Text message reports Yzerman’s return
Yesterday afternoon, the Detroit Red Wings sent out an email advertising their new free service, the Red Wings Mobile News. This service will send out two text messages per day during the training camp in Traverse City as well as one message each week during preseason. It will also include game recaps, box scores, and player news.
Those who signed up for the service received an interesting text message, which stated the following:
“Breaking news,” the message read. “Steve Yzerman will come out of retirement and return to the ice in Mid November. Come to the Joe to catch the action!”
The Wings refuted this message and are currently trying to figure out how this message made its way out to fans.
Steve Violetta, Red Wings’ senior vice president of business affairs, said a third-party vendor handles the text-message system for the club and was trying to get to the bottom of the hoax Friday morning.
One possibility is they were testing the system and made an error, another is that the system got hacked.
“I promise you, he’s not coming out of retirement,” Violetta said, chuckling.
Interestingly enough, you can no longer subscribe to the service via either of the two suggested methods (a text to a certain number or through their website). I’m guessing they pulled the subscription offer to fans until this is figured out.
As George at Snapshots pointed out, Yzerman’s knee is just not healthy enough for him to play. Let’s say Yzerman wanted to pull a Brett Favre or Lance Armstrong and un-retire, he would have to have had a knee replacement on steroids or something to feel good enough to play. In past interviews, he has stated that his knee still hurts daily and this is without him skating a lot much less taking big checks from NHL players. Yzerman’s body won’t let him return even if his heart wanted to do so.
Our biggest Yzerman concern should be whether he’s going to stick with the Red Wings organization as a member of management. According to a fan who attended Fan Fest on Sunday and asked that very question, Yzerman discussed this topic with those in attendance.
“Steve, recently Ken Holland gave an interview and he said that you were ready to be a GM. That statement has struck fear in the hearts of those of us that analyze every word out of that genius’ mouth. Obviously, Ken Holland will be around for quite a while and he does an amazing job, which doesn’t give you the opportunity for quite some time. Would you consider going to another team or do you plan to be a Red Wing for your ENTIRE career?” (yeah, I’m wordy.)
That question probably didn’t make him too happy (since he’s in front of a bunch of dedicated Wings fans), but I give him a ton of credit for answering honestly… even if his answer made me sad. Basically, the legend said that he thinks sooo highly of the Wings organization. And he spent some time praising all the people in the front office. He said that he signed a contract with the Wings with the understanding that he would learn how things worked on the executive level of the business so that he could go further up the chain. Then he said that he has a lot of goals left to fulfill in his career and he may have to go to another team to fulfill them.
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3 Responses to “Text message reports Yzerman’s return”
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September 12th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Hey! That’s awesome that you quoted me in your blog. Love that someone I read actually read me!
Gracias!
September 15th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I fear the end is near. It was hard enough when he retired. Now we must prepare for the worst. His departure will be difficult to accept, even for a pessimist.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Jessica- Thanks for the write-up & for reading BTJ! I thought it was a great read especially with the pictures!
Doomsberry- I am actually pessimistic about him staying and if he does leave, the city of Detroit will be in mourning…