Detroit bloggers’ roundtable (Pt. 1)
Last week, I sent an email to many sports bloggers who cover Detroit teams with five questions about why the city of Detroit is such a great sports city. I received so many great and well thought out responses that instead of posting the answers to all five questions at once, I will spread it out throughout five days.
I’d first like to thank the bloggers who participated in this discussion:
Kurt @ Mack Avenue Tigers (Detroit Tigers)
Scott @ Quo Vadimus & Cutoff Man (Detroit Sports & Detroit Tigers)
Sean @ Pride of Detroit & Michigan Sports Center (Detroit Lions & UM Sports)
Matt @ Lets Go Wings (Detroit Red Wings)
Paul @ Kukla’s Korner (Detroit Red Wings/NHL)
Al @ The Wayne Fontes Experience (Detroit Sports)
Ripismoney @ Detroit Sports Unleashed (Detroit Sports)
If you received an email from me with the five questions and didn’t have time to email me your answers, you can still do so and I’ll just update these posts.
Sporting News Results for Best Sports City:
2006 – Chicago (#4 = Detroit)
2005 – Boston (#3 = Detroit)
2004 – Boston (#7 = Detroit)
2003 – Anaheim-LA (#9 = Detroit)
2002 – Boston (#4 = Detroit)
2001 – New York City (#9 = Detroit)
2000 – St. Louis (#6 = Detroit)
1999 – New York City (#7 = Detroit)
1998 – Detroit
1997 – Denver (#7 = Detroit)
How Detroit sports teams have done of late…
2007- Detroit Red Wings lose in Western Conference Finals, Detroit Tigers are second in their division, Detroit Pistons make fifth straight Eastern Conference Finals, Plymouth Whalers become OHL Champions, and MSU Hockey team wins NCAA title.
2006- Detroit Tigers make it to the World Series, Detroit Shock win the WNBA championship, Detroit Pistons lose in the ECF, and Detroit Red Wings lose in the Western Conference Quarterfinals
Since 1997, the Red Wings have won 3 Stanley Cup titles, the Pistons have won the NBA championship once, the Tigers have made it to the World Series, the Shock have won 2 WNBA titles, UM women’s softball has won the national championship, MSU hockey has won the NCAA title, UM football won the title, UM hockey won a NCAA title, and the MSU men’s basketball team made four Final Four appearances and won in 2000.
The first question I asked the panel was…
“In 1998, Sporting News named Detroit the top sports city in the US. For the past decade, the city has been in the top ten each year. Do you think Detroit is the best sports city in America? Why or why not?”
Note: These answers all came before the Pistons lost in the 2007 ECF.
Mini BTJ: No. 39
The Dominator.
No. 39.
I like to call him “The Skeletor.”
Goaltender Dominik Hasek was key to the Wings’ success during the regular season and into the playoffs. While I do make fun of him for his flopping, diving, throwing sticks, and wandering out of the net (and so do others), he really is a great goaltender with a strong desire to compete. It sounds like GM Ken Holland and the Red Wings’ players want to see Dom back for one more year and another shot at Lord’s Stanley.
Do I think Hasek will come back? Yes. From what I hear, Hasek still has a desire to play and he’s definitely still mentally tough (and maybe a little crazy) for the job. The players want him back. His son still has one more year of high school and hopes to go to a US college. It makes sense for Hasek to stay one more year before retiring and returning home. It would also give prospect Jimmy Howard another year to develop as goalie for the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Hasek has said that he needs to talk it over with his family before making a decision and probably won’t know for a few weeks as it appears he does not want to make any rash decisions.
“Me and my family have to make the decision,” said the 42-year-old goaltender, who signed a one-year incentive-laden contract with Detroit last summer.
It turned out to be a good move for both sides as Hasek backstopped the Red Wings to the Western Conference finals, where Detroit was eliminated in six games by the Anaheim Ducks.
“Physically, I felt great this season,” Hasek said.
And the numbers back him up. Hasek went 38-11-6 with a 2.05 goals-against average, .913 save percentage, and eight shutouts during the regular season, his 15th in the NHL and third with Detroit in two stints.
Hasek was 10-8 with a 1.79 GAA, .923 save percentage, and two shutouts in the playoffs.
“We’ve talked to him and said we want to see him back,” Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. “But he’s got to take some time and talk to his family.”
Immediately after being eliminated from the playoffs in Game #6 of the Western Conference Finals, Hasek said he could’ve played his last game in the NHL.
Hasek said afterward that he would take the next two or three weeks to decide whether he’d retire.
“It’s very possible it was my last game,” said Hasek. “Two, three weeks … I’ll make the decision. It’s my future. It’s me and my family. I love this game. I love to compete. I hate to have a long summer. But I have to think about what I want in the future.”
Let’s say Hasek does decide to return for one more year. How much do you pay him? He was a bargain this year with only a $750,000 base salary. His incentives came as the team advanced into the playoffs and he ended up making $1.65 million. That was a steal for the Wings. I’m guessing he’ll sign a contract for a base salary between $1.5-2 million with some smaller incentives on top of that based on how far the team makes it into the playoffs. Once again, any bonuses can count toward the following year’s salary caps for players over 35 (I believe) with one year contracts.
“If he gets us to the conference finals, even at $1.65 million, he’s way underpaid,” Holland said a month before the playoffs.
I’m guessing Ritch Winter, Hasek’s agent, will remind the Wings of that in the coming weeks.
Still, there’s other business to tend to, and Hasek, whose entrepreneurial side goes largely unnoticed, is a hands-on owner of his Dominator Clothing enterprise, with a storefront in Birmingham and an expanding market on two continents. And while it’s not a reason to stay, it’s probably another excuse not to go.
“I’m here to play hockey,” he said this spring, sipping coffee at a Starbucks a block from his store. “But I can’t just come here to play hockey and make money. I need to feel a part of the community. The community gets something from you, and you get something from them. And then you feel like part of the town, you feel more comfortable where you are.
“That’s actually one of the reasons why I told my agent, ‘I’m not going anywhere else,’ and why I came back to Detroit.”
Mini BTJ: No. 24
When I first started BTJ, I had a feature called Behind the Jersey where I basically did a mini biography of a member of the Detroit Red Wings. At this point in time, I don’t have enough free time to write an in depth biography. So I have decided to create what I’ll call the Mini BTJ. Basically, the Mini BTJ is a collection of links to articles about a specific player. I will also comment on these articles.
Today, I’ll be linking to the many many articles about Chris Chelios. These articles are in no specific order and I believe all of them have been published within the last month.
What’s Cheli’s real Greek name? Christos Kostas Tselios.
Due to Chelios’ work ethic, he has been healthy for most of his career and has made it to the postseason in all but one of his 23 seasons in the NHL. He did suffer an ACL injury, but worked hard to get back as quickly as possible.
Detroit assistant general manager Jim Nill credits Chelios’ work ethic for his longevity and recalls when the defenseman suffered a significant knee injury several years ago that could have signaled the beginning of the end.
“The team was on the road, and the arena was dark,” Nill says. “I came in and heard something, and it was Chelios skating down the ice. It wasn’t long after his surgery. He wasn’t allowed to turn, so he’d lift himself on the boards to turn around.
“He was by himself. No one there to see it. That’s why he’s still playing. He is the first one to the rink and the last to leave.”
…
Chelios is such a passionate competitor that even his leisure activities involve sports. A couple of years ago he took bobsled runs with the idea of putting together a Greek team for the Olympics. He is a diehard Chicago Bears fan and is a fixture around the Detroit sports scene, often seen attending games with close friend Kid Rock.
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Chelios says he has promised Howe his record is safe because he won’t play beyond 51, but he’s not ruling out anything else. Holland has said he wants to re-sign Chelios for next season.
“If he stays away from a major injury,” Holland says, “he could play until he’s 50.”
Cheli’s fitness can probably be attributed to what teammate’s call the “Desert Ride.”
Darren McCarty calls it the most disgusting thing he’s ever seen a teammate do.
Tony Amonte and Chris Osgood agreed.
“It’s called The Desert Ride,” explained McCarty of a workout regimen that goes a long way towards explaining Chris Chelios’ longevity.
“It’s gross. It’s sick. No one else ever did it with him — you’d have to be a fool. He’s not right so it doesn’t matter. He’s a freak of nature — literally.”
The source of McCarty’s repugnance is a torturous training technique employed by the 45-year-old defenceman for 23 seasons.
It involves a stationary bike, two jugs of water, a sauna and a work ethic unmatched in today’s game. Assembling the ingredients in the hot box several mornings a week, the Red Wings defenceman will “get the blood flowing” with a ride that could last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.
McCarty added that he had a hard time sitting in there for five minutes with the high temperatures, but Chelios could easily bike 20 minutes in it. That’s hard core if you ask me.
One of the things I love about Cheli is his quick wit and that he is willing to laugh at jokes made about his age.
“There is absolutely nobody like Cheli in terms of his conditioning and competitiveness,” ventured Wilson, in his usual deadpan manner, “and he’s played that way since the beginning of his career, when I was in high school, watching him.”
Wilson, of course, is 52 and knew he’d gotten off a good one when Chelios, the Detroit Red Wings’ defenceman, bumped into him in the corridor the next day. Hunched over, walking as if he had a cane in his hand, mimicking a doddering old man, Chelios said to Wilson: “Yeah, right, you remember watching me in high school.”
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The father of his current defence partner, Kyle Quincey, is 48 — only three years older than Chelios himself.
“Obviously, I’m just a sponge when I’m around him,” Quincey said. “I’m absorbing everything I can. Cheli, he’s really good at downplaying things and making me confident and composed out there.
“He’s only three years younger than my dad, but I don’t really think of it in those terms. If you knew Cheli, he’s really young minded.”
Chelios did not take your “typical” path to becoming an NHL star as Bruce MacLeod describes in this article. I wrote more about his journey to the NHL in a BTJ feature I wrote three years ago.
“I feel that I was supposed to be a hockey player,” said Chelios. “I’m not from the traditional hockey background. I’m a Greek kid from Chicago. But for some reason, I wound up here and I think it was fate.”
In his early 20s, Chelios became a hockey legend in Montreal, a city that has never been fond of English-speaking Canadians, let alone Americans who play Montreal’s native sport. Montreal nevertheless loved the Greek kid from Chicago.
Chelios went home to play for the Blackhawks and became one of the most hated foes of the Detroit Red Wings but in 1999, Chelios became a Red Wing.
Should Chris Chelios return to the Detroit locker room next season, however, he will have played in parts of nine seasons wearing the winged wheel. That will match his nine Chicago seasons and top the seven he spent with the Canadiens.
As he has aged, Chelios has adapted the type of workouts he uses to stay in shape, but still keep it easy on his body. He has a son, who recently won a state championship with Cranbrook and hopes to one day play in the NHL like his father.
Chelios used to run a lot, but not any more.
“I mountain bike quite a bit,” he said. “It’s a lot easier on the legs.
“Anybody will tell you, you get older and impact is not good on your knees. I figured just to switch it up I’d try some different training - a lot of water sports and mountain biking.”
Bikes in saunas, mountain biking - he has younger teammates who can’t keep up with him. So, his ability to hang around this long is no mystery.
…
Chelios has a 17-year-old who plays hockey.
“He’s a goal-scoring phenomenon,” Chelios boasts.
Would he try to carry on and wait and see if his son gets a big-league shot?
“Oh, I’d love to,” said Chelios. “It’s a long ways off though.
“He’s just coming out of high school. I hope he makes it but right now we’re shooting for college.”
He was key to the Wings’ success in the series against the Sharks, especially after they lost Mathieu Schneider to injury.
For a team that just might be in over its head against these big, bad Sharks, Chelios is the perfect lifeguard. Don’t think the Wings can win this series? Well, don’t tell that to Chelios, the self-described “angry Greek man.”
“That’s the thing about Cheli — he’s so competitive,” said Dan Cleary, arguably the Wings’ biggest playoff revelation this spring. “He’s the most competitive person I’ve ever met. And that rubs off — it’s contagious. He wants it, you know? That’s why he’s a leader, that’s why he has won before, and that’s why he’s still playing at 45.”
It’s why he may yet be playing at 50, as silly as that sounds.
“I betcha he plays three, four more years,” coach Mike Babcock said.
“Why wouldn’t he?” joked Gordie Howe, who played until he was 52.
Said Draper: “Yeah, we saw the movie ‘300′ and Cheli’s new nickname is ‘Sparta’ now. His mom’s from there, so I guess there’s got to be something in the bloodlines.”
Chelios doesn’t score much anymore, but he still plays an important role on the team.
Predictably, his young colleagues were all delighted for the old fella. Kirk Maltby was unable to control a laugh when asked about the dead-eye marksmanship — reminiscent of the Chelios of a decade ago — that saw the super-vet meander deep into enemy territory, take a drop pass from Johan Franzen and deftly pick a corner.
“Chelly, he’s had some opportunities,” Maltby smiled, “and he kind of gets down on himself when he misses a good chance. It was really good to see him be able to put that one in.”
The Virginia Tech shootings that took place last month hit close to home to Chelios who had two employees who were murdered on January 2nd in his restaurant in downtown Detroit.
As the Red Wings prepared for Tuesday night’s playoff game against the Calgary Flames, Chris Chelios made a point of watching television updates on the shooting at Virginia Tech University. Did he know any of the 33 victims? He didn’t think so. Was he struck by the horror of the incident? Most assuredly.
“It’s been a rough year for a lot of people,” Chelios said. “You can’t live in fear but you know . . .”
He knows.
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“We went on a road trip (soon after the Soroka-Barnard slayings) and we missed Chris’s presence, his ability to calm things down,” forward Dan Cleary said. “He’s such a caring person. He’s got this hard shell on the outside but he’s a real teddy bear inside. When he came back, we just tried to be there for him.”
Chelios prides himself on being able to separate the outside world from his job as a hard-hitting, in-your-face competitor, the kind who has antagonized more people than a blaring loudspeaker at 2 a.m. It’s been that ability that has allowed him to play at an age when most hockey players are former hockey players trying to perfect their golf game.
Chelios is the second oldest player to ever participate in the NHL playoffs at 45 years old (Gordie Howe is number one at 52 years), but he certainly doesn’t play like he’s 45 years old.
Chelios’ role has diminished since the Wings traded for him in March 1999, but his outstanding conditioning has made him, even as he’s entered his mid-40s, a reliable source when needed. He is always on the ice when the Wings are killing off a two-man disadvantage, and with fellow defenseman Niklas Kronwall out through May because of a fractured sacrum, the Wings know Chelios can help pick up the slack.
“When he goes out there, you know exactly what you’re going to get from him — he loves chasing the puck down, he loves pressuring guys, and playing in those situations, when he is outnumbered, those are the kind of situations he thrives on,” Draper said.
Chelios said fatigue never had been a factor, something his durability backed up. There’s little doubt the Wings will re-sign him this summer, meaning he could further cement his playoff legend.
He is the oldest defenseman to ever play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. One of the benefits of playing at his age? His sons can actually enjoy his Stanley Cup wins and have gone on road trips with the team.
At a time when the NHL is being taken over by a widespread youth movement and many young players have played beyond their years, “Old Man” Chelios hasn’t lost a step and is as steady on the blue line as he’s ever been. A big reason for that is he’s blessed with the right genetics. But an equally important aspect of his staying power is how much Chelios takes care of himself between games and away from the rink.
“I think it’s just a little bit of everything,†he says. “There’s been a lot of guys over the past 10, 12 years that trained just as hard. I think I’ve been very fortunate that I met my trainer 14 years ago, T.R. Goodman, who basically was the first to do my type of training, I guess you want to call it circuit training. I changed my training. I’ve had to train because I can’t do the impact training that I used to. I’ve been very fortunate to bounce back from the injuries that I’ve had.
“But like I said, when you last 23 years, that’s just a little bit of everything and I think I look at other guys, the tragedies that they have been through and the injuries they have sustained, I’ve been very fortunate and I’ve remained healthy,†Chelios said. “And I’ve just been able to fit in with the trainer in the last couple of years and not been able to uproot and move my family, which probably would been about the end of my career a few years ago if I had not been able to play with Detroit. The team has had a lot of success, and I think that’s what’s kept me around the longest for the most part I think.â€
…
“If you look back, probably the biggest highlight has to be on the ice when we won the 2002 Cup with my two boys who were 15 and 14, or 14 and 13 at the time, to share that with two sons who love hockey as much as I do,†Chelios said. “That was definitely the highlight of my career. You know, not making it any more important than the Cup that I won in Montreal, but I celebrated that alone, and to do it with my two boys and my family, it was something special. If you look at the guys and going through what I’ve gone through, it’s a special thing to do as a parent.â€
Due to his longevity in the sport and his training in California, Chelios has become friends with many within the Hollywood circles.
Actors John Cusack and John C. McGinley were among the Hollywood group that greeted friend Chris Chelios in San Jose after Game 4. Chelios spends his summers in Malibu, Calif., and has, over his 20-plus NHL seasons, accumulated an impressive list of famous friends.
“I’ve seen him being around them and he just treats them like they’re one of the guys and not some movie stars,” Kirk Maltby said. “I’m sure he curses at them just as much as he does at us. It’s nice, for the most part, the ones I’ve met, they’ve all been nice guys and they’re just excited because they’re hockey fans. It’s fun. It’s definitely nice when you get to meet someone that you go pay 10 bucks to see at a movie theater.”
Maltby’s highlight was a locker room visit a few years back from Chelios’ fellow Chicago athlete, a fellow by the name of Michael Jordan. “Michael Jordan is about as big as you’re going to get, movie star or athlete,” Maltby said. “It’s a nice benefit you get from playing with Chris.”
GM Ken Holland wants to re-sign Chelios for another year due to his physical fitness and strong mental will and toughness.
“Cheli is as mentally tough as any athlete in our sport,” Holland said. “If we had to play him 30 minutes, he’d play 30 minutes. You’re talking about one of the most strong-willed, mentally tough athletes I’ve ever been around. ”
Said Chelios: “I haven’t done it all year, so it takes a couple of games to get in 25-30 minute shape. But, I’m going to start to feel better as the series go on.”
Chelios is renowned for his rigorous summer workouts in Southern California under noted trainer T.R. Goodman, where the 45-year-old is apparently putting men half his age to shame.
“I go to L.A. and bump into T.R. Goodman and he tells me how they bring in 24-, 25-year-old guys and Chelios works them under the table, he buries them in workouts,” Holland said. “So Cheli’s got a lot of hockey left in him. If he stays healthy — we crack jokes about him playing until he’s 50 — but I wouldn’t be surprised seeing him playing in the National Hockey League when he’s 50 years of age.”
Holland said he wants to sign Chelios to another one-year deal. Chelios has always maintained he’ll continue to play as long as he’s wanted.
It seems that for the past couple of seasons, the Wings have intended to reduce Cheli’s minutes on the ice. Yet every year, a defenseman goes down and Cheli is there to step up and play consistently solid hockey.
A look at TV ratings
I decided to look into the TV ratings for the Detroit Red Wings in comparison to other teams and their respective regional markets as well as try to compare the Wings to the other Detroit professional teams’ ratings.
The Red Wings’ games are carried on four channels during the season: Versus, NBC, Fox Sports Detroit, and the local Fox station. A majority of games are shown on FSD.
Wings vs. Rest of NHL
According to the New York Times, the Detroit Red Wings are the leading NHL team on Fox Sports regional markets this season.
Among all the Fox Sports Net regionals, the Red Wings lead all hockey teams, averaging a 5.0 rating and 96,915 households.
Fox Sports carries games for over half of the NHL, but obviously does not carry the Canadian teams.
Regular Season vs. Postseason Ratings
FSD has seen a big increase in ratings now that the Wings are in the playoffs compared to the regular season. Unfortunately, the playoff ratings are still lower than they were prior to the lockout.
On average, about 174,000 Metro Detroit households are watching the playoff games on FSN Detroit, a 150 percent gain from the regular season, according to Nielsen ratings released by the network.
But that’s a far cry from the frenzy in 2004, when about 250,000 local households were watching the games.
“The excitement is getting there,” said Tim Bryan, a spokesman for FSN Detroit. “There’s definitely more interest that we’re in the playoffs. This is a huge sports town.”
The Detroit Free Press also reports that the postseason ratings have been increased from the regular season, but are down by .3 points from last year’s playoffs.
The Red Wings, which averaged a 3.6 rating during the regular season on FSN, are averaging a 9.0 rating on FSN during the playoffs. In 2005-06, on FSN, the numbers were 4.7 for the regular season, 9.3 for the playoffs.
Wings vs. Other Detroit Sports
On April 28, all four Detroit teams had games or events shown on TV at the same time. The Detroit Pistons and Red Wings both had playoff games starting at 3pm. The NFL Draft began at 12pm where the Lions held the second overall pick. The Detroit Tigers had a game at 1pm. The Red Wings came out as the winner that day.
According to Nielsen Media Research, it was the Red Wings, which drew a 9.1 on Channel 4, followed by the Pistons (7.6 combined) on TNT and Channel 20, the NFL draft (5.4) on ESPN and the Tigers (2.8) on FSN.
One TV ratings point equals 19,380 area households.
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“One of every four households had their TVs on watching Detroit sports,” Hauser said of Saturday’s sports viewership. “And it was a beautiful day; it wasn’t like it was raining. The ratings say there’s a ton of interest in all of our sports.”
NHL ratings
On a national level, NHL TV ratings are much lower than what they were in the 1990s.
The N.H.L. remains a league in recovery from the 2004-5 lockout and the miscalculations that led to the labor strife. So it is not surprising that it continues to struggle to rebuild its United States viewership. Nationally, for example, NBC’s regular-season average viewership of 1.34 million is but 45 percent of the 2.9 million in more glorious days on Fox 11 years ago.
”Is there a prospect for monumental growth in ratings? No,” Bill Daly, the league’s deputy commissioner, said yesterday in a telephone interview. ”Do we have what we consider good growth prospects in this environment? Yes.”
There is some hope that more viewers will watch the playoffs than they have so far in the first round. Three New York-area teams are involved, and while the Islanders and the Devils mean little nationally, the presence of the Rangers, who are leading Atlanta, 3-0, in their series after last night’s game, can be viewed only positively.
”It’s nice to have a revival in hockey in New York, in a market where the Rangers hadn’t won a playoff game before this year in 10 years,” Daly said.
Andrew’s Star Page has a nice table looking at the Stanley Cup finals TV ratings in the US since 1995:
Year Network Teams Games Carried Rating
1995 Fox New Jersey-Detroit 2 3.4
1996 Fox Colorado-Florida 2 3.6
1997 Fox Detroit-Philadelphia 1 4.0
1998 Fox Detroit-Washington 1 3.3
1999 Fox Dallas-Buffalo 3 3.4
2000 ABC New Jersey-Dallas 4 3.7
2001 ABC Colorado-New Jersey 5 3.3
2002 ABC Detroit-Carolina 3 3.6
2003 ABC New Jersey-Anaheim 5 2.9
2004 ABC Tampa Bay-Calgary 5 2.6
2006 NBC Carolina-Edmonton 5 2.3
As you can see, the ratings have been gradually declining over the years.
NHL vs. Other Leagues’ ratings
One thing that we often forget is that Canadian ratings are not factored into the US ratings. When hockey is a sport loved by Canadians, you do leave out a lot of your fan base and the NHL may be comparable to the NBA games in the regular season if you were to combine ratings from Canada and the US.
“People in the States underestimate (hockey),” he [Mark Cuban] said. “More people watch Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights than watch NBA basketball on Thursday night in the States. People in the U.S. don’t realize that. They don’t realize there are more hockey fans in a country of (32.8) million than there are NBA fans in the U.S. (population 300 million).
“I’d be out there promoting the NHL’s combined TV viewership in the U.S. and Canada. But it doesn’t happen.”
It’s an interesting point. The NBA on TNT, the league’s Thursday night national broadcast, averaged a 1.1 rating last season, or about one million households in the United States. Meanwhile, Hockey Night in Canada’s marquee Saturday night matchup is averaging about 1.27 million viewers in the northland. If you combine that with the typical rating for a national U.S. broadcast of an NHL game on the obscure Versus network — even if it’s a pittance of about 160,000 households — it represents an impressive North American audience.
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“The perception among regular sports fans is going to be, `Wow. I didn’t realize hockey was that big.’ Nobody’s going to do the division and say, `Well, that’s in Canada so that doesn’t count.’ It’s just like a box office. They don’t say, `Well, it was stronger in Canada.’ We’ve had movies stronger in Canada per screen than they were in the U.S. No one cares. It’s just total box office. Advertisers don’t care. You guys drink beer. We drink beer. You guys play video games. We play video games. You guys wear stupid sneakers and pay too much money for ‘em. We do the same.”
“I think it’s just a matter of educating people that it’s not that far a leap from the NHL to the NBA. They’re on par with each other. But you don’t hear that.”
Problems with Versus
I think Versus has improved the quality of their production of NHL games. However, I also believe NHL ratings are down partially because of the Versus channel. It’s not in every household that has cable TV (unlike the NBA with TNT and ESPN/ABC). It’s a “harder” channel to find meaning that it doesn’t have the recognition ESPN does and people are less likely to know what channel it is in their local market.
Other than the games NBC has committed too, Versus is the exclusive NHL cable rights holder for NHL games in the conference finals and for the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals. And let’s not forget if the Ducks and Red Wings make it to the next round 40 percent of their fans will be on the outside unable to look in – that is not how you run a sports league in 2007.
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When the current NHL agreement with Versus began two years ago Versus was in 65 percent of the cable ready homes. Two years later that number has ‘improved’ to 71 percent of the cable ready homes, and try as they Versus has failed the NHL at every possible level.
Overall
I don’t really have any overall analysis or comments as there really isn’t any ratings information that I have that compares the Wings’ TV ratings against other hockey markets or even against other Detroit sports teams year after year. I just thought I’d compile some recent reports that might be interesting to readers.
Holmstrom key to Wings’ success
Here is a collection of articles I have found about Tomas Holmstrom (aka Homer).
The Hockey News recently wrote about Holmstrom being the biggest bargain in the NHL.
“When I hear people talk, they say the best people in front of the net are Ryan Smyth and Tomas Holmstrom,” Holland says. “The past two years, Tomas has really taken his game to the next level. We all thought coming into the new NHL with the new set of rules, the game was geared toward skaters and Tomas isn’t a skater. It is probably one of the weaker parts of his game, but he has really thrived.
He gets to the front of the net and has great hands. I think he is a better scorer than people give him credit for.”
The fact is life got significantly easier for Holmstrom when the NHL decided, after the lockout, to reduce obstruction. It meant he would no longer take a pounding at the front of the net, absorbing cross-check after cross-check in the back and kidneys.
“He was going to go there no matter what the rules are,” Holland says. “He probably doesn’t have quite as many bumps and bruises now as he did a few years ago, but that’s the beauty about Tomas; no matter how tought it is, he’s going there.”
Bruce MacLeod talked about Homer’s importance to the team and the series when he was still out with the eye injury.
When Mike Babcock was introducing a visitor around the Detroit Red Wings’ locker room after a preseason game last October, he came across Tomas Holmstrom. The coach smiled and said, “This is Tomas Holmstrom, the best power-play man in the National Hockey League.”
Babcock would surely like to introduce Holmstrom to the San Jose Sharks right about now.
Homer was pleased to be back on the ice after missing three games due to his eye injury. He made a big impact by scoring the Wings’ first goal in Game #4 in his typical spot at the top of the crease. Due to the injury, he’ll be wearing a visor for the rest of the playoffs.
Holmstrom had a team-high four hits while playing 16:21 and being his usual forceful self around the net.
Interestingly, he wasn’t available to start the power play in overtime because of a broken skate blade.
“It was unfortunate he broke his blade,” Babcock said. “You know, I thought, here we go, we have a power play in overtime and we got no Homer because he broke his blade. But that’s the way things go.” …
“Just his puck-possession skills down low and the offensive zone, and the retrieval skills and the play off the wall,” Babcock said. “His ability to get the puck back gives you two chances instead of one chance, and we feel we’ve been one-and-out on the power play. And the last part of the last game (Game 3), there was no keeping it going down low. He has that ability, and with bigger bodies, ideally we can do that.”
The Toronto Star just wrote a brief article about Homer’s place on the squad:
The crowd gathered around Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom, his left eye is still bloody, his left pupil still dilated from a stick injury suffered against Calgary.
“How’s your eye?” a reporter asked.
“Where are you?” joked Holmstrom, feigning blindness and getting a few yuks.
With one of their best players back in the lineup, having scored a huge goal in Game 3, the Wings are a loose and confident bunch. They have defied logic, heading into Game 5 tonight with the series tied at two games apiece despite having been massively outplayed.
…
“I really felt he gave us a boost, a little shot of adrenaline,” Dan Cleary said of Holmstrom. “He’s got that personality and that attitude. He does a lot for us.
“He definitely brings that power play presence that we’ve been missing.”
My only problem with this article: massively outplayed? The Wings have not been massively outplayed. Yes, their two wins have been after they were down by two goals, but both teams have dominated a portion of every game. I could see an argument if you felt the Sharks were a better team, but they have not massively outplayed the Wings in this series.
Sports Illustrated mentioned Homer’s superstition regarding his three gray t-shirts.
“I have these three t-shirts,” says the 34-year-old career Wing. “They’re all gray, all the same, but it’s important that I not mix them up. I wear one before warmups, I switch to another before I go out for warmups, and then there’s one I wear during games.” Holmstrom, who was nursing an eye injury in Detroit’s current series with the Sharks, started the practice last season, but won’t say why. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he says. “People will think I’m crazy.”
Happy Anniversary!!
Today marks the 10 year anniversary of “The Turtle.” I am compiling comments, quotes, and photos to give you one giant anniversary page of my favorite hockey game ever. Why is it my favorite game that I’ve ever seen? Well, there were 9 fights (and McCarty getting Lemieux wasn’t even considered a ‘fight’ in terms of penalty minutes), 11 goals, and 148 penalty minutes. The game ended with the Wings winning, 6-5, in overtime.
Before I get to the quotes and whatnot, here is my favorite YouTube clip highlighting the game on March 26, 1997.
As all Wings fans know, the game was a long time coming from Colorado Avalanche’s Claude Lemieux’s hit from behind on the Wings’ Kris Draper who fell into the boards. The hit resulted in serious facial injuries (broken nose, jaw, cheekbone, and right eye socket), which caused Draper’s jaw to be wired shut for days and 40 stitches. Dino Ciccarelli later said following the game, “I can’t believe I shook this guy’s frickin’ hand.” Not only did Draper suffer this terrible injury, but his team had just lost in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals in 1996.
Darren McCarty
Mac obviously played a critical role in the March 26, 1997 game. Not only did he pummel Lemieux, but he also scored the game winning goal in overtime and ‘interacted’ with Adam Deadmarsh.
The Vancouver Sun printed a nice article with an interview with McCarty. Here are my favorite quotes from the article:
“First thing,” said Darren McCarty, one of the affair’s major protagonists, “I can’t believe it was 10 years ago.”
“You want to see a great game?” said McCarty, the former Red Wings muscleman who is now with the Flames. “It’s on the NHL Network, the Classic channel or whatever. If it’s on, I’ll watch it. It’s just unbelievable.”
“It had a lot of buildup,” nodded McCarty, “and it exceeded the buildup. If they were taking odds in Vegas, it was probably a million-to-one the game could supersede the hype. But it did. It annihilated the type. It dropped an atomic bomb on it. It just nuked it. You can’t argue that.”
“The icing on the cake,” said McCarty, “what made it so special, is that I scored the overtime goal. That’s what ties everything in all together.”
“I’ll never replace that winning-the-Cup game and scoring that goal, but to take just a game in general, [the March 26, 1997 contest] was the greatest game I’ve ever played in, that I ever saw. Just because it had every ingredient you could ever want. That game had everything.”
Wings head coach Mike Babcock remembers watching that game ten years ago. He enjoyed the competition and emotion that the two teams displayed as well as the great hockey.
“Claude and Darren fighting, and Darren scoring the game-winning goal, that was great,” Babcock said.
“People tend to forget, after all the other stuff that happened, it was a great game, going back and forth, 6-5 in overtime.”
The Goaltenders
The two goaltenders playing that night were Colorado’s Hall of Famer Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon for the Red Wings. The two got into a fight that evening at center ice. It took a few minutes for the two to actually start fighting with one another, but you can see the action in the clip below.
Wings’ goaltender Chris Osgood’s favorite memory is of the goalie fight that night.
“Vernie skating to center — and I thought he’d be exhausted just skating all the way there,” Osgood said. “I remember pictures of Vernie’s head fitting into Roy’s glove. Remember, at that time, there were no rules on equipment, and Vernie’s head fit entirely in Roy’s glove.
“Roy getting cut and saying he’d won the fight. Vernie was so tired. Vernie skated off the ice, and he was exhausted and was hoping they’d kick him out of the game, but they didn’t, and he had to go back there and play. He could barely move.
“And Shanny flying through the air to get after Roy.”
Source: Tom Pidgeon / Associated Press Roy later said, “Detroit won the Stanley Cup that night.”
The Villian
Claude Lemieux may have been the most hated athlete in Detroit for years after he hit Draper from behind. Not only was it bad enough that Lemieux made a dirty play, but he was upset with the referee’s call.
On the ice, Lemieux was assessed a five-minute match penalty by McCreary, which meant his automatic ejection from the game. Believing McCreary’s call to be unfair, Lemieux made a showy, petulant exit, slamming the door built into the boards behind the north-side net in the aging arena.
The crowd at the Joe was only too happy to see McCarty seek revenge especially after his lack of remorse following that game.
Down the hallway, in the jubilant Avalanche dressing room, Lemieux stood in a Western Conference Championship T-shirt, drinking a beer and high-fiving teammates. A first-year beat reporter for the Denver Post — covering my first NHL team ever — I stood in that dressing room and immediately posed a question to Lemieux about Draper.
“Are you sorry about the hit on Draper?” I asked. “Apparently his injuries are pretty bad.”
“Nobody wants to see a player get injured. I didn’t try to hurt him, and I’m sorry he’s hurt,” Lemieux said.
That was as close as Lemieux would get to an apology. There was no asking about the extent of Draper’s injuries. No asking where he might be in the building for a quick visit. When some Detroit reporters pressed Lemieux about the incident, the two-time Stanley Cup champion and son of a blue-collar truck driver from Mont Laurier, Quebec, took a familiar adversarial posture.
“I don’t want to waste my time talking about Detroit,” he said.
” I try to hit everybody as hard as I can, just like everybody tries to hit me as hard as they can. Everything is always vicious about us, and not them.
“At worst, I thought it should have been a two-minute penalty. I think that was going to be his first call, but then (McCreary) saw blood and decided to change his mind.” With that, Lemieux took a long last drink of his beer, crumpled the can, and tossed it in the trash.
That’s the end of it, Lemieux seemed to say with the gesture. No more questions about that. Move on.
Source: Tom Pidgeon / Associated Press
Blogger Reactions
IwoCPO @ Abel to Yzerman:
Yep, it’s been ten years since Igor Larionov–of all people–started the brawl at the Joe. Ten years since Aaron Ward earned his stripes, Brendan Shanahan truly became a Wing and Mike Vernon won his 300th.
The blogger behind On the Forecheck actually had a press pass for that game ten years ago and wrote it for his hockey website of the time, In the Crease. He re-posted what he had written back then for us to read today.
Here, then, is the piece I wrote that night from press row (sitting next to Phil Myre, then a pro scout with Ottawa) - much of it during the action, on a laptop borrowed from work for the night. Some of the writing is pretty hackneyed, but instead of taking further time to edit it, I wanted to let the emotions of the night come through and sent it in for posting right away. I hope you enjoy it…
The Game
Back in December, I wrote a review on the book, Blood Feud
If you aren’t so interested in reading the behind the scenes stuff, but would rather just watch this classic game, the only DVD I know available for purchase is the four disc Detroit Red Wings set entitled a Celebration of Champions
Business Decisions in the NHL
This semester, I’m taking both Economics 101 and Sport Management 203 (Intro to Sport Business) among other classes at the University of Michigan. My SM 203 professor has taken shots at the NHL every single class (we meet Mon, Wed, and Fri). He doesn’t have a problem with the sport mind you, just that it has now become a mid-major sport in his eyes because of the league’s decisions. Of course it doesn’t help with the business decisions that the league has made of late, but when you actually look at the NHL and compare it with the other three leagues it really opens your eyes.
I’m a huge hockey fan as you all know. I wouldn’t be running a blog covering the Red Wings if I wasn’t passionate about the team and the sport. I got to say that I’ve realized how far behind the NHL is in comparison to the other leagues (NFL, MLB, and NBA) since I started taking this class. Before this year, I knew that the NHL wasn’t on the same level as the other three leagues but I had not realized that it had gotten this bad.
Yes, the league is now making money after the lockout, but I think the NHL could be doing a lot better than they are right now. This post will essentially consist of me ranting about poor decisions the NHL has made recently and over the past 14 years (yes, during commissioner Gary Bettman’s reign).
Anyone who doesn’t think hockey can work in America is forgetting this era [the early 1990s]. All of a sudden, hockey was challenging, if not beating, the NBA in a number of major U.S. markets – including New York. It’s almost impossible to imagine now, but it happened.
As the conspiracy theory goes, Stern sensed the potential trouble in 1993 while the NHL was in search of a new commissioner. So he looked around his own office for someone so incompetent that if they got the job, the NHL would be marginalized by their mismanagement and never again be a threat to the NBA.
Naturally, Stern recommended one of his assistants, Gary Bettman, for the job.
True story or not, it worked.
The list of bad ideas…
Note: These bad ideas (in my opinion) are not in any particular order.
1) Moving the All-Star game to a weeknight.
Sure the primetime tends to draw more ratings, but when your game is shown on Versus AND going against American Idol, the most popular TV show in America, it’s not such a smart idea. While the ASG ratings for the 2007 game initially sounded like an improvement, when you compare it to prior years (the last ASG was before the lockout in 2004) you will find out that the ratings sucked.
This year’s ASG brought in a 0.7 rating, which is about 474,298 viewing homes and 672,948 total viewers. Compared to the Versus’ programming average rating of 0.2, it was a 250% increase which sounds all nice and dandy. However, the 2004 ASG drew in 1.985 million viewers on ABC. That is a huge drop in ratings over three years. Personally, I think there still would have been a big drop in the ratings even if the ASG had remained on the weekend, but it probably wouldn’t have been this bad.
2) Staying with Versus.
First mistake, the NHL decided to sign a contract with Versus instead of ESPN following the lockout in 2005. The reasons? Versus would be able to give the NHL the coverage and care it felt it deserved. Plus, Versus was going to pay a lot more than ESPN. ESPN wasn’t going to offer a lot of money because the NHL ratings were so low (even worse than poker, a non-sport) and they believed that the NHL’s product did not warrant a bigger offer. Obviously I have the advantage of hindsight, but I think the league would have been much better off with a smaller TV deal with ESPN than their current one with Versus.
I’m one of those people that believe ESPN has gotten worse over the years and covers more entertainment crap than actual sports. However, I do believe that ESPN is critical to a sport’s success. When you can’t advertise on ESPN (and I’m assuming ABC as well since they are owned by the same company), you have a problem. When ESPN barely showcases the NHL in SportsCenter, you have a problem.
Now that the NHL and Versus have extended their deal into 2011, it’s going to be incredibly hard to return to ESPN. If and when they do, that TV deal is going to be quite small but it will provide the league with the necessary exposure to succeed in the sporting world. According to James Mirtle, it appears that the league really didn’t have a choice in the matter.
The interesting thing is that the decision was entirely in Versus’ hands, as the fledgling network had the option to decide how long they wanted to be the NHL’s broadcaster regardless of ratings and/or the number of subscribers.
It appears Gary Bettman’s plans to expand the league’s television footprint in the U.S. rests solely with Versus’ ability to attract new subscribers, something that seems questionable at best. You have to wonder if this means four more years of miniscule ratings like those reported from last week’s all-star game.
The only good thing about Versus is that the NHL and the Tour de France (a cycling race which happens in July) are their two main draws to their station so they are willing to put a lot of money and time for those two sports/events. According to the Sports Business Daily, Comcast “is contracted to spend $20[M] worth of promotion per year on the league.”
3) Staying status quo with the schedule.
I’ve made my feelings on the current schedule well known over the past year, but I had to mention it in this list.
The column I linked to at the beginning of this post had this to say about the current schedule and the new rivalries it was supposed to create:
Bettman claimed it would spawn “new” rivalries. Of course, old rivalries such as Detroit-Toronto – two hockey-mad towns separated by a single highway that actually has an exit for Wayne Gretzky Blvd. – no longer play a home-and-home series each season. It’s like killing Red Sox-Yankees so Blue Jays-Diamondbacks might catch on.
4) League expansion in the 1990s.
One of the league’s biggest mistakes, in my opinion, was allowing the dramatic expansion in the 1990s. From 1991 through 2001, the NHL added nine teams. During the same time, the NBA added two teams while the MLB and NFL added four.
Five of the nine NHL expansion teams in that time frame brought in only $50 million each as their franchise fee. The other four (Nashville, Atlanta, Minnesota, and Columbus) had $80 million as their franchise fee. This doesn’t seem too bad, but then you compare to the expansion fees in the other three big leagues.
When the MLB added Colorado and Florida in 1993, it cost the new team owners $95 million each. Only a short time later when the league expanded to Arizona and Tampa Bay, the expansion fee jumped to $130 million.
The NBA only allowed two teams to enter the league in the 1990s. Both Vancouver and Toronto joined in 1995 after each paid $125 million expansion fees.
Now we all realize that the NFL is a different beast in the sense that it’s TV contracts are so much better than the rest of the leagues allowing demand for teams to rapidly increase. In 1995, the NFL allowed Carolina and Jacksonville to join the league at the cost of $140 million. In 1999, Cleveland paid $530 million to become an NFL franchise. When Houston joined the league in 2001, they paid a whopping $700 million. Wow.
One of BtJ’s readers, Chris at the Checking Line, brought up a very valid point that many of those expansions had been agreed upon before Bettman came into play.
Contrary to popular belief, Bettman did not expand to Florida or California. The league had made the decision to expand to 26 teams before he became commissioner. Under Bettman’s watch, the league has only expanded to Minnesota, Columbus, Nashville, and Atlanta. Both Minnesota and Columbus are looking to be good markets while that remains to be seen in Nashville and Atlanta. You can’t expect these new hockey markets to support their teams after 8 seasons like markets that have been established for years. Oh, and the Board of Governers approves expansion.
After being appropriately corrected, I changed my bad idea #4 from Gary Bettman to quick league expansion. I still don’t like Bettman and believe there has to be someone out there better for the job, but the expansion cannot be entirely blamed on Bettman.
Chuqui at Two for Elbowing also has her thoughts on Bettman’s reign as commissioner and how it hasn’t been as bad as we like to think.
John Ziegler ran the league from 1977 to 1992 (and left in disgrace). Gil Stein from 1992-1993. Gary Bettman arrived in June, 1993.
Average attendance per game in 1992-93, the year before Bettman arrived, was 14,046, a total attendance of 14 million.
Average attendance per game in 2005-2006 was 16,954, total attendance 20.8 million.
This “disaster” (to use Tom’s infamous “quotes”) is an 18% increase in attendance per game, and a total attendance increase of 6 million bodies, since he took over the league.
End of my rant…
I would like to thank everyone who has commented thus far and I encourage any readers to share their viewpoints. Even if it’s proving my faulty logic, I appreciate it and a healthy debate can only help improve my knowledge of economics and sport business.
Interview with Michael Sarner
I was recently able to conduct an email interview with Michael Sarner, the producer of the hockey documentary In the Crease. Here’s what he had to say:
1) How did you come up with the idea to follow a youth hockey team’s journey to US Nationals, much less a team from California?
As former hockey players, Matt and I realized nobody had ever really taken an inside look at youth hockey, so we set out to show the dedication, commitment and passion of the players and families to compete at the AAA level. Also, as kids we both dreamed of making it to Nationals and wanted to show kids around the country what the experience is all about.
2) Did the team struggle at all to act normally in front of the camera? Was it hard to shoot some of the action shots during practice and games?
Shooting was made so easy thanks to the unbelievable access given to us by the parents, players and coaches. Initially everyone was worried that the cameras would be a distraction, but at the same time they saw it as a great motivating tool for the players. Once Coach Lewis blew the whistle for the first ladder, the players realized they cameras are rolling and nobody wanted to get caught loafing it.
3) What were the NHL players reactions to this documentary or at least the concept of it? Did you have a hard time getting any of these players to take part?
NHL players are hands down the coolest, most down to earth and approachable athletes in all of sports. It was so easy to get them to sit down and talk to us. At the same time, I think it was refreshing for the players to talk about their childhood memories playing the game - before it became a job, before contract talks, free agency and revenue sharing. And they were so generous with their time. When we arrived at Mathieu Schneider’s home in Manhattan Beach, the house was empty. He has kids, so we thought his wife had taken them out so it would be quiet for the interview but then he tells us that his wife just gave birth the night before and was in the hospital. He came home just to keep the appointment! I mean how cool is that!
4) How long did it take you to complete this film from start to finish?
The whole process from start to finish was a year and half. We started filming the Wave immediately after they won the Pacific District and qualified for Nationals. We shot everyday for 4 weeks leading up to the tournament. Every practice. Every scrimmage. Even the off days. The cameras were on the ice and on the bench, in huddle and in the locker room. When the team wasn’t practicing or scrimmaging, we followed them home. The Wave mom’s fed us for the entire month of March. All together we shot 180 hours of footage and had to cut it down to 90 minutes.
5) Do you have any other projects in the works, particularly another hockey related film?
The making of IN THE CREASE has kept us really busy but we are now looking for another sport to capture. If there are any teams out there with a compelling story let us know at inthecrease@mac.com
6) I have read quite a few articles already about this documentary. Was it hard for you to generate press for the film and how did you go about generating interest in the DVD from consumers and the media?
The amount of interest generated in the film is a testament to the dedication and passion of the hockey community. Helene Elliott’s piece in the LA Times is a great example, as the former hockey editor of the Times, Helene loves anything hockey related. After watching the film, she understood what a powerful tool it can be in generating interest in youth hockey. And I cannot say enough about the great people at USA Hockey. They have been extremely influential in not only making the film happen, but reaching out to their fan base and creating awareness. The positive impact hockey has on the Wave players and families, should have every parent across the country lacing up their children’s skates.
Steve Yzerman Jersey Retirement Ceremony
As many of you know, I had the honor to attend Tuesday night’s Steve Yzerman Jersey Retirement Ceremony as an early birthday present. I sat in section 114 row 10 placing me directly above the zamboni pit and it turned out to be a great place for photos as all of the players and coaches (aside from the current team) had to walk right underneath where I was sitting. This post will be a recap of everything I can recall from the night’s events.
If you would like to check out the many photos my dad and I took from our seats, you may view them here. Depending on your internet connection, it may take awhile for the page to load due to the amount of images on the page.
Before the ceremony…
I arrived outside Joe Louis Arena at 5:15pm (gates opened at 5pm). I walked in and bought the program, which included the Nineteen book by Bob Duff for $20. I then went to the giveaway table where my dad and I both received a replica banner and a commemorative player card set. My dad has graciously offered to give away his banner and card set to a BtJ reader. For more information on how to win these special items, check out the bottom of this post.
We stopped by a “store” and bought a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and a ticket carrier. At 5:30pm, the concourse was packed and Yzerman gear was flying off the shelves and racks. All the jerseys that were being sold had a Yzerman banner patch on the top left making them collector’s items for sure. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we made our way towards our seats.
Employees were still making last minute finishing touches and members of the media were taking their places. CBC’s Don Cherry and Ron MacLean floated in and out of the zamboni pit. I was fortunate enough to be the last fan to get the book Nineteen signed by Don Cherry right before he went on the air. Bud Lynch told everyone to find their seats as the lights would go down in five minutes.
The Ceremony
I knew the ceremony was about to begin because the family members representing Sawchuk (his grandson) and Abel (his son) as well as players Lindsay, Howe, and Delvecchio all were gathering below in the zamboni pit. Each of them walked out toward the center of the ice when their name was announced and they all received a lot of cheers. Mr. Hockey had the biggest reception among the five. To honor these five, they re-raised their jersey numbers in front of a packed Joe Louis Arena.
Oh, Yzerman’s best friend Darren Pang was the master of ceremony and he introduced each person.
After the five jersey retirees were announced, we were introduced to former Yzerman teammates ranging from Bob Probert to Danny Gare to Brett Hull to Doug Brown to Vladimir Konstantinov to Steve Duchesne to Igor Larionov to Joey Kocur to Larry Murphy. I was pleasantly surprised to see Vladdy walking with the help of a walker. It was definitely an awesome thing to watch. Probie got a huge cheer and standing ovation from the crowd as well.
Once those players were finished, former coaches Dave Lewis, Barry Smith, and Scotty Bowman were presented. Members of the staff followed including GM Ken Holland, assistant GM Jim Nill, Wings president Jimmy Devellano, Ilitch Holdings president Chris Ilitch and his wife, and owners Mike and Marian Ilitch.
Once all those individuals had their seats, the current Detroit Red Wings team took the ice. Each player was wearing one of four Yzerman jerseys (his 2002 Stanley Cup jersey, his ‘81-83 Peterborough Petes jersey, Team Canada jersey, or his All-Star jersey). The team lined up on both sides of the red carpet, which stretched from the zamboni pit to the center of the ice. They then showed a variety of clips highlighting the wonderful career of Steve Yzerman.
At the conclusion of the video, Steve Yzerman and his family (wife Lisa and his three daughters) were introduced and walked toward the center of the ice with fans giving a standing ovation and plenty of cheering.
It was at this time that the ceremony truly began. Scotty Bowman, Jimmy D, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Mike Ilitch all gave very nice speeches honoring No. 19. At the end of Lidstrom’s short speech, he presented Yzerman a gift. The gift was a trip to see the Europe Cup in 2008 if I recall correctly.
Personally, I enjoyed Scotty’s speech the most because it seems so rare to hear such emotion and high praise for an athlete come out of Scotty’s mouth, which made the speech so much more memorable. There were plenty of funny lines from the evening, but I was not able to write them down so I’ll probably post some of them later this week from articles or by watching the ceremony that I recorded on my laptop.
They then presented the various trophies and awards that Yzerman had received throughout his career ranging from the Bill Masterton to the Selke to the Stanley Cup to the President’s Trophy to the Conn Smythe.
Finally, it was Yzerman’s turn to take certain stage. He stepped up to the podium and the JLA went crazy. The cheering, applause, standing ovation, etc. easily continued past five minutes and it became clear to me that Yzerman was touched, but wanted to get on with his speech. He finally just started talking and the crowd eventually quieted down.
You certainly wouldn’t have known that Tuesday night was honoring Yzerman by his speech. He thanked everybody - his family, his coaches, his teammates (both those who had not won the Cup with him and then those who had), the owners, the staff, and lastly the fans. At one point, he even said he was undeserving of the praises regarding his leadership. The crowd then booed and groaned in response. Once again, Yzerman displayed how humble he is and what a team player he was.
My favorite part of his speech was when he said something like Scotty Bowman has never been properly thanked for leading the team to 3 Stanley Cups. The crowd jumped to their feet and cheered on a very emotional Scotty Bowman. That moment gave me chills. As Yzerman’s speech wound down, my eyes started tearing up as he became more and more emotional. He finally thanked the fans and then exited the stage with another standing ovation.
With Yzerman and his family standing near the blue line, his jersey number banner was raised to the rafters amidst some cool smoke/fog effects. I recorded the raising of the banner with my camera as a video, but I won’t be able to post it until I figure out how to convert it for you guys.
After the ceremony…
Following the raising of Yzerman’s banner to the rafters of the Joe, the former teammates and coaches exited through the Wings bench while Yzerman and his family exited through the zamboni pit. Employees were quickly rushing about trying to dismantle everything and get ready for the game. The game was scheduled to start at 7:30, but did not begin until 8:30. During warm ups, my dad caught a puck that was sent over the net by an Anaheim Ducks player.
I was certainly disappointed in the crowd’s cheering during the game. It started to build towards the end, but it was nothing close to what we heard during the ceremony. Unfortunately, many people left after the ceremony or the end of the first period leaving a bunch of empty seats. I really don’t understand.
The game wasn’t the most exciting game ever, but the Wings managed to win the game for Stevie ending with the score, 2-1. Tomas Holmstrom and Henrik Zetterberg scored the two goals for Detroit. Anaheim’s lone goal came on a 5-on-3 power play in the first period.
More Yzerman posts
Want to check out more posts I made in the past about Steve Yzerman? You can check out the following…
- Steve Yzerman retires
- Steve Yzerman: Heart of a Champion
- Tribute to Steve Yzerman
- Tribute to Steve Yzerman (Part Two)
- Steve Yzerman Quote Sheet
- Behind the Jersey: No. 19
Contest Information
Want to win the replica banner given to all fans in attendance at the ceremony AND the commemorative player card set AND the Sports Illustrated Commemorative Edition featuring Steve Yzerman?
All you have to do is email me your name, email address, and your favorite Yzerman moment or character quality, etc. You could even send me your favorite moment or line from Tuesday night’s ceremony. Your moment, character, or favorite line can be one to five sentences in length. I will randomly select the winner after the deadline and contact the individual. Once I have their address, I will ship the items to them for free! I will also make a second random selection of an entry and send that person a copy of the SI Yzerman commemorative edition.
Why? For the free giveaways from Jan. 2nd’s game and an SI Yzerman magazine
Where? BehindtheJersey.com
When? You must submit your entry by noon (Eastern time) on January 19th
Good luck and if you have any questions, please send me an email me or leave a comment!
2006: A Wings’ Year in Review
A lot happened in 2006 for the Detroit Red Wings organization. Unfortunately, many of these happenings were disappointing or even a little sad (okay maybe for just me). Sad to see No. 19 retire. Sad to see Shanny leave for Broadway. Sad to lose in the first round of the playoffs after accumulating 124 points in the regular season. So here is the BtJ year in review for the 2006 Detroit Red Wings.
In 2006, the Detroit Red Wings finished the regular season with 124 points and a record of 58-16-8. They also led the league in the power play with a 22.1% success rate. The Wings also killed off 85.5% of their penalties placing them third in the league, only behind Minnesota and Buffalo.
Fortunately for Oilers fans everywhere, the Red Wings acquired Cory Cross at the trading deadline providing plenty of fodder come playoff time. The Wings also sent Jamie Rivers to Phoenix in exchange for a seventh round draft pick.
Then in April, the playoffs happened. What could have been a wonderful joyous time for the league’s best (in the regular season) became “The Punch in the Face.” If you’re an Oilers fan, you can gloat at how idiotic my prediction turned out to be for the series (and I wasn’t alone). And for those of you who want to revel in the glory of an Oilers’ series win or want to remind yourselves of the agony experienced by Wings fans, you can check out my postgame recollections of Game #1, Game #2, Game #3 (a liveblog of the game), Game #4, Game #5, and Game #6. Then I broke down the playoff series with the Wings version of the Good, Bad, and Ugly.
In May, Chris Chelios signed on for another year with the Red Wings for $850,000. GM Ken Holland also decided to not pick up Cory Cross’ option, much to the dismay of Oilers fans everywhere.
In June, goaltender Manny Legace learned that he would not be offered a contract by the Red Wings. Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and forward Pavel Datsyuk both received awards at the end of the season. Lidstrom earns his fourth Norris Trophy in five seasons while Datsyuk took home his first Lady Byng. I also created one of my most popular posts on BtJ of all times - my Anti-Roy post, fun for the whole family. Lidstrom later took a ‘hometown discount’ and signed a two year deal worth $7.6 million per year.
On July 1st, Chris Osgood re-signs with the Red Wings for a two year contract worth $900,000 per year. Two days later, No. 19 announced his retirement. Yzerman’s bonuses worth $400,000 still count towards this season’s salary cap. Brendan Shanahan signs a one year deal worth $4 million with the New York Rangers. Had he stayed, it would of been his 10th year with the Red Wings.
Wings fans had quite a scare when veteran goaltender Eddie Belfour (aka Psycho Eddie) came in for a physical over the 4th of July holiday week. He ended up signing with the Florida Panthers, thankfully.
Within a couple of days, GM Ken Holland re-signed forward Dan Cleary and defenseman Brett Lebda. Cleary agreed to a two year deal worth $1.325 million. Lebda will be with the Wings at $2.6 million over four years.
In late July, Holland finally signs someone who didn’t play for the team last year. Defenseman Danny Markov signs a one year deal worth $2.5 million to help bolster the Wings defense.
Holland was able to avoid arbitration with forward Jason Williams by getting him to sign a $1.6 million/year contract for two years.
On July 29th, Behind the Jersey moved from Blogger to its own domain!
Goaltender Dominik Hasek returns for his third stint in Detroit for $750,000 plus incentives that won’t kick in until after the first round of the playoffs.
Center Greg Johnson signs a one year contract worth $500,000. Johnson played for Detroit in the mid-90s and was traded away right before the Wings won the cup in 1997. Unfortunately, Johnson was diagnosed with a heart condition (similar to Jiri Fischer’s) during a physical and was forced to retire.
On August 30th, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they were retiring Yzerman’s jersey number on January 2nd. Almost a month later, the Wings organization announced that Yzerman was named the new vice president.
On opening night for the Wings (Oct. 5th) in a game against Vancouver, the new Red Wings captain was announced - defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.
Five hockey greats, including Yzerman, were honored by receiving the Lester Patrick Award in a ceremony held at Joe Louis Arena.
The Wings later announced that a statue made in the likeness of Gordie Howe will be in placed inside the new Gordie Howe Entrance at Joe Louis Arena next spring.
In December, an article surfaced reporting that TV ratings have dropped in most markets including Detroit.
At the end of the year (excluding the results from tonight’s game), the Wings are currently 23-9-5 with 51 total points placing them fifth overall in the league. Their power play is awful, only 14.8%, the fifth worst team in the league in that regard. The penalty kill isn’t quite so bad at 13th in the league with 83.3% success rate. Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom leads the league with a plus/minus rating of +24. Goaltender Dominik Hasek also leads the league, but in the GAA department with 1.82.