As one former player put it: “We all got older, a lot more grey, but the personalities are the same that they were 25 years ago.”
Martin Lapointe summed up why the Detroit Red Wings’ three-day celebration of the 1997 and 1998 Stanley Cup championship teams was such a success: It gave him, Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty and many more a chance to see each other as friends and former teammates, to share stories and laughter and memories.
“Guys don’t change, they just get older,” Lapointe said.
Older, and with other responsibilities. Lapointe is director of amateur scouting for the Montreal Canadiens, trying to help that Original Six franchise win its first Stanley Cup since 1993. Shanahan is the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, trying to help that Original Six franchise win its first Cup since 1967. The Wings last won the Cup in 2008, and Yzerman took the general manager’s job three years ago to try to freshen that date.
“No doubt about it, he’ll do it,” Holmstrom said. “He’s the right person for it.”
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When the Wings won the Cup in 1997, Mike Ilitch had owned the team for 15 years, there was no salary cap, and there were only 26 teams. Now, there’s a hard salary cap and 32 teams, fostering appreciation for how special a group the Wings were 25 years ago, and how Yzerman has handled the rebuild.
“Mr. Ilitch was so generous and spent money, and inevitably when you make a mistake or two, you’re able to spend your way out of those mistakes,” Shanahan said. “Now it takes more time, you have to be a little more careful. It’s hard. I think it’s the hardest trophy to win in sports. But it’s also fun — the challenge, it’s great.
“I think Steve has always been a very methodical guy. Dedicated. Kind of keeps his head down and does his work. I always found with Steve, if there was something he didn’t feel that he knew well enough, a week or two later, Steve had studied up on it and was now an expert. He’s a smart guy, he’s methodical, he’s patient. He’s unmoved by noise and distraction. Those are the attributes you need. I’m not surprised he’s collecting good players and developing good players, but it takes time.”
The Wings and Maple Leafs have not been trade partners since the Larry Murphy trade in 1997. If Yzerman does call his counterpart in Toronto, Kyle Dubas, Shanahan might want listen in.
“There are certain guys, when you shake their hand your better count your fingers when you’re done,” he said. “Steve is not sneaky in that sense, but he is definitely a shrewd guy. He is certainly respected in the league as somebody that makes decisions that are only in the best interest of the Red Wings.”
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The players from the ’97 and ’98 teams hung out Friday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena sharing memories, and taking advantage of being treated to lunch made by the chef who is on duty daily in the Wings’ swanky locker room. At one table, Vladimir Konstantinov played Uno with former teammate Kevin Hodson, while Lapointe and Mike Vernon watched.
“It’s amazing what we accomplished back then,” Lapointe said. “In 1995, when we went to the Stanley Cup Final against New Jersey, we lost in four straight. I just remember seeing Stevie’s face going up on the plane, his disappointment — that marked me a lot. But we learned from it and we did it in ’96-97. It was a good time, with great teammates.”
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The euphoria from the ’97 Cup burst six days into the celebrations, when a limousine carrying Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov and masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov crashed into a tree. Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov suffered debilitating injuries, and their absences were a driving force when the championship Wings gathered for training camp in the fall of 1997.
“We had them in our thoughts,” Larionov said. “We knew we had to try to bring the Cup back. Kind of like to help our player to be with us, even though he was hurt tragically. We could have won three or four times in a row if Vladdie was there. Every game was dedicated to Vladdie.
“It wasn’t about Russians or Swedes, it was all about one family, all about the logo, all about the history and tradition of the team. Players from all different countries, you represent just one logo, Detroit. We had a great international group that had just one destiny, one goal: To repeat.”
Larionov, now a coach in Russia, and Konstantinov were part of the Russian Five, who dazzled with their ability to possess the puck. Two of the Swedes, Holmstrom and Lidstrom, were a masterful pairing especially on power plays, when Lidstrom would shoot the puck from the blue line and Holmstrom would be at the net for a tip or retrieval. It’s an old joke between them that Holmstrom “stole” Lidstrom’s goals.
“He’s still bitter,” Holmstrom said, laughing. “He’s still bitter.
“The thing was, I didn’t have to move. Nick told me, ‘don’t move, Homer.’ So I learn. He made my job easy, because he never shot at me. He looked at the net.”
Holmstrom was in his element, giving as good as he got from the likes of McCarty and Maltby.
“Seeing all the guys and talking about the memories,” Holmstrom said. “You forget some things here and there but somebody starts to talk and it pops up right away. This celebration is really special and lots of fun. It’s too bad you can’t turn back time, but we have the memories.”
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The Wings won three Stanley Cups between 1997-2002, expanding a nucleus of draft picks including Yzerman, Lidstrom, Holmstrom, Lapointe, Konstantinov, Chris Osgood and Sergei Fedorov with additions like Shanahan and Vernon, and hiring Scotty Bowman to coach.
“I always said that the idea that winning a Stanley Cup would ever make a team comfortable or complacent — it’s the opposite,” Shanahan said. “It feels almost like a bear that’s only eaten shrubs and berries and finally gets its first taste of meat, and now it’s just always a meat-eater after that. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to win, but winning that first Cup made us even hungrier to win more. So when we came into ’98, we knew we were going to be missing Vladdie, who was an important part of our team. But I also think that we just thought that, we’ve got to really put an exclamation point on who we are and show that last year was not a one-and-done. That was part of that extra satisfaction when the ’98 Cup was finished.
“It was a special group of guys. They were all competitive guys and I appreciate our friendship so much. They say when you win a Stanley Cup, you’re tied to those people forever. I’m very proud to be tied to these guys.”
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.