Quotes from the man himself…
“And for the team, I always tried to do the right thing.”
“As a kid in British Columbia, going back a long way, I learned to skate.”
“Balanced is probably what I am, although that’s just a polite way to say that you don’t do anything very well.”
“Being out last year with an injury, I sat up high and watched a lot of games, and you see so much more and it just seems so much slower from up top.”
“But I’m gonna do the best thing for the team and the best thing for me. And I think they’re one and the same, really.”
As a big Steve Yzerman fan, I felt I had to report this quote I saw via George at Snapshots.
I guess I’m not the only one who has a picture of Yzerman placed prominently as a source of inspiration. McKeen’s Hockey recently interviewed Henrik Zetterberg. Their first question asked Hank how the team has adjusted to the absence of Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan. Part of his answer included the following quote:
You are never going to replace those players. I would be naïve to tell you that. Their presence in this locker room helped to shape the Wings into Stanley Cup Champions. There is a picture above my stall where I change of Yzerman so I am fully aware of the contributions he has made every time I dress for the Red Wings.
Globe and Mail article
February 1, 2007
by Eric Duhatschek
Link to Article
The perfect metaphor for Steve Yzerman — and the player he eventually turned into - came in the days leading up to the National Hockey League’s 1983 entry draft when Yzerman wasn’t sure about the team that would ultimately select him, and they weren’t exactly sold on him either.
The Red Wings — otherwise known as the Dead Things or the Grey Wings in those sad-sack days — owned the fourth overall pick that year. They coveted a youngster from the Detroit area, one Pat LaFontaine, on the grounds that they needed to rebuild both their team and their franchise and that a local boy might help meet twin needs, on the ice and also in the marketing department.
