My day with the Detroit Red Wings

I wake up early morning Tuesday, November 18th, and the first thought that races through my mind is “I can’t believe it, I’m going to the Red Wings’ practice today!!” After sitting through two long blocks in eager anticipation, it is finally time to leave for Joe Louis Arena. Amanda and I get there half an hour early so we just chill in her bright lime green Volkswagen Bug in the small parking lot in front of all the steps of the Arena. Being the Red Wing dork that I am, I watch each car drive by hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the hockey players. The vehicle of choice seemed to the black Navigator and the Hummer. 10:45 am arrives and its time for us to head in. We go in through a side door (the one all of the players and Red Wing employees go through) and the security guard greets us. He has to call Anne Marie, Community Relations Manager, who is the one that set everything up for us. We then sign in as visitor #115 while waiting for Anne Marie to come down.

She comes over and quickly explains where to go when watching their practice. We are to sit with the other media representatives at center ice about 20 rows up. As we walked in, I was amazed with how empty the Arena was. I’ve gone there for games and a tour of the facilitated, but its always jammed pack. Aside from the players on the rink, there were three other individuals in the Arena when we arrived. When we sat dpwm. The players were warming up and taking shots on one of the two goalies – Curtis Joseph and Manny Legace. During the practice, I listened to the media people discuss stats and future games. Amanda went through five rolls for the one-hour practice.

The practice started out with the basic warm-up routines one would expect such as stretching and shooting on the goalie exercises. As I looked down on the practice, I noticed the colorful array of jersey colors – blue, teal, gray, white, black, and red. However, there seemed to be no pattern or purpose for the large assortment of colors. It wasn’t until after they completed their 5-on-5 and 5-on-4 practice scenarios that I realized the purpose of these colors. The team does 3-on-3 drills starting on one end of the rink and then shooting on the goalie of the opposing side. The groups of three were based on the jersey colors. For example, the white ‘team’ consisted of Steve Thomas, Brendan Shannahan, and Steven Yzerman. Kirk Malthy, Tomas Holmstrom, and Kris Draper composed the teal group. Conditioning followed with this speed skating of sorts around the rink. Yzerman left right before the conditioning because he doesn’t want to push his knee too much during practice so he goes and works off ice.

While the players stretched at the end of practice, all of the media stood up and headed down to the hallway where the locker room was located. After waiting about 15 minutes, the media was able to enter the locker room. Since Amanda and I were high schoolers, we were told to wait out in the hallway. Anne Marie promised us one or two interviews and went in the locker room to figure out whom we would be able to talk to. She came out and told us that Jason Williams and Kris Draper would be coming out for us to interview. 30 minutes later, Jason comes out and I talked to him for about 15 minutes. Williams is one of the team youngsters and provided a different perspective than that of a veteran.

While we waited for Draper to come out, we kept seeing team members such as Yzerman and Maltby come out of the locker room and enter another room with a red door and Stanley Cup on the front. The crowd manager then came out and gave both Amanda and I an official Red Wings practice puck. 30 minutes later Draper came out and since it was really loud in the hallway suggested that we come with him and go through that red door. Behind the red door lies a room where the players eat lunch after practices and it looks to be a nice restaurant with a bar. I interviewed Draper just inside of the room and all of the other players sat further back. It was a great experience interviewing a veteran such as him. I would pick Draper as the jokester of the team. His passion for hockey and his family were quite evident during the interview. After talking to him for about 25 minutes, Amanda and I left for school. We stopped by the Little Caesars that Ms. Ilitch worked at as a teen to further the Red Wing themed day.

Looking back on the day, it had to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I hope that this was the first of many visits to Joe Louis Arena as a member of the media. And Draper has scored in six of the seven games following the interview; he’s off to the best offensive start of his career.

Posted in: Features, Wings News | Comments(1) | November 24, 2003

Interview with Kris Draper

Christy: So you’ve won three Stanley Cups was there one more memorable than the others?
Draper: “Probably the first one because it had been like 42 years since we had won one. The city was obviously really looking to have a Stanley Cup Champion back in the city so that was pretty exciting. The second one was special after the Vladimir and Sergei accident because it was a very inspirational victory. Especially when Stevie presented Vlady with the Stanley Cup because that is something you’re never going to forget as a professional athlete. The third one was special for me because I was married and had two kids by then so I put my son in the Stanley Cup and I ate fruit loops out of the Stanley Cup with my daughter. Just the little things like that was special since I hadn’t been able to do with the first win. Anytime you win the Stanley Cup its special, its just that each one has its own special memories.”

Christy: How do you balance family and work?
Draper: “I don’t…my wife does. That is the key. I love summers since I can hang out with my wife and kids and everything is family-orientated. During the season there are some stretches when it gets pretty tough; you’re away from your kids on road trips and the kids are wondering when Daddy is coming home and those kind of things. My daughter is 3 and a half so she kind of understands the going away on a road trip. But now everytime my son sees me go away, he’s wondering when Daddy is coming back and that type of thing. So that’s tough, but the one who takes the brunt of it is my wife. Every guy here is lucky to have a wife to take care of the kids and kids that understand that Daddy has to go to sleep or Daddy has to go play hockey. My wife realizes the sacrifices I make to play hockey and she makes a lot of sacrifices to make sure everything works out as a family.”

Christy: What would you describe the feeling you had when you have the victory parade in Detroit since there were around a million people there?
Draper: “For the first year, I don’t think the city realized how big it was going to be. I was out the night before the parade for the Stanley Cup party; it was very early in the morning when I was heading on my way home and we stopped by the Spirit of Detroit and brought the Stanley Cup out to take some pictures. There were people at 5:30/6:00 in the morning lining up for that parade. And here I come with the Stanley Cup, and people were so excited for the parade and then to see the Stanley Cup. It was pretty neat like all of a sudden you’d get in a car and drive on Woodward all the way to Hart Plaza and there is close to a million people there who were so excited to be a part of the Stanley Cup win and parade. It was unbelievable and like I said the city didn’t realize how big it was going to be and us, as players, never had been involved in something like that and we didn’t realize how big it was going to be and it just turned out to be a tremendous day.”

Christy: So you brought the Stanley Cup to Children’s Hospital after the win in 2002. Why did you decide to bring in there over anywhere else?
Draper: “Obviously, I’ve been very fortunately not only healthy as a person but as a professional athlete as well. And to give the opportunity to kids who are sick or wouldn’t be able to come out see the Stanley Cup in public because of their illness, it was an opportunity that came and they asked me if I wanted to bring the Stanley Cup to Children’s Hospital. And for me to be able to do something like that, it was easy. I was like ‘Absolutely, no matter what day or time or how long I have to be there for. So I went there and I guess I spent a couple of hours with kids who were less fortunate than I was. And just to see the expressions that these kids had, and not only the kids, but also the kids’ parents because the parents go through this everyday. You know as we wake up in the morning, while you guys go to school and I go play hockey; these parents go to the hospital everyday to visit their kids. To have an opportunity like this and to give it back to the community and to the children, it was tough there. Being as fortunate as I am and to go in there and see all the sicknesses and illnesses and be able to put a smile on a kid’s face and if you have the opportunity to make kids forget about their illnesses for even just 10 minutes; you know you’ve done something good. It’s very rewarding to go in there and to do that. Like the Stanley Cup was bigger than some of the kids, it was pretty neat. And they saw it and couldn’t believe how big it was and so it was pretty good. We put a couple of not newborn but like 1-year-old kids in the Cup. The parents asked ‘if my son or daughter could sit in the Stanley Cup’ and I would hold the kids and the parents would take pictures. It was a special day.”

Christy: Think back to your high school years, what was your favorite activity to do outside of school like on the weekends?
Draper: “Well, luckily I was in a lot of sports and I think that was my parents’ idea to keep me out of trouble. But I mean like any teenager, I loved going out with my friends. You’d do whatever you’d do and obviously sometimes you’d find trouble and other times you’d stay out of trouble. I always enjoyed going to the movies and that kind of stuff. But I would have hockey on the weekends with usually a Friday night or Saturday night game and practices as well so that was probably the busiest time for me. And that’s what I loved and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to be surrounded by hockey and I was able to do that by playing high school hockey and then also by playing in a different league as well. Everything was busy with hockey.”

Christy: Did you do any other sports in high school or was it just hockey?
Draper: “Yeah, I started out playing football but the seasons overlapped so my schoolwork suffered. I was alright with it but my dad wasn’t. Obviously, it was a no brainer at what sport I was going to pick. Yeah I enjoyed playing football but hockey was something I wanted to do at any opportunity that I had. But then during the summer time, I played golf and tennis and those kind of activities but mostly especially during the winter it was hockey.”

Christy: Who is your roommate?
Draper: “I room with Darren McCarty.”

C: I bet there are some pretty interesting stories there.
D: “Yeah, we had some good times.”

C: Any one story you’d like to share with us?
D: “Let’s see, well the funny thing is you always get in the room (hotel room) and its always who gets what bed. With Darren and I, if we’re winning then he’ll have the bed closest to when you walk in the room and I’ll have the window bed. And if we lose, we’ll switch it up. We’ll always argue for the remote. Darren’s the kind of guy who has a lot of stuff going on. He’ll be on his computer, talking on his cell phone, and he still thinks he can watch whatever program on TV that he wants. While I’m just sitting there and I’m like pass me the remote. So we kind of have little arguments like that. The time factor like when you want to go to sleep; he’s the kind of guy who can watch TV all night and not have a problem. Whereas I like sleep, I enjoy sleep time and I’ll get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and sure enough the TV will still be on and I’ll try to look for the remote and the remote would be somewhere in Darren’s bed and I really wouldn’t want to go look for it at 4 or 5 in the morning. But usually on the road, you’ll get 10-14 guys going out for dinner and then after that some of the guys will go to the movies so it’s a good time to hang out with your teammates. Its not fun being away from home but everyone does things together which makes it more fun.”

Christy: As I was watching your practice, I noticed that you seem to be the jokester of the group. Are you known as the jokester or do people have other nicknames for you?
Dave Lewis: “Oh, we have lots of nicknames for him. Did he tell you about his great goal the other night?”
Draper: “Which one?”
C: The shorthanded one?
D: “Yeah probably. A lot of guys call me Drapes or Nails.”
C: Why Nails?
D: “Oh, the whole tough as nails kind of deal. Ray Whitney calls me Spike – the little dog who doesn’t stop, the little bulldog who keeps going. So like I said, I realize how fortunate I am doing what I’m doing; its something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I learned how to skate and knew what hockey was. You know, I’m going to come to the rink everyday and work hard when I have to but I’m going to have a lot of fun doing it. Sometimes guys are know whatever, like in grumpy moods or grouchy but I make sure I’m much more chipper and kind of bug them as much as I can to get them in good moods. So its fun that way, myself and Kirk Maltby – we have a lot of energy and we love to kind of fool around out there and have fun but the bottom line is, when you have to work – you work and when you can have fun, you have fun. I’m just fortunate. Everyday I get to come down here. I’m a Detroit Red Wing and I’ve won three Stanley Cups and everything in hockey is just going really good now.”

C: Was it Holmstrom or Maltby that missed that great pass and then you guys gave him a hard time about it just like any high school team I know?
D: “I’m not sure but that’s all we are. And we’re lucky to be able to do that, we’re in a winning environment and we’re expected to do well. When things aren’t going well, its turns into a bit of a business especially in this city since the expectations are so high. And we place those expectations on ourselves as well. It’s a good thing and right now we’re on a bit of a winning streak and things are good. But when we’re not winning and playing as well – its more like a business atmosphere and that’s how it should be. You have to realize when its time to have fun and when you need to buckle down and get to work. You know everyone goes out and practices hard, we all have the expectations that we want to go out and win night in and night out – that’s what is fun, to be able to go out and do that. I realize how lucky we are. Some guys come from different teams and organizations who go to the rink everyday but aren’t expected to win hockey games whereas here everyday we go to the rink and have that chance to win the hockey game.”

Christy: What is your pregame routine like? For example, tomorrow night you have a game what do you do between the time that you wake up and the time that the puck drops to initiate the game?
Draper: “I’ll wake up in the morning…you know it’s different now that my daughter is in school. Tomorrow, I’ll drive my daughter to school and usually I’ll try to go to my little restaurant, its called Sunny’s Restaurant for breakfast every morning. Depending on if we’re winning or not, it depends on what I eat. So we’re winning right now so I’ll eat egg white omelets. If we lose, I have to switch what I eat and have oatmeal. It is a little superstition that I have. Then I just drive down to the rink for our pregame skate for like half an hour where we skate and just loosen up. It’s just like a crammed in practice, you get the goalie shots and get your sticks ready for the game. Afterwards, I usually eat at home. My wife cooks a pregame meal for me at home so I hang out with my daughter, Kennedy, and my son, Keenan. Then its time for a nap, like I told you – sleep is very important to me. I usually sleep from about 2 o’clock in the afternoon to 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I’ll get up and then go get my coffee at Tim Horton’s and a muffin, chocolate chip muffin – that’s my lucky muffin. And then I’ll drive down to the rink and I like to get to the rink about 2 and a half hours before the game. Usually I’ll get my sticks ready, do some stretches, and make sure I’m warmed up and ready to go. Half an hour before the game, we go up for warm-up and then its game time.”

Christy: Do you do anything after the game like if you win or does everyone just go home?
Draper: “It depends on the schedule. If we have an opportunity, we’ll grab our wives and go out to dinner. Like right after tomorrow night’s game we have to leave to head out on the road for our game the following day. Usually if we don’t play for a couple of days or have the night off we’ll go up for dinner. But usually by the time we get out of the rink its 11:30 or 12 o’clock already so you might just grab something to eat and then head home.”

Posted in: Interviews | Comments(0) | November 20, 2003

Interview with Jason Williams

Christy: What was your favorite part about high school?
Williams: “Just going and meeting a bunch of new people. With a bunch of middle schools coming together, you get to meet a lot of people and participate in sports. I played hockey. I wasn’t able to play any other sports but to be able to watch football and be able to participate in homecoming and prom.”
C: Any interesting stories about homecoming/prom?
W: None that we can talk about. Haha.

Christy: So what is your favorite part about your job, being a Red Wings player?Williams: “Just being able to come and play hockey- something that I love doing. I’ve always dreamed about playing hockey. Ever since I was 4 or 5 years old, I’ve wanted to play in the National Hockey League. To consider this a job, I just don’t look at it as a job. You come here, you have fun- they are a great group of guys. Its just great coming down here everyday and doing something I love.”

Christy: What is your pregame routine like?
Williams: “I usually get up around 8 o’clock and I’ll have breakfast – usually Special K with berries – and watch a little bit of ESPN. I’ll come down to the rink for the morning skate, which is where you basically get on the ice for half an hour shooting, doing some flow skating and just warming up. It’s mainly just to get you out of bed and get a sweat going. I’ll go back to Royal Oak where I live and eat my pregame meal at Andiamos. Steve, one of the cooks there, always hooks me up with what I want. Usually, I’ll have chicken with vegetables, a little bit of pasta, and salad. I go back to my place and relax for a bit – listen to music and watch some TV. I’ll take a nap from about 2-4 o’clock. Then I’ll get up and get ready, head to Starbucks and get my coffee. Everyone has to be at the rink two hours before the game, I like to get there around two and a half hours before the game.”
C: What do you usually do the two hours before a game?
W: “I always come in and make sure my sticks are ready and tape them up. A little before warm-up starts I like to do a few exercises to get the body to start sweating whether it be jumping on the bike or doing some running with a few sprints and then I stretch and warm-up for the game.”

Christy: During practice, I noticed there is a lot of joking around going on. Is there anyone known as the jokester?
Williams: “Well everyone has his own little personality. Depending on the day like one day a guy can be having a rough day and someone else will get on his case about it. Or if you’re not playing well out there – you’re going to here about it from the guys.”

Christy: Do you have a nickname that people usually call you?Williams: “Just Willy because of the last name.”

Christy: So what is one of the goals that you’d like to accomplish this season?Williams: “Obviously bringing the Stanley Cup back here which is the main goal. Just to have fun and learn as much as possible. It’s probably going to be my first full year in the national hockey league so to be here on an everyday basis and get to know what it takes – both the commitment on ice and the commitment off ice. To take it all in and be a better player each year off and on the ice.”

Christy: Do you guys do anything after practice?
Williams: “Sometimes after practice we’ll work out. I never like to work the legs the day before the game. Depending on how I feel, I’ll add the upper body as well. Usually I’ll get my cardio done before practice because I hate having to do it afterwards.”

Posted in: Interviews | Comments(3) | November 19, 2003

Interview with Denise Ilitch

At the time of this interview, Denise Ilitch was the Red Wings Alternate Governor and the owner’s daughter. However after the end of the 2003-2004 season, she stepped down from her position.

Christy: In 1993, you founded the Lovelight Foundation. Before that you had been actively involved with charities, what made you decide to create your own
Ilitch: “I was with two of my girlfriends, who are very generous, and we decided that we wanted to help children in need, particularly those in Detroit because they are very in need, very underserved, poverty level is very high in Detroit, and kids are very hungry. And we were on a trip together with a bunch of women, and I think I had said “wow, what if we put all of our resources together how much power we would have.” And we started talking about it and that was when we said “you know we should start a foundation with all the resources that we have in this room and see if we can make an impact.” So we did and we made great programs like building a playground for kids in the city and we helped with dental needs where kids would get their teeth checked. We helped other programs that helped kids like the Starfish Family Services. We also raised a lot of money for kids, so it was really cool.”

Christy: What is your role with the Red Wings?
Ilitch: “My title is Alternate Governor, which means I go to the Board of Governors meeting who meet about every other month. I work on the business side of the Red Wings so I am involved with selling season tickets, marketing plans, and that kind of thing. The new campaign, Hockeytown Kids, is really cute – you should check it out. The season tickets are beautiful, just fun pictures of kids celebrating Hockeytown and the passion of the Red Wings. So you see kids with things on their heads and painted faces. I help with the business aspect, and on occasion I will help if asked on the hockey side whether its inadvisory capacity or host luncheons for the players’ wives.”

Christy: Detroit didn’t use to be called Hockeytown until after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup two years in a row, what was it like seeing the transformation of the Red Wings team and fan support over the years – from being a team with little fans to today where you have a team consisting of such talented individuals and having such a large fan base?
Ilitch: “Well, it’s really exciting – I remember when we were called the Deadwings in 1982 and we all had to go and try to sell season tickets. People didn’t want to buy tickets, they hated Joe Louis Arena and still wanted the Olympic Stadium, and it was terrible. You’d read terrible articles in the newspaper and then of course we got involved and it’s very exciting and very seductive because you want keep it up, you don’t want to go back to where you were before so you are constantly working on how to improve our team and replacing players that we’ve lost and how do we stay on top because we’re held to such a high standard. It’s very rewarding and a great payoff for all the hard work that has been done.”

Christy: How does it feel to have a father who was inducted into the Hall of Fame recently for his many accomplishments and achievements as an owner?
Ilitch: “It feels very exciting and we’re very proud of him. It’s just awesome. It doesn’t strike you until you’re there and then it’s like wow because you see all of these hockey players and tradition so we were just incredibly proud of him. And like my father said there are owners there, not a ton, but mostly players and to be acknowledged and not be a player is pretty amazing.”

Christy: As a high school student, what sport interested you the most?
Ilitch: “I was a cheerleader and had a boyfriend in football so those were my two favorite sports. I am not sport oriented at all, everyone teases me about that, but I tried. I love sports but I’m not active in sports.”

Christy: What did you do when you had the Stanley Cup with you?
Ilitch: “We took a bunch of pictures for our Christmas card and then we took it to as many people as we could think of. We had the whole neighborhood come to our house and take pictures and then we took it to my mom-in-law’s bar. We took it all over – all of our friends. My husband took it to where he gets his haircut.”

Christy: Do you see yourself wanting to put more effort into a winning franchise because they’re winning or a losing franchise because they’re losing?
Ilitch: “You want to win at everything in every company so you put your effort everywhere. You don’t sit there and say “Oh they’re fine so we’re not going to do ignore them” because like I said earlier, you got to keep maintaining the team. Having said that, when you’re having a distressed team like the Detroit Tigers you have to really not let a day go by without doing something to help and try to improve the organization. It would sort of like having two kids: one was doing fine and the other kid was really challenged in school. You wouldn’t love either child any less or you wouldn’t love the child who is doing well any less but you may spend some more time trying to help the child who is struggling at the moment.”

Posted in: Interviews | Comments(1) | November 2, 2003