Game 7 Memories

Here's my latest column for "yournews.com"...

It’s about time for Game 7 in the Wings/Ducks series which has me thinking about my all-time favorite (or, as our Canadian friends say, favourite) Game 7, the decider between the Wings and the Blues which, after a quick check of the NHL publication 2009 Total Stanley Cup, we see was played on May 16, 1996, almost 13 years ago to the day. Like this series, it was a Conference Semi-Final (Round 2, in other words) and everybody will remember it as the game where Steve Yzerman blasted a slap shot high into the net from the top of the right face-off circle early in the second overtime to win the game for Detroit 1-0 and the series for Detroit 4-3.

The entire series had been nerve-wracking. The Wings won the first two games but then went out and dropped 3 straight to the Blues who had Jon Casey playing unbelievable net and Wayne Gretzky in a Blues sweater that spring. The Wings had to win back-to-back elimination games to avoid what would have been the biggest upset in Stanley Cup history. Detroit had finished 51 points ahead of the Blues that season and no team in hockey history had lost a series to a team after finishing so far ahead of them.

I was working the game that night in my capacity as the radio host for all non-play by play elements of the broadcast on WJR and the Detroit Red Wings Hockey Network, which is a fancy way of saying I handled the pre and post game shows and the intermissions. In other words, during the games when Bruce Martyn and Paul Woods weren’t on the air, I was. I don’t know how they do it these days, but back then my “studio” was in a ladies bathroom located right across the hall from the Red Wings locker room, known universally in hockey-speak simply as “The Room.” As in: “So-and so is a good guy in the room.”

Why I was broadcasting from a bathroom is another story. We had been set up for broadcast when the season began in the Olympia Room, but after some of the fans had voiced their displeasure on-air after an early-season loss or two—we had a live microphone so fans at the venue could be a part of the show—my boss got a call from Wings President Jimmy Devellano telling us we were out: There would be no more of this having fans speak truth to power. So, with limited options for a new broadcast location, we set up shop in a ladies room (one that was not open for use during hockey games, thank goodness) across the hall from The Room. On the one hand it was a little embarrassing doing a broadcast from a bathroom, but on the other, since it was right across the hall from The Room, it was always good in terms of player access. We could usually get one or more of the guys to come by to go on the air with us after games.

On this particular night, I did the intermission segment between the first and second overtimes and, as was my habit, waited a few moments for the Wings to leave The Room and head down the tunnel to the ice. I would always wait for the team to exit first. I can’t remember if I did that for luck or if it was simply so I wouldn’t get in the players way in the narrow corridor. To be honest, it might have been both.

That night, as I did on many nights, I was watching the game from the aisle next to the front row at the Zamboni end. I had a couple of friends who sat in the front row just a couple of seats off the aisle and I’d go visit them and I noticed one night that once the game started nobody kicked me out so I sort of made it a habit to sit there. I kept waiting for an usher to come down and tell me to get the hell out of there, but none ever did and so, what with it being a front-row seat (even if it was not, per se, a seat) it was a great place to sit and so I stayed.

After I threw it back to the booth for the second OT, and after I waited for the players to return to the ice, I left my studio in the ladies room and headed back towards my “seat.” Just as I got to the section entrance, I heard to roar of the crowd and I could see the red light flashing and I knew that Detroit had won. What I didn’t know is how they won. I hadn’t seen the goal. Here I am, about to go on the air to host the post-game show and all I know is Detroit had won 1-0. In effect, I was about to go on the air knowing less about the game than anybody in the entire arena!

I remember asking anybody I saw, “Who scored?” Enough people told me, “Yzerman,” that I went with it. I got an official score sheet a few moments after my part of the broadcast had begun and it was confirmed what I needed to know: Detroit goal by Steve Yzerman at 1:15 of the second overtime.

So, I missed the whole thing. But, I didn’t mind. It made for a good story, at least. Bad reporting, but a good story.