Scotty Bowman was as sharp as ever, Igor Larionov as thoughtful as ever, Brendan Shanahan as popular as ever, and the 1997 Detroit Red Wings as joyful as ever.
Thursday’s 25th anniversary celebration brought together old teammates and longtime friends in a ceremony that heralded the days when the franchise was at its second zenith and the Stanley Cup belonged to Detroit.
“This is special,” Larionov said. He and Vladimir Konstantinov were the only two of the Russian Five in attendance; for Larionov, it was worth it to take a brief break from coaching Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
“In my mind, when you celebrate special couple wins back-to-back, with a special team, special coach, and a group of players are in town — even though I am missing the game Saturday back home, I told the boys in the locker room Tuesday that I have to go,” Larionov said. “Play without me the next game. This is nice to see the guys here.”
The players who took to the ice at Little Caesars Arena to be cheered by fans included Doug Brown, Mathieu Dandenault, Kris Draper, Anders Eriksson, Brent Gilchrist, Kevin Hodson, Tomas Holmstrom, Mike Knuble, Joe Kocur, Vladimir Konstantinov, Martin Lapointe, Nicklas Lidstrom, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, Larry Murphy, Chris Osgood, Jamie Pushor, Bob Rouse, Shanahan, Tim Taylor, Mike Vernon, Aaron Ward and of course Steve Yzerman.
“I talk to Drapes a lot, I talk to Scotty about players in the KHL,” Larionov said. “Once in a while with Shanny. Not much with Stevie, Stevie is too busy building this team.”
Larionov, Bowman, Draper, McCarty and Lidstrom spoke to reporters before the event. Bowman turned 89 in September and could still rattle off the entire defense corps of the 1994 San Jose Sharks (who upset the Wings in the first round of the playoffs) and spent several minutes sharing his thoughts on stick penalties (he thinks there are too many of them).
The other Russians weren’t able to come — Fedorov and Kozlov are both coaching in the KHL, and Fetisov, a member of the state duma, is sanctioned by the U.S. government over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Through Larionov, invitations had been extended to all of them.
“Slava is not allowed to travel, you know the reasons,” Larionov said. “Sergei, same kind of stuff. Kozzie has been busy with his team. Everybody says hi, when I talked to Sergei, he was kind of 50-50, he was going to travel, but he couldn’t ask his superior to come at this difficult time in politics.”
The ceremony preceded the Wings’ game against the Washington Capitals (the 1998 Wings, who swept the Capitals in the final that year, will be celebrated Saturday) and Bowman and playoff MVP Vernon dropped a ceremonial puck. Bowman also talked during the ceremony. There were cheers for everyone, and the Irish jig when Shanahan was introduced. The Stanley Cup was there, and carried off down the red carpet by Holmstrom.
Bowman spoke to reporters about the impact the Russian Five had, but to the great delight of Draper and McCarty, who were present, Bowman also extolled the Grind Line (Draper, McCarty, Maltby and, at times Kocur).
“I always said, Kris Draper, Maltby, Kocur and McCarty meant so much to this team,” Bowman said. “Those guys set the table for you.”
When Draper asked Bowman to keep going, Bowman joked, “You had four guys on the line.”
Draper laughed. “That threw me off, the compliment. It’s amazing what he said about sometimes not starting the superstars, and then you think about in 1997, going into Philadelphia, and myself, Mac and Malts started. That was something that we didn’t see coming. Everyone was talking is it going to be the Stevie-Eric Lindros matchup. Scotty being Scotty threw a wrench in that by starting the Grind Line. And with Nick and Murphy, and there weren’t too many times Scotty wanted the Grind Line on with Nick and Murph.
“Just listening to Scotty, his mind is still so sharp. It’s amazing how sharp he is.”
McCarty joked that, “It takes him 25 years to say it publicly.”
It was a special team that won the Cup in 1997, ending a 42-year drought. Lidstrom noted the disappointment that preceded the jubilation, how the Wings, “felt good about ourselves going not the 1995 Final and then we lost the Cup in a week. So we learned a lot from the disappointments that we had and that set us up to be successful. That’s something we can carry on with the team we have now.”
Yzerman, Lidstrom, Draper, Maltby all work for the franchise, trying to move it toward another Cup. The Wings were a dynasty when 25 years ago, winning Cups again with largely the same group in 1998 and 2002.
“I’ve said this all along, being a part of the Detroit Red Wings is one of the biggest things of my life,” Draper said. “To be able to see all these guys is special.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.