Farewell Stevie: An Ode To Steve Yzerman

Just over a day has past, and I still can't grasp that Steve Yzerman isn't a Red Wing anymore.

It's the same feeling I had when I read at the bottom of the The Score (a sports station in Canada) that Steve Yzerman was planning on announcing his retirement.

I sat there thinking, "No, this can't be."

Back in 1993, as a kid with no clue what hockey was, I watched the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven of a division semi-finals series. It was the first game I'd ever seen.

Everyone was cheering for the Leafs. But I wanted to be different. So I started to cheer for the "red team."

As I intently watched the game, my eyes locked in on a red and white jersey, with the number 19 stitched on the back.

His game was flawless.

From that moment on, I started following the Red Wings because of Yz...Yzer...forget it. I couldn't even pronounce his name.

When I finally learnt it, I never forgot it. Stevie Y, Stevie Wonder...Yzerman was the reason I started following Red Wings. And I have never looked back.

In an era where Gretzky and Lemieux ruled, I decided to go for the underdog.

As the years went on, I never lost sight of the man that got me interested in the game of hockey. I spent hours online learning about Yzerman. I bought book after book whenever I could, just to find out more about the guy.

As time went on, I knew more about his life than I did my own. 

When Stevie scored the double-OT goal, my mom thought I was going to break the house because of how crazy I went. I still have the game on VHS. And I can't count how many times I've watched that goal, over and over and over. It was spectacular.

To me, Stevie etched his name in hockey supremacy after winning a Stanley Cup. He now had something that Lemieux and Gretzky had. 

The following year, after seeing him lift the Conn Smythe and another Stanley Cup, I shed a tear. What he had worked so hard for finally paid off twice in one season.

Being a part of the best team in the NHL (again), and being honored as the best player in the playoffs. Wow.

But, in 2002, I stopped looking at Yzerman as just a phenomenal player, and started looking at him as a god.

Yes, I said it. A GOD. The pain I watched him go through to win another Cup is something that WILL NOT be matched, ever, by another NHL player. But then again, not all NHL players are gods.

At the end of it all, I will say I was disappointed when Yzerman did not receive the Conn Smythe again. I am in no way saying Lidstrom didn't deserve it. But after what Yzerman went through, to still get 23 points and to be second in points during the NHL playoffs, how could you not give it to him?

Fast forward to when Yzerman hung 'em up.

It hurt me knowing that the player I not only grew up idolizing, but the player that made me start following the Detroit Red Wings, was done. It got me good.

But he was still a Red Wing.

His VP position made sure that Yzerman was still a Red Wing, trading in a uniform for an Armani suit.

But now, as reality hits me, knowing that his home isn't the Joe Louis Arena anymore, I don't sit here thinking, "Yzerman, how could you leave Detroit. The city that made you. The city you made."

But I sit here thinking, and saying to myself, "Wow Steve, congratulations on something you most definitely deserved. You came to Detroit and changed a team from utter humility to NHL power house. And now you have the chance to do it again, only in a different role."

To me, and like everyone else here, and in Detroit, Steve will always be a Red Wing through and through.

He's in Tampa now. But look at the moments he blessed us with as a player and as a VP. He's delivered four Stanley Cups (three as a player, one as a VP).

Yzerman has left us with countless moments that are easily re-playable if we close our eyes and think about them.

Congrats Stevie. You left us with great memories. And now you can do the same with the people of Tampa Bay.

The chant, "Stevie, Stevie, Stevie!" will forever be in our heads.

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