Adrian Dater - Blood Feud: Detroit Red Wings V. Colorado Avalanche: The Inside Story of Pro Sports Nastiest and Best Rivalry of Its Era

BLOOD FEUD

THE INSIDE STORY OF PRO SPORTS NASTIEST AND BEST RIVALRY OF ITS ERA

ADRIAN DATER

Copyright 2007 by Adrian Dater
First Taylor Trade Publishing edition 2007

This Taylor Trade Publishing paperback edition of Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche is an original publication. It is published by arrangement with the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Taylor Trade Publishing
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

Estover Road
Plymouth PL6 7PY
United Kingdom

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dater, Adrian.

Blood feud : Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche, the inside story of pro sports nastiest and best rivalry of its era / Adrian Dater.1st Taylor Trade Publishing ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-58979-319-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Colorado Avalanche (Hockey team)History. 2. Detroit Red Wings (Hockey team)History. 3. Stanley Cup (Hockey) 4. Sports rivalriesUnited StatesHistory. I. Title.

GV848.C65D378 2007

796.962640977434dc22

2006008931

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Scotty Bowman

A drian Dater has captured the drama of a hockey rivalry that matches the best of sports rivalries, and he has gone to great lengths to capture the feelings of the legendary players involved with this special rivalryHall of Famers from each team like Ray Bourque, Larry Murphy, Paul Coffey, Patrick Roy, and future Hall of Famers like Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Nick Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, and Brett Hull, along with many others.

In the seven playoff seasons from 1996 to 2002, the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings battled each other five times to compete for hockeys greatest prize, the Stanley Cup. The two teams regular-season games were epic struggles that drew the highest television ratings, and when the NHL had a national TV broadcast, their games were always first choice on the requests.

Dater delves into the controversy of the Avalanches illegal visitors bench, as well as the Claude LemieuxKris Draper incident, and the goaltender battles between Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon, Chris Osgood, and Dominik Hasek. These incidents and many others resulted in heated exchanges between Avalanche coach Marc Crawford and me. In all my 30-plus years in the NHL, I had never before witnessed media battles like those that resulted from this on-ice rivalry.

The action on the ice was second to none, and while both teams enjoyed sold-out arenas for all of their games, the games between each other caused a ticket frenzy never before seen. I think what made the rivalry so special was that the comparative strength of each franchise was so similar and the prize to the winner was so special. Any sport would dream of a rivalry so bitter, yet for the most part healthy, and this book captures all the exciting battles both on and off the ice. It is a must-read for all hockey followers.

Scotty Bowman

A book such as this one wouldnt be possible without the generous time and insight of the people and players who actually made this great rivalry.

So Ive got a lot of people to thank. First, an extra-special thank you to Scotty Bowman for writing the foreword to this book and for the extensive interviews he granted. To think that, in my opinion, the greatest coach in sports history introduced a book by me is overwhelming and humbling.

Another big thanks to Claude Lemieux for several hours of insightful interviews on some occasionally tough subjects.

Thank you to the following players, coaches, reporters, public relations people and others who were interviewed for this book: Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Dave Lewis, Pierre Lacroix, Mike Kuta, Curtis Leschyshyn, Mike Vernon, Brendan Shanahan, Bob Wojnowski, Joel Quenneville, Mike Keane, Aaron Ward, Jimmy Devellano, Stan Bowman, Brian Hayward, Pierre McGuire, Jean Martineau, Mike Haynes, John Kelly, Norm Jones, Damon Zier, Charlie Lyons, Brent Severyn, Pat Karns, Jason La Canfora, Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Chris Osgood, Paul Devorski, Sylvain Lefebvre, Red Fisher, Randy Sportak, Jerry Green, Chuck Carlton, John Niyo, Lucien De-Blois, Warren Rychel, Troy Murray, Shjon Podein, Bob Hartley, Chris Chelios, Bill Ranford, Michael Farber, Ken Holland, Dave Reid, Terry Frei, Patrice Brisebois, Bob Gainey, Ralph Backstrom, Adam Deadmarsh, Mike Ricci, and Chris Drury.

Thank you to former Denver Post columnist Woody Paige for the many contributions to this book through his work over the years, and also to Mark Kiszla of the Post. Both men were mentors and friends through the years. Thank you to Neil Devlin for giving me my big break in the newspaper business. Thanks to Post colleague Terry Frei for his tutelage and friendship over the years.

Thanks to several people for various research help or other tidbits, including Kristy Fogler, Mike Schanno, John Hahn, Peter Hanlon, Hayne Ellis, Brendan McNicholas, Dan Hinote, Rob Blake, Peter McNab, Dave Wright, Sandy Clough, and Jacquie Brown. Thanks to the helpful staff at the Henry Ford Library in Dearborn, Michigan, and the library staff of the Denver Post.

Thanks to Denver Post editor Greg Moore, managing editor Gary Clark, and sports editor Kevin Dale for graciously allowing me to write this book.

A major thank you to Rick Rinehart and the staff of Taylor Trade for agreeing to publish this book.

Thanks to my mother, Martha; stepfather, Michael; father, Alan; and his significant other, Lisa, for all their love and support over the years.

Lastly, thanks to my great wife, Heidi, for putting up with me all these years and for giving me a beautiful son, Thomas Alan Michael.

As a boy growing up in Toronto, Kris Draper loved those distortion mirrors, the kind at amusement parks and circuses.

A husky kid with red hair and freckles, Draper liked how the fun mirrors made him look a little slimmer. A tilt of the head, a step to the side, and he went from short and squat to tall and athletic looking.

On May 29, 1996, Draper looked into a mirror inside the visitors dressing room of Denvers McNichols Sports Arenaand gasped. Please let this be another distortion mirror, Draper thought. No wayno waycould this be his real face.

His right cheek looked like it was stuffed with 10 cans of Skoal. His right eye, rapidly swelling shut, had as many colors as a Jackson Pollock painting. His nose looked like a piece of wadded-up newspaper, his jaw like somebody had moved it a couple inches to the left. Ive turned into Frankenstein, Draper thought.