Kevin Allen

The Red Wings, struggling to find their game in the early going, have lost captain Steve Yzerman “indefinitely” because
of arthroscopic knee surgery to repair damaged cartilage.

“We don’t think he will be out long, but he did have surgery,” Detroit general manager Ken Holland said. “We just don’t know.”

The Red Wings are reluctant to speculate how long it will take for Yzerman to return, but the general range for this would be
2-3 weeks. On one hand, Yzerman traditionally has been a fast healer. On the other hand, he is 35.

With Yzerman playing on his damaged knee, the Red Wings clearly have been out of sync. Even with the NHL’s rule tweaking taking
place to increase offensive flow, the Detroit team doesn’t have any forward with more than one goal.

Yzerman isn’t the only star on the sideline:

* Kings defenseman Rob Blake is week-to-week after a CT scan discovered a hairline fracture in his lumbar vertebrae.
He was injured Friday but an X-ray showed no fracture, so he played Sunday and had three assists. Blake will begin rehabilitation
immediately and a full recovery is expected.

* Flyers left wing John LeClair is continuing to consult doctors about whether to have surgery on his ailing back. He has been out a week with back spasms and now the pain is radiating down his legs. “With the treatment, it’s getting better, but it’s still there,”
he said.

LeClair said he considers surgery a last resort: “The progress hasn’t gone as well as I hoped. Hopefully, they can give me other
alternatives. . . . If that’s not the case, I’d like to have it fixed. I don’t want this to recur in March or April. That would be a real problem.”

* Flyers right wing Mark Recchi, who had his “bell rung” in the season opener and sat out the Flyers’ last two games,
tested out OK on Monday. But he will miss tonight’s game against Ottawa.

Around the rinks: Senators goalie Patrick Lalimeis out at least 10 days with a sprained knee. . . . ESPN2 is picking up tonight’s Colorado-Washington game, where Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy is trying to break Terry Sawchuk’s record of 447 regular-season wins. The network will carry the game live until 7:30, when it will switch to its scheduled St. Louis-Detroit game. But Roy’s chase will be followed with live break-ins.