NHL.com column
December 2, 2003
by Larry Wigge

There’s an almost undetectable quiver of Steve Yzerman’s lower lip when he talks about the decision he contemplated after his surgically repaired right knee wouldn’t cooperate in training camp.

“I struggled through training camp, didn’t feel very good,” he admits outside the Detroit Red Wings’ locker room in St. Louis last week following a 2-1 victory against the Blues. “I found it difficult to play. I just couldn’t get much confidence going. … I thought long and hard … then decided to see how it goes. I knew if I couldn’t contribute … then I probably would have had a decision to make. …

“I was clearly going in the wrong direction. … I thought, uh, whether to play or not …”

Yzerman catches himself. He knows the fragile nature of life as a professional athlete. In his 20-plus NHL seasons, he has seen a lot of friends and competitors come and go — just by evolution or because of illness and injury.

The Red Wings’ longtime captain sat out all but 16 games last season, plus the four-game sweep at the hands of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs following a radical surgery on the knee he injured during the 2001-02 season.

No athlete wants to admit it’s over, but Yzerman was wondering what happened to his speed as he scored just two goals and seven assists in the 20 games he played, including the playoffs.

He worked hard in the offseason.

“I had good days and I had bad ones,” he admits.

Training camp would be the test. But, it was then that he said he felt “slow” — and that, to him, was a red flag, dangerous sign.

“In talking to Steve at the end of training camp, he was very discouraged at how things were going, how he felt, his quickness and speed and everything that went with it,” remembers Red Wings GM Ken Holland. “I think he had a lot of doubts about what he could contribute. He was filled with pain and frustration.

“Then, all of a sudden, the season started and he seemed to turn on the switch. It’s an amazing story that couldn’t have gone better for Steve … and for us.”

If you need a dream come true, all you had to do was watch Yzerman on Opening Night. The game against the Los Angeles Kings was tied 2-2. The outcome came down to the final rush of regulation time, which was usually reserved for Yzerman.

On what proved to be the final rush of the game, Yzerman took a backhand pass from newcomer Ray Whitney and — Voila!!!! — the magic wand Stevie Y uses fired a quick and heavy wrist shot past Kings goaltender Roman Cechmanek for the victory — with 1.7 seconds left on the clock.

Yzerman slapped his stick on the ice in victory. The Red Wings captain had once again beaten back time. His smile was wider than the 4 x 6 foot net he faced on that shot.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow! It’s been a good 18 months since I did something like that,’” Yzerman says. “I went into the game hoping that the fans didn’t start booing me in the third period if I couldn’t do it anymore.’”

Yzerman will certainly go down as one of Detroit’s finest sports figures.
In this world of sports, we ask our heroes to do it again and again.

Yzerman’s goal came on his only shot of the night. And while the finish was a success, the questions still haunted the 38-year-old center: Would his knee be able to hold up? Would he have to take off the second game in back-to-back situations?

What we have learned is that through the Red Wings’ first 25 games Yzerman has played in 24 of them, averaged 17:30 minutes a game, scored 10 goals and continued to play in all of the team’s crucial situations — killing penalties, taking the important faceoffs and normally played head-up against the other team’s best players.

On this night against St. Louis, Yzerman played 20:41. No points and only one shot, but he and linemates Kris Draper and Brendan Shanahan played head up against the Blues’ big line of Pavol Demitra, Keith Tkachuk and Scott Mellanby and shut them out. He took 21 faceoffs — more than any other player. And when the game was on the line in the final minute, it was Yzerman who was charged with helping the Red Wings hold their lead. And this was his and the team’s third game — all wins — in the last four nights.

“Typical Steve Yzerman,” says teammate Nicklas Lidstrom matter-of-factly. “He’s been an inspiration to all of us with the courage he shows just in going out on the ice every night.”

Three times Yzerman has been presented with the Stanley Cup, raised it to the rafters and skated around the ice with it proudly held aloft before passing it off to teammates. Clearly, Yzerman has been the best Detroit athlete of these past 20 years. Yes, better than Barry Sanders of the Lions, Isiah Thomas of the Pistons and Alan Trammel or any other Tigers star.

We’ll all remember watching, admiring Yzerman for his 23 points in 23 games for the Red Wings — on one leg no less — while leading them on their Stanley Cup run in 2002. After that stirring performance, Yzerman spent the summer flying to various specialists, trying to find one who might be able to prolong his career. He settled on Peter Fowler, who performed an osteotomy, or knee realignment, in London, Ontario.

The procedure he had performed on his right knee might classify Yzerman now as a medical marvel. This surgery is usually reserved for older people who have degenerative bone disease and hope to resume walking — not resume pushing off hard with every skating stride or coming through the neutral zone with someone like Scott Stevens waiting to crumple you with a hip check.

Even a couple of months after the surgery, Fowler said he still thought it best Yzerman retire. All he gave him was a 50-50 chance of returning. But just returning wasn’t, and isn’t, enough for a leader of men like Yzerman.

Most men with the skill to amass more than 650 goals and 1,660 points do not throw themselves down to block slap shots the way Yzerman does. But that’s a part of what makes Yzerman one of the best captains in the NHL.

“Some nights you’d see him try to climb up the stairs to get on an airplane and wonder, ‘How can he be ready for a game in 24 hours?’” Kings winger Luc Robitaille told me earlier this season about his former teammate. “But that’s part of the package you see every day when you are around Steve Yzerman.

“I always thought I knew how much it took to win a Stanley Cup, but I didn’t really get it until I sat in that locker room and on that bench and watched Steve.”

Athletes in the stratosphere with Yzerman are here to amaze us.

I’ll never forget Yzerman standing in front of reporters after the Red Wings won their second-straight Stanley Cup in 1998, at 33, and boldly saying, “Twenty seasons would be a good number. I would love nothing better than standing here in front of you again after five more effective years … and at least a couple more Stanley Cup runs like this.”

Yzerman remembers.

The longest tenured active captain in pro sports commands respect from a lockerroom full of proven veterans.

“I said five effective years … not like last year,” he insists. “I’m not here just to be captain. You have to be able to play and want to contribute on the ice. We have plenty of leaders here.”

The names of Lidstrom and Chris Chelios on defense, Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan up front and Dominik Hasek in goal come to mind. But Yzerman is still the leader on this team, make you mistake about that.

“If there was a trophy for courage, he would have already won it,” coach Dave Lewis says. “Just to be able to say, ‘Yzerman, your line is up,’ are the greatest words I’ve ever said.”

An ultimate tribute, especially for a player who puts so much of himself into each game — even today, when he clearly isn’t 100 percent in body, but is just as good in all of the intangibles it takes to make a difference from night to night in such a demanding team game.

“Some nights it’s a struggle,” Yzerman says. “But I’m happy to be back and able to keep up with the play and feel like I’m doing more than just getting by.”

Yzerman doesn’t need to make explanations to us. He’s proven himself enough through the years. But there were things running through his head a few months ago that he is happy he has overcome.

“I always said I wouldn’t want to retire because of an injury and then a year or so later feel good enough to play again and wonder why I quit in the first place,”‘ he says.

“‘I’m just not ready to retire. Whether it’s due to my knee condition or one day I just lose the desire to play, I’ll know that then, but I don’t have that now. I definitely haven’t lost any desire to play. Until I get out there and know that I can’t play anymore, then I’ll stop.”

Right now, however, Steve Yzerman is far too important to the Red Wings to even think of retiring.