BBC Sport article
February 25, 2003
by Mark Barden
Steve Yzerman’s return for Detroit has given the Stanley Cup holders a boost as they bid to retain the trophy.
The long-serving Red Wings captain made his comeback from injury in Monday’s 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
It was his first game of the season after an osteotomy - a realingnment procedure - on his right knee in August.
USA Today article
February 25, 2003
by Kevin Allen
When Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman opted for an osteotomy to repair severe knee damage last summer doctors told him to set his goal at being able to carry his kids instead of an NHL team.
“I think a lot of people thought he would never play again,” Detroit coach Dave Lewis said. “He’s proved them wrong before, and now he’s back in the lineup. I never thought (he was finished). I know his character.”
Yzerman, 37, made that clear Monday when he played 13:17 in Detroit’s 5-4 win against the Los Angeles Kings. His return came almost seven months after he had a bone realignment procedure that is done primarily on older patients suffering from severe arthritis.
Detroit Free Press column
February 25, 2003
by Mitch Albom
What they did to Steve Yzerman last summer, you wouldn’t wish on a prisoner. They cut his leg bone with a saw, then chiseled it until a path was opened. They wedged that path wider with a fork-like device, then inserted a steel plate, then tightened that plate with screws, then packed it with spare bone material. Then they woke him up.
They call this medicine.
“Osteotomy” is its official name, and if you’re lucky and you fully recover, you have less pain as you walk your grandkids to school. You are not supposed to resume an NHL career.
“We didn’t do it so Steve could return to playing hockey,” his surgeon, Dr. Peter Fowler, told the Free Press. “We did it so Steve could return to walking without pain.”
But what the good doctor may not understand — and what Red Wings fans know all too well — is this: If Yzerman walks, he walks to the rink. If he steps, he steps onto the ice.
