OT: Kris Draper Posts on his Career and March 26, 1997 on the Players' Tribune
"Whenever somebody tells me I was traded for a bag of pucks, I have to politely correct them — because a bag of pucks would’ve been a lot more expensive. But I loved it, because the whole story just added to my underdog mentality."
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/kris-draper-red-wings-avalanche-march-97/
March 15th, 2017 at 12:25 PM ^
Would of scored more than Yzerman if he had any moves with the puck. Draper had more breakaways than any other player but always came up empty
March 15th, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^
Helm reminded me a lot of Draper when he first came into the league. Blazing speed but could not finish at all offensively. (Draper was obviously signficantly better than Helm.)
Would be nice if Helm had immitated Draper's face off skills
Have course he would of. Have course.
Kris Draper = 161 career goals
Steve Yzerman = 692 career goals
If only Draps had been able to finish those 531 breakaways he came up empty on he would have been a LEGEND!
March 15th, 2017 at 12:33 PM ^
Great memories watching that in South Quad - Go Wings!
What a great time to be a fan.
March 15th, 2017 at 12:58 PM ^
This was my first time posting to the MGoBoard!
Just found out that I got accepted into the Ross MBA program 10 minutes after posting this reply... So a REALLY good day for me Michigan-wise!
Congrats. Never underestimate the power of a good MgoBlog post.
Or the consequences of a bad one.
Congratulations! Very well respected program
March 15th, 2017 at 12:37 PM ^
I have the book on this rivalry, Blood Feud, written by Adrian Dater. I thoroughly recommend it to any hockey fan. It's authoritative. It even has the entire transcript of Marc Crawford's infamous tantrum directed at Scotty in Game 6(?) of that '97 series.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the part where Crawford somehow came up with the line "you started this, Draper." That's the dictionary definition of gall right there. The complete dickheadery of that man goes up yet another notch.
Crawford's tantrum went something like this:
Crawford: "#&^^Z!!! &^^%$#**(!!!!!!"
Bowman: "I knew your father, Marc. And he wouldn't be very proud of you right now."
That was one of the killshots, but Scotty actually spent the entire tirade launching them. The linesman would be trying to calm Crawford down and Scotty would go, oh, that's OK, don't worry about him, he's just trying to fire up his team. It had the very intentional effect of spinning Crawford up even harder.
I must read this book. Thanks!
March 15th, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^
Good article. Reliving 96 and 97 gets my blood boiling even 20 years later. I have never wanted a team to win as much as I wanted the Wings to beat the Avs in 1996-2002. I cared more about beating the Avs than winning the Stanley Cup.
What an incredible rivalry that was. The 2002 series was about as intense of a sporting event as I can remember in my life.
Here's a video of the brawl: the important stuff starts at 1:40
Here's some catharsis from the end of the rivalry in 2002. 7:25 is when Roy gets pulled.
May the Evilanche play a thousand years and never win a game.
That team was assembled for the Cup. If they didn't win it, they may not have lasted another year together. Great memories from that team. The first round was a bit of a heart stopper till Lidstrom scored that goal.
Even after Lidstrom scored. It was nailbiting throughout. Yzerman carried the whole team on his back, and he could barely walk.
Then Chelios got a star in game six and circled the entire arena, taunting the Vancouver fans after we won. It was awesome.
I was at Game 7 in 2002 and it is still my favorite sporting event I have attended to this day. I remember going into the game feeling pretty so-so about our chances, but that feeling quickly changed to confidence.
Sure, I watched that game on March 26, 1997. But that Michigan hockey game on March 27, 1997, dominates my memory so much that this game is just another NHL regular season game to me.
I remember being really, really annoyed that the Ann Arbor establishment where I was planning to watch that NCAA semifinal game was showing a taped replay of the previous day's NHL game on their biggest screen, and (more understandably) the NIT final on their second biggest screen.
and always fun to watch. When I look at the Avs team from that era I shake my head knowing how great they were and should've won more then two cups. Now these teams play tonight and it's basically yawn.........
They were gutless whiners supported by front-running fly-by-night fans who gooned their way to a title in 96 and bought themselves a title in 01 with the cheesy rent-a-story Ray Borque signing giving them cheap goodwill with the media and then-tortured Boston fans, neither of whom had any self respect.
Did I mention I had strong feelings in that era?
and they got jerked around by Lindros, I decided I was going to root for them as my B team. This was still in the days of Campbell and Wales, before realignment, so I figured I'd never have to worry about them crossing paths with the Wings. Then they got Forsberg, and being that my Paternal grandfather was from Sweden, it was all the more reason for me to like them.
I stopped liking them when they moved to Colorado, as I am also a Browns fan and the Baltimore move was a fresh wound and I decided I didnt want to like a team that would abandon their fans. My timing was impeccable, it seems.
I was at the game . Chasing patrick Roy out of the net for his last NHL game , it was glorious . One of my all time favorite memories at the Joe .
The Hall of Famers we had on the ice . I should have enjoyed it more .
As a fan you never think its going to end . So far from whats going on with the team today .
March 15th, 2017 at 12:52 PM ^
I was there on March 26, 1997. I was attending the University of Windsor in my second year. By the time March came around I could barely scrub two nickels together. My buddy and I decided that we were going to head over the river to the Joe and try and find tickets. I gathered up all of the money I could and said if that wasn't enough it wasnt meant to be. We were able to find a couple of tickets that were what we considered a reasonable price - close to $200 each. To this day my girlfriend, who is now my wife has no idea what I spent for that ticket.
We made our way into the arena and found a place to stand as our tickets were not together. I have no problem in saying that was the night that the Wings won the cup, it just wasn't given to them until June. During the brawl the place was going absolutely crazy, and when McCarty gave Lemieux a knee to the head while he was turtling the Joe almost exploded. The best part was when McCarty circled around the Colorada net and put the puck past Roy. To make it even sweeter was that McCarty probably should have been kicked out of the game for his part during the brawl.
Great to read the story as told through Draper's eyes. I will remember every detail of that night for as long as I live.
Two more memories: 1) McCarty holding a battered Claude up by the collar for a couple seconds in front of the Wings bench as if to say "anybody else want to give this piece of shit a whack?"; 2) The League quietly dismissing the event as a "hockey matter" with no additonal penalties.
version of the Claude turtle. McCarty sucker punches him when he's not looking knocking him down then gets on his back and starts punching him and he has no way to get up and fight back without getting clocked. Why not drop the gloves in front of him and have a go.
The following November the Avs played in Detroit and Claude asked to start the game. McCarty was on the opposite wing and Claude changed sides, before the puck drop, to line up across from him and said let's go. They dropped the gloves right after the face off and had a spirited fight that was very even. Give Claude credit for doing it the right way and not punching him from behind. It's called a code in hockey.
The code in hockey is pretty specific about not caving a guy's face in on the boards. You can be an Avs fan without defending Claude Lemieux, it's ok.
March 16th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
that action by Claude and think it was a cheap hit. But what McCarty did was also just as cheap. You can also be a Wings fan and admit that, it's OK.
March 16th, 2017 at 11:20 AM ^
Avs fans had trouble understanding hockey. Let's remember: they won the cup in the first year following the franchise move from Quebec. Besides, nobody gives a shit about that half-assed "fight" that happened the next season.
March 16th, 2017 at 12:10 PM ^
from behind. Ever see what that piece of trash Bertuzzi did to Steve Moore? Ended his hockey career doing the same thing. No one deserves that I have watched hockey for many years and these guys play by a code for a reason. If you injured a player by a hit you better be ready to answer for it next time the teams play. That means someone is going to challange you to a fight and you better drop the gloves and go with them. It's not someone is going to cheap shot you from behind and then jump you while your down..... That is how guys get broken necks also.
It was a great rivalry and those brawls were fun and exciting to watch. Wings fans need to take off the red colored glasses and watch it as a hockey fan. The shot was cheap and the following year Claude lined up against him and answered the bell like your suppose to in hockey. I love a good "fair" fight in hockey and the game policing itself. Just don't care when anyone gives a cheap shot as that is dangerous. I thought Claudes check was cheap and there is no room in the game for a hit like that, but then McCarty's shot was also cheap and I wish Wings fans would not celebrate it like it was some heroic thing he did, it's not good for the game.
If you seriously think: 1) Claude was suckerpunched, or 2) He shouldn't have anticipated a Red Wing player taking a run at him during that game, then you are the one who needs to remove the tinted lenses.
Watch the 4,000 youtube videos of the turtle. And by the way, folks have to work to search/find the "fair fight" you mention. And if they do, so what? What was Claude avenging, exactly?! Everyone in hockey - including the NHL - took a Red Wings perspective on this one.
I was there for that game too. Was working in my first job out of undergrad, and took a buddy from work with me.
The arena was on fire before it all went down, and then it went right ahead and exceeded expectations.
As a guy who grew up going to a lot of Red Wings hockey games (good and bad), I totally agree that we won the Cup that night. There was no question from that point on that we were going to win it all.
The good ole days!
"As soon as Lemieux turtled at The Joe, everything changed."
Yes, and it led us to 4 cups in 11 years.
Thanks for posting--I always loved Draper.
I will say, even 20 years later, I still hate the Av's with the heat of a thousand suns.
Anyone else remember PASS sports replaying the game like 3X daily for a few weeks? Great job PASS.
What an incredible article by Drapes
of Draper, Maltby and McCarty was the best!!!
I'm not even really a NHL or hockey fan and I still remember how much I wanted the Avalanche and Claude the Fraud to get their asses ground into powder that spring.
CC: Dantonio, Mike
Subject: How to use chip on shoulder without being an insufferable douche.
Great read, thanks for posting.
Also - at first I was a little surprised and disappointed to read at the end of the article that Lemieux and Draper had a cordial exchange seventeen years later that - alas - did not end with Draper's knee jackhammering Lemieux's non-existent ballsack. But, it's probably only natural that there's now a rapprochement of sorts and a certain perverse bond - since only the Wings and Avs players at the time could and truly really understand the intensity of the rivalry at the time.
that I've read so far.
Fuck Claude!
March 15th, 2017 at 11:07 PM ^