Red Wings legend to decide his hockey future soon
By LANCE HORNBY -- Toronto Sun

On Oct. 5, 1984, baby-faced teen Steve Yzerman stepped on the ice for the first time as a National Hockey Leaguer and scored for the Detroit Red Wings on Winnipeg Jets goalie Doug Soetaert.

Monday night, the nearly 41-year-old played through a torn rib muscle, assisted on Robert Lang's goal, shook hands with the Edmonton Oilers and exited for possibly the final time after 1,940 points in 1,710 games, all with Detroit. Motown only wishes it could make all its cars with this kind of performance and durability.

Yzerman wanted to go out carrying the Stanley Cup one more time, becoming the first captain since Wayne Gretzky to accept the trophy four times. But age and injuries finally might have ground the career of the league's sixth-highest career scorer to a halt.

He and the Wings face a long climb back next year after the Oilers rallied to win their Western Conference quarter-final with a four-goal explosion in the third period of Game 6.

"It's best to wait a few days, then I can pretty much make a quick decision," Yzerman told the Detroit News when asked about retirement.

He has completed 23 seasons in Detroit, 20 of them as captain, an NHL record. He broke in with a Wings team that included Brad Park, Colin Campbell, Ron Duguay and Tiger Williams and skated Monday with Niklas Kronwall, who was nine months old when Stevie Y debuted versus the Jets.

The son of a federal civil servant, Yzerman was born in Cranbrook, B.C., and raised in the shadow of the Peace Tower in Nepean. After a 91-point year with the Ontario Hockey League's Peterborough Petes, the centre was drafted fourth overall in 1983 by the rebuilding Wings.

Yzerman lost out to Buffalo goalie Tom Barrasso in Calder voting in '83-84 despite 87 points, but his hardware includes the Conn Smythe, Lester B. Pearson and Bill Masterton Trophies. He has played on two Olympic teams and numerous World Cup and world championship squads.

The Leafs remain his most frequent regular-season victims, with 153 points against them in 111 games.

"Steve likes to lead by example," Wings defenceman Nik Lidstrom told the Ottawa Sun last year.

"When I think of Steve, I like to think about 2002 when we won the Cup. He was basically playing on one leg (having helped Canada to Olympic gold that February). He couldn't practise for two months and even had a difficult time taking part in the warmup. But when the puck was dropped, he was there and performed. He's as tough as nails."