Yzerman holds court for western Canada media

Yzerman holds court for western Canada media
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
By Ansar Khan
CALGARY, Alberta -- On the ice, Detroit Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk can't go far without attracting attention.

But in the visiting locker room at the Saddledome Tuesday, the young stars were virtually ignored as they sat next to each other after practice. All the activity was on the other side of the room, where a large contingent of Calgary media surrounded Steve Yzerman's locker.

The way his groin has flared up this season, there's no guarantee Yzerman will make another trip to western Canada as an active player. So the locals wanted to make sure the longtime captain didn't leave without holding court.

As the Red Wings prepared for tonight's game against the red-hot Flames, Yzerman touched on a variety of topics:

His play: Playing on a checking line, Yzerman's effectiveness is no longer measured by how many goals and points he accumulates. He wasn't expected to have a huge offensive impact, but he had hoped to have more than one goal and four points in 11 games.

"I generally feel real good as far as how I'm skating. I feel relatively energetic," Yzerman said. "Not a lot of production yet, I haven't really done a whole lot offensively. I'm hopeful that will come around, but I feel pretty good."

Though he's averaging about five minutes per game less than he did in 2003-04, when he led the team with nine goals after 23 games, Yzerman has been getting more time on the power play lately, taking Mikael Samuelsson's place on the unit with Brendan Shanahan and Robert Lang.

The Olympics: Yzerman said he hasn't decided if he'll accept an open invitation from Team Canada executive director Wayne Gretzky to play in Turin, Italy, in February.

"They're picking the team (by Dec. 22)," Yzerman said. "If my play between now and then merits a spot, I'll be there. If it doesn't, I won't. I don't think it'll be that difficult a decision to make one way or the other."

Yzerman played in the 1998 and 2002 Olympics and participated in Canada's Olympic orientation camp last August with Wings linemates Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby.

His future: It's widely believed that this is Yzerman's final season, but he continues to maintain that he won't decide until after the season.

"I do enjoy playing," Yzerman said. "When it came time to decide whether to play or to retire . . . if you have one more year, why not play? When you know you're done, you're done. You can move on and not look back and think, `Maybe I could have played a little bit more, had one more opportunity.' "

The Wings' good start: "The league is very different, the way the game is played (with the new rules)," Yzerman said. "We have an entirely different coaching staff for the first time since '93, and that forces guys to be really sharp and pay attention. The guys have come prepared and have worked hard and competed."

The Flames have won seven consecutive games and are a far cry from the team that was spanked 6-3 in Detroit on Oct. 9, when the Wings scored five power-play goals. "You knew Darryl (Flames coach Sutter) was going to get them playing the way he wanted to -- they're playing hard and pursuing the puck hard," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "So I'm real excited about the game. These games are great because we get to find out about our team." . . . Defenseman Jason Woolley is expected to return to the lineup tonight after missing 10 games with a pulled groin. He'll replace Brett Lebda. The team doesn't need to clear a roster space. . . . Manny Legace will start in goal tonight. . . . Former Wing Darren McCarty has one goal, two assists and a team-leading 47 penalty minutes in 16 games for the Flames. Several of his ex-teammates were planning on taking him out to dinner Tuesday night. "We're going to grab some grub with him and grab and shave that chin of his," Maltby said. He was referring to the bizarre beard McCarty has sported this season.