Although questionable due to a nagging back injury, will Game 6 in Edmonton be the final game of Steve Yzerman's career?

Yzerman a game-time
decision for Wings
By Shawn P. Roarke
NHL.com Senior Writer
May 1, 2006

Steve Yzerman knows all about his legacy as one of the greatest performers in Detroit's rich pantheon of sports heroes.

How could he not?

He is the face of the Detroit Red Wings, taking on a role as franchise savior upon arriving as a fresh-faced teenager in 1983. His No. 19 sweater will certainly be the sixth jersey to be retired by the franchise soon after he plays in his final game -- an honor befitting a man that has redefined the franchise during his tenure.

And, Yzerman's last game could come Monday night as the Red Wings face a do-or-die Game 6 in their opening round Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Oilers in Edmonton. Detroit, the top seed in the West, faces a three-games-to-two deficit. Yet, just hours before faceoff, Yzerman's status for Game 6 remains muddied. He has missed the last two games after suffering a back injury in overtime of Game 3.

"I feel better than two days ago," Yzerman told reporters Sunday. "I'm encouraged. Hopefully, I'll feel even better for game time."

Obviously, Yzerman and the Wings are eager for their captain to return to the lineup. He is the calming influence any team can use when its season hangs by a thread. If he can play Monday, and give his team a boast, it will just be the latest entry on a hockey resume almost without equal, a resume he started building more than two decades ago after being Detroit's first-round pick, 4th overall, in the 1983 Entry Draft.

Three years after his arrival, Yzerman, then 21, was named captain of the team.

He has never been a rah-rah type of captain, although he has been known to deliver the occasional, well-timed motivational speech. No, Yzerman always has been about leading through example, both on and off the ice.

"When I first got here, I was in awe of him, and my buddies back in Toronto couldn't believe I was his teammate," Kirk Maltby told reporters recently. "But I quickly found out that he's just an easy-going, approachable guy, whether you're a young kid trying to make it or a veteran star."

And, once the puck drops, he is the definition of a leader.

During the 1987-88 season, he began an electrifying streak of six straight 100-plus point seasons. In 1996-97, he led the team to its first Stanley Cup in more than 40 years. The next year, another Cup followed. In 2002, he added a third Stanley Cup ring to his collection.

Through it all -- the incredible highs and the unspeakable lows -- Yzerman played the game with a grace and humility that captured the hearts of the region's passionate puckheads. He could always be counted on for the big goal, the perfect pass, the faceoff win, the defensive wizardry that saw Detroit through a tight time.

The team will need all of those attributes Monday night if Yzerman can summon the health to give it a go.

Yzerman understands this place as a larger-than-life hero, but has never allowed it to define himself. He still performs with the joy and passion of a lesser player looking to claim and hold his place in the lineup. His hunger, more than his success, is Yzerman's internal definition of himself -- the gold standard to which he holds himself.

So, it's not surprising that the 40-year-old Yzerman, who will turn 41 next week, thought about hanging up the skates for good this past fall. At the time, he could not play to the high level he demanded of himself, could not deliver the game-changing plays that he had made his calling cards during two decades as the Wings' captain.

He saw contemporaries -- players like Scott Stevens, Mark Messier, Ron Francis and Dave Andreychuk -- walk away willingly or be forced from the game. He feared that he would be next to meet that fate.

"For a little while I did (consider retiring)," said Yzerman. "It was difficult to get going, late November, early December. It was a struggle for a little while and it was something to consider."

Considered, and then dismissed.

"For a little while I did (consider retiring). It was difficult to get going, late November, early December. It was a struggle for a little while and it was something to consider." -- Steve Yzerman

Yzerman still believed he had more to give than his pathetic early-season numbers suggested. So, he stuck with it, displayed that dogged determination that made him a special player in the first place.

Slowly, but surely, tangible results followed. He began scoring again, not at the prodigious rate that was once a given, but often enough to justify an increase in ice time and responsibility. He finished the season by scoring in 11 straight games before a two-game mini-slump. During that stretch, he had five goals and nine assists.

He also continued to do the little things that make a team successful, leading with an unflappable work ethic that impressed and motivated his younger teammates as they took the front-and-center roles Yzerman once occupied.

"You know, I'm fortunate to be in a pretty good situation here. Now, with guys like (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Henrik) Zetterberg and other players taking a more prominent role with our team, my role has decreased, and it's made it easier at my age and this stage of the game to be an effective player."

More than just merely effective, in the eyes of many.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock, in his first year with the club, believes Yzerman is among the all-time greats, as well as a huge reason that Detroit won the Presidents' Trophy this season as the League's best regular-season team.

"When you don't see him every day, you don't notice him as much," Babcock said recently. "But now that I've seen him up close on a daily basis, I think he's phenomenal, and he's in the conversation with anybody that has played this game."

Now, Yzerman has a chance, perhaps a final chance, to make his mark in the postseason, a stage that he has made his own throughout his career. Entering the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Yzerman had 184 points, including 70 goals, in 195 postseason contests.

Before suffering the injury in Game 3 of these playoffs, a double-overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Yzerman registered an assist in each of the three games.

Those are the types of performances that define Yzerman, who usually saves his best for the biggest games. He has become comfortable in the suffocating atmosphere that is the chase for the Stanley Cup. He has learned to push the inevitable butterflies to the side and attack these games with the steely eyed determination necessary to make a personal impact as well as set the tone for his team.

"Early in my career, (I'd) be extremely nervous, where I found myself always extremely nervous without a lot of experience," said Yzerman. "I found in the last few years I've just gotten much more comfortable and you kind of know what to expect and you know what it's all about."

Bottom line: The playoffs are about winning. Win and advance. Win enough and hoist the big silver chalice that cements your place among the game's immortals.

Fortunately, Yzerman knows all about winning. And, even more fortunately, he was smart enough to give himself and his slow-to-respond, 40-year-old body at least one more chance at winning a Stanley Cup.