Consummate Captain - Steve Yzerman

Veteran Center Key to Detroit's Hopes For Another Cup

By John U. Bacon

On their quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup, the Detroit Red Wings have been tested by high winds, severe storms and rough seas, but their ship is still sailing, mainly because their captain is at the helm, as resolute as ever.

This season, at age 33, Steve Yzerman still leads the Red Wings in team spirit, hard work and inspiration, something he's been doing for 16 years.

Once a predominantly offensive player who scored over 100 points for six straight seasons (1987-88 through 1992-93), Yzerman's average point total the past few seasons is about half of what it was in 1988-89, when he scored a career high 155 points, but his value to his team has never been higher.

The man whose name used to be on a short list with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux's for offensive prowess was recently deemed "the best two-way player in the NHL by Fox hockey analyst John Davidson. Incredibly, the comment was echoed a week later by Yzerman's taciturn coach, Scotty Bowman, the man who openly circulated Yzerman's name in trade rumors just four years ago.

"I don't score as much as I used to," Yzerman acknowledges, "but our team doesn't score as much as we used to. We play a lot tighter defensive style now, so every player has had to sacrifice some scoring." Anyone who saw the Red Wings captain the night he finally won the Stanley Cup knows how happy he's been to make the trade off.

"When you see him blocking shots night after night," says hard-nosed teammate Kirk Maltby, "you can't help but do the same yourself."

Despite being woefully underappreciated by some of his coaches, despite facing serious injuries to his collarbone, his right knee and his back, despite suffering painful setbacks in the playoffs almost every year of the past decade, Yzerman has never stopped working, he's never stopped respecting the press or the fans, and he's never stopped pursuing the Stanley Cup, even after he finally succeeded in 1997 and 1998.

As a result, Detroit fans have never stopped cheering for their favorite, Steve Yzerman.

Late Start, Quick Rise:

When pizza baron Mike Ilitch bought the team on June 22, 1982, the organization was a shambles. The once proud Red Wings had made 14 coaching changes, employing 12 head coaches during the previous 17 seasons, missing the playoffs 14 times.

To get the Red Wings flying high again, Ilitch and then-general manager Jim Devellano knew they had to get someone strong enough in the upcomingdraft to build an entire team around. One possibility was a quiet, unassuming junior player who had just turned 18. He was just 5'11", 170 pounds, his numbers with the Peterborough Petes of the Onatrio Hockey League were solid but not staggering, and he had started playing hockey only 10 years earlier.

But something about the kid felt right.

Detroit picked Yzerman fourth overall in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft behind Brian Lawton, Sylvain Turgeon, and Pat Lafontaine. The Total Hockey encyclopedia devotes 900 words to that year's Draft, but doesn't mention Yzerman's name once. Lawton and Lafontaine have since retired without Stanley Cups rings, while Turgeon plays in Europe.

Among the rest of the top 10 picks that year, not one is still playing with his original team, and no one from that draf has come close to Yzerman's record of achievement.

"From day one, Steve Yzerman has been our bright hope," Devellano has said.

"As best as you can know an 18 year old, we felt we had found our cornerstone. We started out together."

Devellano's first decision was easily his most important -- and successful

Thus, just 10 years after playing his first organized game, Yzerman was playing in the NHL. In fact, he has played 60% longer in the NHL than he has at all other levels combined.

"It's all I ever wanted to do," he said.

Yzerman vindicated Devellano's decision immediately, scoring 87 and 89 points in his first two seasons, and helping his team make the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 1966. But in 1985-86, his third year, Yzerman had his worst season ever, scoring just 14 goals in 51 games before he broke his collarbone, which mercifully cut short the rest of that sorry season. Yzerman's anemic performance matched the team's, which finished with a 17-57-6 record, the worst winning percentage in franchise history.

"We deserved the boos," he said. "We were dreadful. It was a disaster, the low point of my athletic career. I was embarrassed, but I was mostly scared. I knew if I kept playing like that I'd be out of hockey -- and I couldn't stand that.

Salvation came in the form of new coach Jacques Demers, who quickly decided to make Yzerman, then 21, the youngest captain in team history.

It probably seemed like a rash move at the time, but consider this: Before Demers arrived, the Red Wings had used up 19 captains in 13 years. This season Yzerman entered his 13th year with the "C" on his sweater, providing a level of stability not seen since, well, ever. In terms of games played, no one has had a longer run as captain in NHL history.

Yzerman has never been a vocal captain, but at first he was almost too modest for his own good. "I don't think it's right for me to go to a guy and say, 'You've got to start working harder,'" Yzerman said in his early years as captain.

Abraham Lincoln observed that it's better to be silent and have people think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

"A lot of times, that's how I feel," Yzerman said "so I'd just as soon keep my mouth shut."

The 1986-87 season was Demers' first as the Red Wings coach, and Yzerman's first as the team's captain. The combination was explosive. The young star notched 90 points, his most ever at the time, while the team jumped 38 points higher than the previous season. In the division final, the Red Wings were down three games to one to Toronto, but came back to force a Game 7 and beat the Maple Leafs 3-0.

"It was a very emotional game," Demers said. "It was a very real chance for a young kid to crack. But Stevie was awesome. He dominated. He led. And right then this thought came to me: 'My God, we can win the Stanley Cup some day with this man.' Stevie Yzerman is the one who will lead the club to even better days."

The Red Wings picked up right where they left off the following fall, enjoying their most productive season since 1969-70. That season hockey experts started including Yzerman short list of greats with Gretzky and Lemieux.

The sky seemed to be the limit on March 1, when he scored his 50th goal in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres -- until the sky came crashing down just 15 minutes later. While he was driving to the net, his right knee struck the base of the post. He knocked the net of its moorings and ripped the ligaments behind his knee.

In just seconds, Yzerman's dream season had turned into a nightmare. His doctors said it might end his career -- at age 22.

The bad news for Yzerman: His right posterior cruciate ligament was severed forever. The good news: according to his doctor, was that "he can't hurt it anymore because his knee is gone."

But just a month later after crashing to the ice in Buffalo, Yzerman returned for game 3 of the Conference final. Nobody would have guessed it then, but the 1988 Conference final against Edmonton would be as close as the Red Wings would come to kissing the Cup in seven years.

Just as he had after his miserable 1985-86 campaign , Yzerman rebounded from his abbreviated 1987-88 season with a vengeance, scoring 25 goals in the first 24 games of the season. Just two months into the season, Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry declared, "Right now, little Stevie Yzerman is playing the best hockey in the National Hockey League.

Yzerman finished the 1988-89 campaign with 65 goals, 90 assists and 155 points, thereby accounting for 49.5% of all Detroit's goals that season. Statistically, it was Yzerman's best season. He set virtually every team scoring record, and became one of only four players in League history to score more than 150 points in a season (others were Phil Esposito, Gretzky and Lemieux). The media picked Yzerman third for the Hart Trophy (most valuable player to his team), behind the Pittsburgh Penguins' Lemieux and the Edmonton Oilers's Grant Fuhr [that's wrong, Gretzky won it that year, Fuhr was third another year]. But the players select the winner of the Lester B. Pearson Award (the league's most outstanding player) -- and they selected Yzerman. As the 1980s ended, Stevie Y had arrived.

Seasons Of Discontent:

The Red Wings, however, soon disappeared again.

During the 1989-90 season, Detroit went from first to worst in their division. At the end of the campaign Demers was forced to step down. Even when he was coaching the Stanley Cup champions Montreal Canadiens years later, Demers said, "I can honestly say that Yzerman is the greatest player I've ever coached."

Yzerman continued his solid play during his first year under Demers' replacement, Bryan Murray, scoring over 50 goals and 100 points for the fourth consecutive year. Nonetheless, the Red Wings lost in the opening round of the playoffs. After two more 100-point seasons for Yzerman, and two more playoff swoons, Murray also had to leave town.

Despite his impressive stats and obvious grit, Yzerman's reputation for hard, intelligent play went underappreciated by national team coach "Iron" Mike Keenan. Then coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, Keenan coached Team Canada in the Canada Cup series in 1987 and 1991. Despite making the team in 1984 and playing much better hockey three years later, Yzerman was cut by Keenan in 1987, shocking the experts.

In the 1990 World Championships, Yzerman led all Team Canada players with 10 goals and 10 assists. Keenan subsequently promised him a spot on the 1991 Canada Cup team before training camp began. But Keenan, the NHL's Machiavelli, has a history of changing his mind, especially when dealing with the game's most skilled players. Denis Savard in Chicago, and later, Gretzky in St. Louis and Pavel Bure in Vancouver, all chafed under his guidance. In 1991, Keenan cut Yzerman again.

"I know inside it's killing him," Demers said of Keenan's slighting Yzerman.

"I feel for him. This...has to hurt."

"No, it doesn't hurt all that much," Yzerman claimed. "A little maybe, but all in a day's work.

"I've always been concerned with what eveyone thinks," he added. "I've tried to say the right things in public, say the right things to the coaches. But you kind of realize that you've always believed people's words as true and that it's not always true. The game is a business. I understand that. You can't think people are going to take care of you because you're a good guy.

A New Era:

From the ashes of another Red Wings implosion, management started building the current "dynasty". It all started with Bowman -- and for Yzerman, it almost ended there, too.

After suffering a herniated disc in his back, Yzerman had to endure trade rumors -- to Montreal in 1994 and to the Ottawa Senators in 1995.

"If it's time to go, it's time to go," he said. "I just wish I would be treated with a little more respect."

If the respect from the front office was underwhelming, the chorus of respect from the fans was unmistakable. As the rumors again circulated in the fall of 1995 during a long road trip, upon his return to the Joe Louis, the crowd gave Yzerman a rousing ovation when his name was announced before the game. Even Bowman remarked how much support Red Wings fans gave Yzerman. He was probably smart enough to calculate how unpopular he'd be if he traded the widely admired captain.

With the new flood of talented teammates, Yzerman had to make sacrifices.

After playing in the All-Star Game for six consecutive seasons and being the Red Wings' scoring leader for eight straight seasons, he hadn't accomplished either feat during Bowman's first three years. Since players like Sergei Fedorov and Slave Kozlov could pick up more of the scoring load, Yzerman re-emphasized team defense.

"When you first come in to a new organization, it takes a while to analyze your players," says associate coach Barry Smith, who followed Bowman from Pittsburgh, "but you could see right away Stevie practiced as long as hard as anyone, and worked off-ice even more. It was pretty amazing, as much as he plays. No one gets more ice time."

"Since I've been here the system has changed," Smith adds, referring to the defensive game plan the Red Wings now follow. "He was the first and foremost an advocate of it. And once Stevie's on board, you have a good chance to sell it to the rest of the team. He's not afraid to give up some offense to play good defense. He routinely sacrifices chances for a breakaway to cover up on defense.

"You have to realize, he helped create a whole different type of Red Wing, and they had to sacrifice their numbers to do it."

Yzerman made all those sacrifices for a reason: Despite all his achievements, his career had one glaring omission. It's big and silver and great for drinking victory champagne. To sip from it, Yzerman started to challenge his teammates in ways he never did earlier in his captaincy.

It looked like 1995 would be the year. The Red Wings buzzed through the first three rounds of the playoffs, only to be swept by the New Jersey Devils in four games. But in the first game of that series, defenseman Paul Coffey was badly burned by the Devils on two occasions, and burned even more severely after the game by Mike Milbury on ESPN. Before the second game, the team decided not to talk to ESPN.

NHL executives, however, were desperate. A few of them went to Bowman's office to make their case. Bowman then called in Yzerman, who said, "Uh oh, this is not going to be good." He heard them out as they explained how important it was to cooperate with the media to promote the game.

"I don't care what you say to them," one executive said, "but you have to talk to them."

Yzerman put his head down for a second, then muttered, "My teammates are going to hate me for this."

Yzerman decided to grant an interview -- right in the locker room while his teammates dressed. At first there was a grumbling, but as Yzerman defended Coffey and criticized the commentary, his teammates came around. Soon, they too were giving interviews. This minor episode meant nothing to the public -- who never knew about it -- but it meant a great to the team. Just how much pull Yzerman had with his teammates was revealed in this simple act of leadership.

After winning a League record 62 regular season games the nest year, everyone picked Detroit to win the Cup, but Patrick Roy and the Colorado Avalanche put the clamps on the Red Wings, putting them behind three games to one in the conference final.

"I know we need our top players to step up and assert themselves on the ice, in the locker room, and with the media." Yzerman said, flexing his newfound provocative style. "It's time for the guys with age and experience to assert themselves."

Yzerman's cajoling wasn't enough of course, as the Red Wings lost in six games. The defeat left him empty.

"I sit and watch every year as the Stanley Cup is being presented to someone else," he said. "I talk to guys who have won it. I realize what it means."

At the outset of the 1996-97 campaign, Yzerman's teammates declared that their main motive to get a Cup victory was to relieve Yzerman of his burden.

"Stevie's gone through a lot," Maltby says. "But he brushed it all aside and went about his business.

"Given all the things he's gone through, the disappointments against New Jersey and Colorado, and all the great years, the 62 wins, getting so close, a guy of Stevie's magnitude, you can't ask for a better motivation to win the Cup."

They did, of course, sweeping the Flyers in four games to win the 1997 Stanley Cup Final. Their Captain was so happy, he didn't sleep that night, and even showered with the Cup.

Of course, the celebration for which Yzerman had waited 14 years and Detroit 42 years, lasted just a week, when the limousine carrying Vladimir Konstantinov and Sergei Mnatsakonov crashed, putting both of them in comas.

Another team might have split up and gone home for the summer, or let the public relations staff handle the difficult questions. But not Yzerman's team. Everyone delayed their summer plans to stay in town and support their fallen teammates.

And it was Yzerman, not a PR person, who handled the ravenous press even when they asked dicey questions. And the man did not hit a false note during the entire crisis.

The whole trial came full circle after the Red Wings swept the Washington Capitals, and Yzerman gave the Cup first to Konstantinov -- a gesture that caused many Capitals fans to weep.

There have been so many changes during the Yzerman era that only Ilitch and Develanno have more seniority. The former wunderkind is now the senior statesman.

In fact, since Yzerman joined the Red Wings in 1983, no other player has played half as many seasons in Detroit as he has; only two of the 15 first-round picks Detroit has selected are still with the big team; six coaches have been fired, and there have been some 92 transactions involving well over 100 players.

And now, as the Red Wings navigate the rough waters toward a third Cup, their chances are enhanced considerably by the steady guidance of their captain, still at the helm.

In what should be the twilight of his career, "he's been by far the best player on the team," Maltby says.

"I used to take this game so seriously," Yzerman said. "Now I enjoy it, I'm looser. All I feel is, simply, happiness."