Is Stevie Y
underrated?
Posted: Fri June 12,
1998
Sports Illustrated hockey writer Kostya Kennedy will answer
your
NHL questions through the Stanley Cup
finals. Click here to send a
question.
It's almost time for someone to hoist the Cup, and you may
want to check out our
postgame
columns for some impressions on this
pursuit of glory. In the meantime, here's a new batch of
letters to
consider.
Why do you suppose that Steve Yzerman is the most
underrated and underexposed athlete in the USA? When John
Elway won a Super Bowl we heard everywhere how he had
toiled for so many years without reaching his ultimate
goal. When Stevie led the Wings to the Cup last year, no
one pointed out how long he waited, playing on some teams
that were a whole lot worse than any of
Elway's.
—Ric Sindon, Sarasota,
Fla.
In the hockey world Yzerman is neither underrated nor
underexposed. He's absolutely idolized in Detroit and
everyone who covers the game respects him deeply. I think
the lack of publicity is simply reflective of hockey's
stature in the U.S. The fan base
is relatively small and many fans are recent converts so
they don't appreciate all that Yzerman has done in his
15-year career. In the U.S., a hockey captain just can't
compete with a star football
quarterback.
In Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, Detroit's defensive
units did a great job, offensively and
defensively. I'm wondering if there is any truth to a rumor I heard
that the Red Wings front office is trying to pawn of the
older defensive players for some longer-term young stars.
It really would be a shame to break up such a grizzled and
wonderfully effective
bunch.
—Alan van der Hilst, Curaçao, Netherlands
Antilles
I don't think you have much to worry about. Exactly what
happens will depend partly on who the Wings lose in the
expansion draft. Nicklas Lidstrom and Larry Murphy will
certainly be back as a tandem—in case Murphy was one
of the old defensemen you were
mentioning. He's playing as well as he ever has, and head
coach Scotty Bowman and associate coach Barry Smith love
him. Anders Eriksson, of course, is young and here for a
while, and steady Bob Rouse can't be pawned off—he's a
free agent. The Wings will
make him a generous one-year (perhaps two-year) offer. My
feeling is that they'll re-sign him. But in the unlikely
event that another team offers Rouse a lot of years or
money, they'll let him go. Slava Fetisov appears on his
last legs, but he's still
effective with limited time, and Bowman, who rescued him from
New Jersey, will probably give him another
year.
All of these guys are worth more to the Wings than they
would be to anyone else because they know the team and the
system so well. Detroit does have Aaron Ward
waiting on the sidelines—a big hitter with a hard shot who played in last
year's playoffs but has not seen any action
this time around. He's mistake-prone but a good talent who'll
develop into a mainstay at some point. So those rumors you
heard seem really misguided—they just don't make
sense.
I would like to know if there is any possibility of the Red
Wings' 1996-97 most valuable player (my opinion), Vladimir
Konstantinov, getting his name etched on the Cup this year,
in any capacity? Are there rules restricting such things?
In many ways, he is still part of the team, and I would
imagine most of this year's players consider him their
teammate.
—Dan, Washington,
D.C.
I fully expect Konstantinov's name to be deservedly etched
on the Cup once again should the Red Wings win. Whether or not he was
the team MVP last year, he was certainly an inspiring
force this season despite not playing a shift, and a man who deserves recognition for his impact on
the team. I honestly
don't know what the rules are about who can get their name
on the Cup—but I'll try to find out for you over the
next couple of days. Whatever the rule, if Konstantinov is
somehow ineligible on a technicality, I think the league
would—and should—override
the regulation and, if Detroit hoists the holy grail, put
his name where it
belongs.
How unlikely is it that the NHL will adopt Olympic-sized
rinks in order to bring more speed and room to the game? In
five years, 10 years, never? The rink isn't big enough for
two
referees.
—Fiona Hwang, Ann Arbor,
Mich.
That's extremely unlikely to happen in the foreseeable
future. It would be a huge undertaking, and ultimately the
league would lose precious seats and revenue. Yes,
Olympic-sized rinks would open the game up a bit, and I
agree that two refs will be
cramped out there on current surfaces (though I still think
going with two refs is a worthy experiment). But don't
expect any changes
soon.
Do you think that the "Russian Rocket," Pavel
Bure, will ever break one of Wayne Gretzky's
records?
—Jonathan Penney, Bunyan's Cove,
Newfoundland
No way. None of the major ones, anyway (I suppose anything
could happen in regards to single-game or single-period
records). The game is less conducive to scoring today and,
never mind speed, Bure is not anywhere near as dangerous as
Gretzky was.
Gretzky was the most dominant player ever. Bure's just a premier
scorer.
Send a question to Kostya
Kennedy, and check back Tuesday to read more of
his
responses.
| 
NHL Finals
