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Red Wings greats reunite one final time at The Joe

MiHockey Staff
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey
Photo by Michael Caples/MiHockey

 

By @StefanKubus – 

DETROIT – With just 21 regular-season games left to be played at Joe Louis Arena, the first team to capture the Stanley Cup on its hallowed ice reunited on that same surface Tuesday night in Detroit.

Names synonymous with Hockeytown like Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Scotty Bowman and many more from the 1997 championship team were honored before the Red Wings took on the Sabres.

Before the ceremony began, they shared their favorite memories from their days at The Joe in its final season before the Wings move to Little Caesars Arena.

When it came to naming one specific game or memory, Bowman said he couldn’t single any one out. Understandable for a legend who has won 419 games and three Stanley Cups behind the Red Wings bench – not to mention 1,244 total wins and six more Cups elsewhere.

“It’s hard to pick one, probably winning the fourth game at home, and it’s not easy to sweep a team,” Bowman said. “You get in the finals, you’re playing a good team. Maybe the game in ’96, when Yzerman scored that overtime goal. St. Louis, when I look at their roster, they had a really good team. Gretzky wasn’t there a long time, but that was a tough series. It went seven games, went into second overtime. Those games you remember, Cup-clinching wins you always remember those games. Another game, Sergei scored five goals in a game against Washington, I remember that. There’s a lot of individual performances – there’s so many you can’t just put your finger on one.”

Yzerman said his double-overtime winner against the St. Louis Blues on May 16, 1996 in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinal was special, but that the two Cup wins on home ice easily trump.

“I would probably say winning the Cup here in ’97 the first time was the greatest moment and then we were able to do it again against Carolina in ’02,” Yzerman said. “Scoring an overtime winning goal – I only scored one in my career – very, very exciting and a fantastic memory, but it would be definitely be behind those two.”

Meanwhile, Shanahan and forward hard-nosed forward Tomas Holmstrom pointed to one of the most famous regular season games in NHL history.

“That one game where we sort of felt like everything came together for us, against Colorado,” Shanahan said. “They had beaten us the three prior games that year, and then we played them in March shortly before the playoffs started and we had the 5-on-5 brawl with McCarty and Lemieux. We were able to come back late in the third period, tie the game, go into overtime and win the game. That was the real switch for us with Colorado where we gained a psychological edge and carried that into the playoffs and really played well against them in the playoffs. I would say that regular season game was probably the most important one to our era as far as growth as a team, not just because of the fights, not just because of what it did to galvanize us – we were already pretty tight together – but to do that against Colorado and then come back and win… it wouldn’t have meant the same if we didn’t come back like we did and win the game.”

Holmstrom named the same Colorado game and also another famous tilt with the Avs from May 31, 2002, a massive 7-1 Game 7 win at The Joe. He potted two goals that night, including the one which opened the scoring that night, a tip-in goal as he was falling down from where else but in front of the net.

“It was a freak show, just big, big brawls,” Holmstrom said. “And another Colorado game when Roy get pulled, stuff like that. I don’t think the arena has been that loud ever, but winning here the first Cup, to see the crowd and everybody still remembers it, so it’s great.”

 

A large chunk of the group actually started the day out by taking a tour of the Wings’ future home with a familiar friend in Lord Stanley.

“It’s different, the rinks are new, the facilities, even some of the not older buildings, but ones that were built in the ‘90s, they’re all doing renovation now,” Bowman said. “They gave us a tour, they had all the models around, they showed what it will eventually be, they showed the arena, we saw the suites that are gonna be up and running.”

Bowman’s former players said it’ll be sad to see it go, but that they’re looking forward to seeing the new state-of-the-art facility.

“I get sad any time the old buildings close down,” Shanahan said of The Joe. “It’ll be a beautiful new building, I’ve seen drawings of it, it’ll be great for the team, it’ll be great for the city, but you always feel a little bit bad when the old buildings close.”

Holmstrom called The Joe his “home” during his playing career, and also said “it’s gonna be nice to see the new building.”

The former Wings’ captain admitted it’s time for the Wings to have a new arena.

“It’s been a fantastic building, it was a great building to play in, watch games for the fans, the atmosphere is fantastic, but I think it’s time,” Yzerman said. “Everything I’ve seen in the new building is spectacular. It’s gonna be great for the organization and everything that’s going around the building, it’s gonna be I think fantastic for the city as well. It’s been great building, but it’s time to move on.”

Whether or not he’ll savor his last visits to The Joe, the Tampa Bay Lightning general manager said it comes down to one simple factor.

“It depends on what the score is.”