January 3, 2007
Steve Yzerman was known as a man of few words when he played, but when he did
speak, people usually listened.
But the crowd at Joe Louis Arena wouldn't hear of it Tuesday night when he tried to share credit with former teammates and coaches by saying: "I feel my image as a great leader was greatly overblown ..."
NO! the crowd yelled at the Joe.
A few more observations on the ceremonies to officially retire Yzerman's No. 19 and raise it to the rafters at the Joe:
• Most over-the-top moment: When they played "Also Sprach Zarathustra" -- the theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- as they re-raised the jerseys of Howe, Lindsay, Abel, Delvecchio and Sawchuk.
• Better musical choice: Yzerman walked out to "Simply the Best," by Tina Turner.
• There were a lot of big cheers, but besides the man of the hour, the biggest decibels went to Howe and Co., Bob Probert (who took a seat next to Joe Kocur), Brett Hull, Igor Larionov and Scotty Bowman, with all of the players wearing white Wings jerseys with No. 19 patches.
• Most touching moment: When Vladimir Konstantinov came out to the C-shaped red carpet on the ice with a walker.
• Even the Stanley Cup made an appearance. On loan from Compuware.
• Was that a new, uh, haircut for Mike Ilitch, too?
• Jimmy Devellano reminisced about the day the Wings drafted Yzerman for dee-Troy-it. And we like to add our thanks to the Islanders for taking Pat LaFontaine. No offense to LaFontaine, a Hall of Famer, but it worked out pretty well here.
• Great touch: All of the Wings wore Yzerman jerseys for the warm-up -- that's standard for nights like these -- but they weren't just Detroit jerseys. Some wore Team Canada jerseys, some wore Campbell Conference All-Star jerseys, and some even wore Peterborough Petes sweaters from his way-back-when OHL team.
• Congrats messages were played on the big screen from people like Darren McCarty, Joe Sakic, Jarome Iginla and Wayne Gretzky. Fans at the Joe booed just one, the one from Bill Ford Jr.
Captain's Corner
And yet another honor: The Coach's Corner segment was all Yzerman on "Hockey Night in Canada."
Not only was there an Yzerman highlight reel, you also got to see Don Cherry's wardrobe though the years as CBC replayed his comments about the Captain.
Many were about how underappreciated Yzerman was in the pre-Cup days. Example, from an undetermined year: "He is the captain of captains. The people in Detroit do not -- do not -- appreciate this. He is one of the absolute best."
Back live, after all the gushing, Ron MacLean asked Cherry: "(Dougie) Gilmour or him, who do you love?"
Cherry: "I was never that intimate with Stevie, but I still love him."
They came bearing gifts
Yzerman also went home with some nice parting gifts:
• From the Ilitches: a Chevy Tahoe. "Boy, will that look nice going over to Oakland Hills, Steve," said emcee Darren Pang, Yzerman's longtime buddy.
• From the Wings players: a family trip to the 2008 European soccer championships in Austria. When they retire Nick Lidstrom's jersey, will they send him to the World Series?
There was a little confusion when Cherry asked Yzerman about the gift on CBC. They seemed to be under the impression the European championships were in Australia instead of Austria.
They said it
• Scotty Bowman, asked on CBC about those rumors Yzerman was almost traded to Ottawa for Alexei Yashin: "That would never have happened, just for the simple reason that the ownership of the Red Wings, it wouldn't matter who was trying to orchestrate anything. Mr. Ilitch ... he knew what he had."
• Brett Hull, telling FSN what he learned about Yzerman when they became teammates: "I was friends with Wayne Gretzky -- I didn't realize there was someone else that could carry themselves with such class. The one thing that may have been a little bit missing from my repertoire."
• Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who wore jeans, an open-collared shirt, a sweater vest and a Wings cap to a pregame VIP reception at the RenCen: ".. I'm the only one that came dressed for the occasion. All I need is a glass of beer and we could do this really well. All of these reformed hockey fans with ties on, yeah, right. I'll see you at Joe Louis Arena."
Bottom line
• Hey, has the game started yet? The Anaheim Ducks must have thought they were still on West Coast time.