Saturday marked an anniversary the Detroit Red Wings would prefer to forget. But the truth is, it’s a day they’ve never forgotten since June 13, 1997.
On that day, the Wings had a golf outing and were still reveling in the team’s major accomplishment six days before–its first Stanley Cup championship in 42 years. The celebration was short-lived. Teammates Slava Fetisov and Vladimir Konstantinov and team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov were involved in a limousine crash after the outing.
Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov remain in wheelchairs today. Fetisov was on the ice Saturday as the Wings beat the Washington Capitals 2-1.
The Wings’ minds were centered squarely on winning Game 3, but Konstantinov and Mnatsakanov will forever remain in their hearts.
“We talked about it before the game, about how that was no fun a year ago and try to go out and have some fun tonight,” coach Scotty Bowman said.
Scoring the game-winning goal was especially satisfying for Sergei Fedorov, who scooped up the puck at game’s end.
“It’s in memory and appreciation for what Vlade and Sergei did for the team,” Fedorov said.
“We’re all emotionally attached and involved with how they are doing,” Brendan Shanahan said. “But we have also, as a team, done our best not to exploit their injury as a way of getting up for games. Their injuries really don’t have anything to do with hockey. It has to do with friendship.”
“It’s a strong reminder that playing hockey isn’t the most significant thing that will happen in your life,” Steve Yzerman said. “When we won the Stanley Cup, I think we were all thinking that this was the most significant thing that could ever happen to us. Six days later, we realized that this isn’t the biggest thing in our life.
“Not that we take anything onto the ice with us, but I think it has changed our perspectives a little. What that does is it enables you to relax and play under a little bit more control, not be down when you lose or on top of the world when you win. I think we grew up from what happened.”
Go, and no-go: Detroit’s Slava Kozlov, who suffered a charley horse in the second period of Game 2 and sat out the rest of the game, played Saturday, but Washington defenseman Jeff Brown was unable to play. Brown, who missed the first three series of the playoffs because of postconcussion syndrome, took a shot to the head in Game 2 and felt nauseated. Ken Klee replaced Brown in the lineup.
It can be done: While only three teams have rebounded from 0-2 deficits in the finals to win the Cup since 1939–the ’42 Toronto Maple Leafs and ’66 and ’71 Montreal Canadiens–Washington coach Ron Wilson has seen it happen firsthand. As a birthday present in 1971, Wilson’s father, Larry, took him to Game 7 of the ’71 finals. Montreal beat the Blackhawks 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium.
If Washington fans are looking for a straw to grasp after Saturday’s outcome, there’s this: The ’42 Leafs came back from 0-3.
Ring it up: Bowman has seven Stanley Cup rings as a coach and one as director of player development. He currently wears the ring the Wings won last year.
“I always wear the one from the last time we won,” he said. And the rest of the rings? “I have them in a safety deposit box, and I’m going to give each of my children and my wife one of them when I retire,” he said.
