The tao of Steve

Reverential Wings needed Yzerman's influence to fly right

If you live in Detroit, where Steve Yzerman has been your Red Wings' captain for better than 16 years now, where a giant mural of his likeness blankets the side of a downtown tower reminding everyone that, yes, he's larger than life, and where Yzerman has been the guts of three Stanley Cup runs during the past six years, then you're feeling pretty chuffed these days. Stevie Y. has returned, with his knee realigned and that same old hockey face, and the Red Wings have their groove back.

We can look his return this way: Fifty-four seconds into the first period of the Red Wings' Feb. 24 home game against the Kings Yzerman came over the boards and the complexion of the Western Conference immediately changed. "Ste-vie, Ste-vie" the home crowd cheered, and the echoes resounded from Dallas to Vancouver. The Red Wings won that game and they haven't lost since. They're all alone in first place in the Central Division.

"[Yzerman will] downplay his impact," Red Wings coach Dave Lewis told me. "But do you think he doesn't make a difference? He's the player the other guys watch and feed off."

We can look at his return as the trade of the year: Detroit got Yzerman in exchange for 22-year-old center Sean Avery, who was called into the Red Wings' offices last week for a talk with Lewis and GM Ken Holland. "We're sending you down to make room for Steve Yzerman," Avery was told. Hey, no one likes to go back to the minors, but there are worse reasons for being cut than the big club making room for a guy with 658 goals, three Stanley Cup rings and a Conn Smythe trophy. There are greater indignations than being replaced by the longest-tenured captain in NHL history.

The on-ice going has been bit-by-bit for The Captain so far. Thirteen minutes of ice time one night; 14 the next; 17 in Wednesday night's win over Tampa Bay. He began killing penalties a few games in. "It's a walking-before-running type thing," Lewis says.

And his return means this: That Detroit now has guy who can win right-handed faceoffs as regularly as the best in the league (he's at about 65 percent so far). It means the Red Wings have depth at center and on the right wing and one more arrow in their quiver. It means that if Detroit wasn't favored to repeat as champions two weeks ago, it sure is now.

Yzerman had missed the first 61 games of the season while recovering from surgery to realign his knee, and the Red Wings were empty without him. He first came back for a solo skate around Halloween. "That your costume?" his teammates cracked when he pulled on his uniform. In November, he even showed up on a road trip, stood at a stall in his civvies -- and his presence could be felt from across the room. As one Red Wings executive told me, "When he's there you see guys making sure their skates are laced, their jerseys on straight, that they're saying and doing everything the way they should. If they don't, they know they'll get that look from Steve Yzerman."

We saw that look in last year's playoffs, when Yzerman picked up a team that had lost its first two games in the opening round and, by both word and deed, carried the Wings over the Canucks. We saw him in the finals, when he was too hobbled to go out to dinner but still led the Wings to the Cup. Thirty-seven years old, on a throbbing knee that needed realignment worse than that Chevy in your neighbor's front yard, Yzerman managed to lead the Wings in playoff scoring. We hardly blinked. After 20 years of seeing him in the league, we're getting used to this.

Then came the offseason surgery that one doctor said, "wasn't about getting him to play again, it was about getting him to be able to walk again."

Yzerman could have walked walked right off the operating table and away from the game for good. Started polishing his rings and working on his Hall of Fame induction speech. But then his teammates saw him at the Joe. Halloween turned to Christmas and into the New Year and, week after week, Yzerman kept skating long sessions on his own. He lifted weights, rode the bike. Then he started practicing with the club -- a drill here and there -- and the team's intensity started to rise. On Feb. 10 Yzerman led the Red Wings in a post-practice skating session that left half the team gasping. But no one grumbled. "When your captain has that kind of resolve and determination to work at that level, it doesn't matter who you are or what your age or experience, you have to try to match it," says Lewis. "If you don't it's just embarrassing."

The Red Wings are 5-0 since Yzerman came over the boards against Los Angeles, and he hasn't even scored a goal yet. He still makes every one of his teammates better. Don't expect the Wings to embarrass themselves anytime soon. Stevie's back.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides each week at SI.com.

 

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