Associated Press article
October 16, 2000

The Red Wings’ slow start this season now looks like the least of their problems.

Detroit captain Steve Yzerman will be out of the lineup indefinitely after undergoing surgery Monday to repair torn cartilage in his right knee.

“He said it felt strong enough to play, but he had to play with pain,” Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman said.

The Red Wings (2-3), who play St. Louis on Tuesday at home, did not give a timetable on when Yzerman would return from the arthroscopic procedure.

Teammate Brendan Shanahan said it’s good Yzerman had the surgery now.

“If there was a good time do it, it’s good to get it over with early in the season,” he said. “It’s a huge loss. … Steve contributes so much offensively and defensively.”

Sergei Fedorov, one of the Red Wings’ other veteran leaders, said he hoped the adjustment period for the rest of the team would be short.

“Hopefully everybody realizes that we’ve got to step up, all of us, not just one or two players, because it’s important to play well as a team,” Fedorov said.

General Manager Ken Holland said other players would have to work harder to fill the void.

“If they don’t, we’re going to have big, big-time problems. Steve was the guy on our power play, on our penalty killing unit and he was always lined up against our opponents top line,” Holland said. “I don’t think any one person can replace Steve. It’s going to take a whole lot of people to play better.”

The 35-year-old Yzerman, in his 18th season in Detroit, was scratched before Sunday night’s 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames in Detroit because of his sore knee.

Yzerman was injured in Detroit’s Sept. 28 exhibition victory over Toronto when he fell over teammate Maxim Kuznetzov. He was placed on injured reserve Oct. 3 and activated a week later. He had one assist in the two games he played this season.

The injury sidelined him for the team’s final two exhibition games and their first two games of the season.

“I think the wiser decision is to stay off it and get back to 100 percent so I don’t have any pain in the ligament,” Yzerman said three days before the season began.

The Red Wings do not plan any immediate roster changes.

“He missed several of the last few games so we don’t need to make roster moves,” a team spokesman said.

Yzerman, who is the longest running captain in NHL history, has scored 621 goals and made 935 assists in his career. He had 39 goals and 44 assists during the 1999-00 regular season. In the season before, he led the team with 74 points and 13 power-play goals.

He was the Red Wings’ first-round draft pick, the fourth overall, in 1983.