This Day in Sports...

In 1996, Colorado swept Florida (seriously?) for the Stanley Cup. En route to winning the Cup, Colorado beat Detroit in the Western Conference Finals. In Game 6 Colorado's Claude Lemieux checked Detroit's Chris Draper from behind into the boards right by the Detroit bench. The problem was that the door to the bench was open and Draper went face first into that opening and was severely injured. He sustained the following injuries: broken jaw, shattered cheek & orbital bone and lots of stitches. It was pretty bloody. Draper required a lot of reconstructive surgery over the off season. Game 6 was the deciding game and after the post game handshakes, Detroit winger Dino Cicarelli (himself no stranger to the rough stuff) was quoted as saying, "I can't believe I shook the guy's freaking hand. That just pisses me right off."

Claude Lemieux's Hit on Kris Draper

So the next season started and Detroit and Colorado had played 3 times without incident. Then on March 26th it happened. The night is referred to as "Bloody Wednesday, "Fight Night at the Joe" and the "Brawl in Hockeytown." The Red Wings lay in wait for almost 10 months to the day of the original incident (May 29, 1996) before receiving their retribution. That's the amazing part, they waited and waited for the right moment. They lulled everyone to sleep and the struck!

March 26, 1997 (Detroit Red Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche) Fight

It was Darren McCarty who went after Lemieux and pounded away at him. Lemieux had little choice but to pull a "turtle" and cover up as he was being showered with uppercuts courtesy of McCarty's left hand. From his crease Colorado goalie Patrick Roy was skating at full speed to aid his teammate and he's cross body blocked by Brandon Shannahan of Detroit (traded to the Wings from the Whalers earlier in the season). Eventually Roy and Wings goalie Mike Vernon go at it, in one of the better goalie fights of the era. Roy is much bigger than Vernon and managed to get in at least 2 good shots (including a good opening punch) but Vernon took it and dished it out as well.

Scotty Bowman, Wings coach at the time, took a page from Sun Tzu on this night. If there's anybody out there who thinks that this happened randomly then you're wrong. I'd be willing to bet that the Red Wings stewed over the Draper hit the entire summer of 1996 (made worse by Colorado winning the Cup) and they plotted their revenge. Bowman is a master tactician and he's easily the greatest coach of his generation if not all time. He deserves a lot of the credit in planning the revenge...allegedly. Of course I was never in the Wings locker room nor was even near Detroit in 1997 but Bowman had to have put it into the heads of his players that they were going to get Lemieux and make him pay. Lirianov got into it with Forsberg and that was the distraction McCarty needed to go after an unprotected Lemieux (who made the mistake of leaving his guard down...he had to know he was a marked man).

There was a bit of history between the 2 teams prior to the May 29, 1996 hit on Draper. While Patrick Roy was still with the Montreal Canadiens he had some troubles with management (or his coach I don't remember). On the night of December 2, 1995, Roy got scored on 9 times against the Detroit Red Wings. Roy didn't have it from the get go and even wondered why his coach didn't pull him. Well Roy stayed in there and contined to get "beaten like a rented goalie." The Habs lost the game 11-1 and after the game Roy said in an interview that he played his last game for the Montreal Canadiens as his coach left him out there to be embarrassed. See it here...

Patrick Roy Moments: The End in Montreal

So Roy is already bitter towards Detroit for lighting him up like an Xmas tree. So it must've felt great to win another Cup with Colorado the season following his trade from Montreal (where he helped them win 2 Stanley Cups and was a national hero) and beat the Red Wings to get there. Both teams dominated hockey between 1996-2002, winning 5 Stanley Cups, 4 President's Trophies and meeting for the WCF 3 times.

As a fan of the NHL I am hot & cold on fighting. Usually I don't like to see the flow of the game interrupted and I certainly don't like to see anyone hurt. However, fighting is a necessary evil. No one touched Gretzky back in the day for fear the Craig McSorley or Kevin McClelland would beat the brains in. I applaud what the Red Wings did this night. They wanted revenge for their injured teammate on what they thought was a dirty hit by Lemieux. 

As always your comments are welcome. Thanks for your time.