8701190014
DETROIT FREE PRESS
870417
Friday, April 17, 1987
STATE EDITION
1D
MITCH ALBOM
SEE ALSO METRO EDITION PAGE 1D ; SEE ALSO METRO FINAL CHASER EDITION PAGE 1D
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
COMEBACK PLAYER AT 21? YZERMAN TAKES IT IN STRIDE
Aw, come on. The guy doesn't even shave. Comeback player of the year?
Steve Yzerman? This guy sitting here with the Reebok sneakers and the blue
jeans and the poochy face right off a teen magazine? This Steve Yzerman?
Comeback player of the year? How old is he? Nine?
"Twenty-one," he says, shyly. "I guess that shows you how bad a year I had
last season, huh?"
Nah. It shows you that when it comes to hockey, you can leave your razor
home. Walk around the Red Wings' locker room. You feel like you should be
carrying a loose-leaf. Did these guys drive down, or take the yellow bus? And
Yzerman is the captain.
This is a team with Shawn Burr, who is too young to drink in several
states, and Joe Kocur, who looks like he would borrow Burr's ID. Half the
offense is under 25. So maybe it's no shock that the Hockey News has chosen
Yzerman as comeback player of the year for 1987. (Actually, he is the comeback
forward of the year. Try saying that a few times. Comeback forward. Come,
back, forward. Makes you dizzy, huh?)
"Anyhow, I was surprised," Yzerman says, laughing. "It isn't an award I
was ever thinking about. I'm sure I'll hear about it from guys like Dave
Lewis. You know, old-timers like that. . . . "
Lewis is 33.
Yzerman is kidding. I pray.
He started slowly, got worse
Here is the first goal Steve Yzerman ever scored: He was five years old in
some town in British Columbia, one of those junior-junior-junior teams, and
he couldn't even skate. He just sort of slid around on his butt. And one game
he happened to be on his butt when another kid accidentally shot the puck
into his own net. Yzerman got credit for it because he was the closest
opposing player. And because his father was the coach.
We should have known, right then, that little Stevie was on the fast
track.
He joined the Wings in 1983. That season he was runner-up for NHL rookie
of the year. I do not know if anyone has ever won rookie of the year and
comeback player of the year within four seasons. I do know that it makes a
good case for eliminating some of these awards.
"Until last year," Yzerman says, "I improved every season. I always got
better. I figured it would continue that way. I'd have 115 points one year,
130 points the next year. . . . "
And then suddenly, last season. The year from which he has come back. He
didn't score a goal in the first 10 games. "And then it got worse. I was doing
poorly. The team was doing poorly. Every night I said to myself, 'This is the
night I begin to turn it around!' And nothing would happen. It was
disappointing, it was depressing. . . .
And then he broke a collarbone.
He missed the last 29 games. He was so fed up, he went to Mexico the first
week of his rehabilitation. That might not sound like such a bad deal to you.
But this is a hockey player. How much ice do they have in Mexico?
"I was really turned off," he says. "Last year at this time, I watched the
playoffs on TV, and I felt really bitter. I didn't want to be watching. I
just sat and said, 'This guy's lousy. That guy's lousy.' "
But that was last year. Jacques Demers took over the Wings, named Yzerman
his captain, and the kid with the Rob Lowe face has responded with a
tremendous season. Demers says he "couldn't have asked for more from the guy."
Comeback player of the year.
In Reeboks.
The older guys listen
Today, it is true, Yzerman earns in the significant six- figures. It is
also true that he listens to Dire Straits. Yes, he drives to practice from his
condominium in West Bloomfield. But he calls his friends in Canada in their
dorm rooms at college.
"There were times this year when it was kind of strange to be captain with
a lot of older guys on the team," Yzerman says. "I only called the team
together once, toward the end of the season, when I thought we were
forgetting some of the things that had helped us succeed.
"It was during a practice. I felt a little funny calling everyone over.
But nobody said anything or made any faces, and it worked out OK.
"You know, I don't think I could be captain if not for the way the older
guys act. Guys like Snepsy (Harold Snepsts) and Higgy (Tim Higgins) and Lewie
(Dave Lewis). They're really the leaders. I'm never going to say to
them,'Hey, listen, you're gonna do it my way. . . .' "
And they probably won't begrudge him his award. He has, after all, been
pretty high and pretty low, even if he does get carded on a regular basis. He
is articulate, soft-spoken and surprisingly level-headed. He conducts himself
like a pro, he is quite mature. . . .
"Almost rookie of the year, now comeback player of the year," I say.
"What's next year?"
He grins. "Next year I'll do the glory trip around the league, make the
announcement, get a clock in each town, then retire."
Smart-aleck kid.
COLUMN;AWARD;STEVE YZERMAN;REACTION