SI Flashback: Stanley Cup 1998

He is revered by teammates, he is beloved by fans, and with his matured skills, he can carry a team on his back. Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman did just that in Detroit's second straight sweep of a Stanley Cup finals

By Michael Farber

1998 Commemorative Issue David E. Kluto

Steve Yzerman was not in the house, but he soon will be. The Captain, it turns out, is closing on a summer place in the cottage country a few hours north of Toronto that once belonged to legendary Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe. He has the man's trophy, he might as well have his old digs.

There may never have been a more popular Conn Smythe Trophy winner than Yzerman, not only because of what he did in these playoffs -- he led all scorers with 24 points and was especially dynamic in the finals sweep of overmatched Washington -- but because of who he is. Yzerman rarely made a false step this spring, not from the aeons-ago first-round series against Phoenix to the heady moments when he accepted the Stanley Cup and gingerly placed it on the lap of the wheelchair-bound Vladimir Konstantinov. When Konstantinov held a single finger aloft, Yzerman gently corrected him: "No, Vladi, two. Two." Konstantinov held up a second finger.

Say this for Yzerman: The Red Wings have a way of responding to him.

Yzerman's series Against Washington, Yzerman took off. He set up the winning goal in the 2-1 victory in Game 1, scored twice (once shorthanded) in the 5-4 overtime win in Game 2, and created the goal that took the Capitals and the home crowd out of the match early in Game 3, a 2-1 Detroit victory. During the series he played 90 minutes, a team high among forwards, and won close to two thirds of his face-offs. In an era that supposedly belongs to big young forwards like Peter Forsberg, Jaromir Jagr and Eric Lindros, easily the best player in the '98 playoffs was a 5'11", 185-pounder who is not conspicuously strong, stop-watch fast or, at 33, young. "He's in that rare class of athletes who can lift their team," Capitals left wing Brian Bellows said. "He defines the personality of his team. Their 'no quit' comes from him." Yzerman simply will not lie down, although he can be leveled -- as he was by Capitals menace Dale Hunter in Game 1. Hunter flattened Yzerman in the Washington crease, used him as a Barcalounger for a few seconds, then swabbed the ice with his face before raking his glove across Yzerman's kisser in what hockey players call a "face wash." When asked the next day if he found the face wash offensive, Yzerman replied, "Depends on whether it's a new glove or old glove. Old gloves tend to stink." "You'll notice everyone was getting excited about what Hunter did to Stevie," Red Wings associate coach Dave Lewis said. "Except Stevie." Unconventional wisdom Throughout the series, the Red Wings turned convention on its ear: You have to get better goaltending to win a Cup. Well, Kolzig had been better, for the most part, than Detroit's Chris Osgood. You have to score on the power play. The Wings didn't until Game 4, when they finally exploded for three goals with the man advantage. You just can't turn it on and off. Detroit did, like a spigot. You need scoring from your big guns. Sergei Fedorov and Brendan Shanahan combined for one goal (scored by Fedorov in Game 3).

They go where he takes them, especially to the front of the net, as they did in the opening minute of Game 3 in Washington. Yzerman grabbed the puck and scurried down the left wing, carrying Capitals center Esa Tikkanen on his back for the last 30 feet the same way he has carried the Red Wings for the last 15 seasons. Whether it is the weight of a franchise or 200 pounds of fractious Finn, Yzerman has never been afraid of heavy lifting. When Yzerman and his chaperon landed in a heap and careered into Caps goalie Olaf Kolzig, the puck bounced free and Tomas Holmstrom swooped in unattended to put it home, just 35 seconds into the game. That's Washington: first in war, first in peace, lousy in the first minute.

This wasn't hockey that Yzerman and his merry band were playing against Washington, it was an elaborate game of keepaway. Every time the Capitals would come close, Detroit would simply skip out of the way. Sometimes the teams would emphasize defense, sometimes offense; but no matter which way the games flowed, the Red Wings would come out a goal better -- at least until Game 4, when Detroit tired of the routine and hammered Washington 4-1 to dash any lingering illusions the Capitals might have had of being competitive ...

Throughout the series, Yzerman positively glowed on the ice, though he was typically modest after the match, not surprising for a player who has been the focal point of a franchise that was dubbed the Dead Things in the 1980s and now, with only a modest blush, has earned the right to call itself the Team of the '90s. "When you're a kid playing hockey and going to all those tournaments, you're winning everything, so you kind of take it for granted," Yzerman said. "You have no doubts that this guy's a winner or that guy's a winner. As my career has gone along, there were times when I began to wonder if there was something missing in myself. You fall back on the idea that if you do your best and your teammates do their best, everything will work out, but I admit to having had some doubts along the way. The perception other people have of you changes once you win the Cup, but for myself, winning it the first time reconfirmed what I wanted to believe -- even when I was having those doubts."

Now he has won two and a Conn Smythe Trophy. That cottage had better have lots of closet space.

They said it ...

Issue date: June 24, 1998