Atta boy Stevie Y

[Booche]

Every fan of hockey is going to miss you.

(taken from a Michael Rosenberg article in the Detroit Free Press printed on July 5th, 2006)

Detroit — Ty Cobb was once voted the best baseball player of the first half of the 20th century — ahead of Babe Ruth.

Gordie Howe is often called, matter-of-factly, the best all-around hockey player ever.

Barry Sanders was arguably the best player ever at arguably the most important position in football.

Isiah Thomas is considered the best little man in NBA history.

Steve Yzerman only made the All-NHL first team once.

And yet, when we speak of Detroit sports icons, Yzerman is right near the top of the list.

Yzerman’s stature is not just about performance, although his was exceptional. (He only missed out on All-NHL honors because he played the same position, in the same era, as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.) Yzerman has a mystique that can largely be explained by what he didn’t do.

He did not change teams. (Heck, in the age of marketing idiocy, when teams get new logos every few years, he did not even change uniforms.) He did not intimidate rookies for his own amusement. He did not get arrested, he did not ask out of Detroit, he did not moan about his salary; he did not complain terribly when people said he was a great player but had never won a Stanley Cup.

He did not bristle when former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman asked him to become a more defensive player; instead, he adapted and won the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. He did not seek attention but did not whine when he got it. When Yzerman spoke to reporters, he did not always say something memorable, but he also did not ever say anything stupid.

Yzerman’s most celebrated trait is leadership. His job description and nickname are one and the same: The Captain. But even in that role, he was effective largely because of what he did not do.

“You can’t just have somebody talking every day,†Bowman said. “He didn’t do that.â€

Yzerman was asked when he retired Monday — after 22 seasons, the last 19 as captain — to name his greatest accomplishment. Fittingly, he did not pick one. This allows others to see what they want to see, to remember what they wish to remember.

And what will we remember most? In 1997, Yzerman led the Wings to their first Stanley Cup in 42 years, ending the longest drought in the NHL. In 1998, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Logically, any Yzerman remembrance should start with those two achievements. But for people who watched Yzerman up close, the enduring memory is of the 2002 Stanley Cup run, when he did not give in to the agonizing pain in his right knee.

“Not being able to pregame skate through the entire playoffs, not being able to practice through the playoffs and after every game his knee just swelling up — he basically had ice bags from his ankle all the way up to his hip to settle the swelling down,†teammate Kris Draper said.

When he got knocked to the ice that spring, Yzerman had to lean on his left knee just to lift himself up.

“Just getting through that was really a struggle for me,†Yzerman said. “Sometimes I thought I was effective, other times I thought I was just buying time out there.â€

[Booche]

Hahahhaa, so a conversation between Elliot Friedman and Scotty Bowman went like this on CBC:

Elliot: In 93-94 there were rumblings that Steve almost went to the Ottawa Senators for Alexei Yashin. How close did that come to actually becoming a reality?

Bowman: That would never have happened.

(Truth be told, there were a number of rumours in that part of his career and I still remembering hearing the Habs were pitching for him......which I obviously wanted to happen!)

[Stevie Y]

Thanks Booche

[ollie]

Hahahhaa, so a conversation between Elliot Friedman and Scotty Bowman went like this on CBC:

Elliot: In 93-94 there were rumblings that Steve almost went to the Ottawa Senators for Alexei Yashin. How close did that come to actually becoming a reality?

Bowman: That would never have happened.

McGuire on the Team yesterday said that no matter what anyone says, the deal was vey close to going down. Of course Bowman would kayfabe it for the CBC audience.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

kayfabe !

way to tie in a wrastling reference!

[ollie]

Everything boils down to wrestling at some point. It's all one big shell game.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

hheeeeeeaaaavvvvvyyyyyyy

[SmoothedShredder]