where were you when...

[Howe's Bony Elbow 0]

I remember rushing home that night from my part-time summer job (I was still in university) because I was positive the Wings would win the Cup that night. Aside from McCarty's beautiful goal, the lasting memory of that game is when Stevie raises the CUp with that kind of dazed smile on his face and the ENTIRE building seemed to go "YEEEEEAAHHHH!" at the same time. And then he took that stately skate around the Joe, on his own, with Cup held above him; it was sweet vindication for him, his moment. He was a winner and nobody could trash any of his achievements or his character anymore because his name was going to be engraved on that trophy. I watched the CBC feed of the game, and loved seeing the pure joy everyone in the building -- except for the poor Flyers, of course -- seemed to be experience. Just pure elation at finally winning the Cup, from Mike Ilitch to Joey Kocur. As for the other games, I was completely confident in the Wings the entire Stanley Cup final -- I knew the Flyers were pretty much a one-line team, and that their goaltending was a glaring Achilles Heel. And when Snow or Hextall let in softies throughout the series, I just pulled a Glenn Healy or Pierre Maguire and said, "I told you so."

[sether 5]

The night the Wings won 3 buddies of mine, all Wings fans gathered at one of thier places, we went nuts when Nick scored near the end of the first, and then when McCarty scored the Cup winner, and then at the end when the horn went and they all mobbed Vernie. It was a night i'll never forget, I remember the 3 of us running up and down his street at midnight hotting and hollering that the Wings had won. My other favorite moment of the 97 run was game 4 against Colorado, after Roy had said the day before that the real Avs would show up, only to have the Wings kick the s*** out of them, seeing Shannahan beat Corbet to a bloody pulp seeing Roy get yanked after the 5th goal and seeing Crawford come unglued on Scotty was quite the site. Hope some of this helps. BTW my name is Seth.

[auxlepli 17]

I always went over to my friends house to watch the playoffs. It was like a ritual for us. I'd bring over the Guiness, he provided the place and TV. Good times. He liked to make good natured fun of all the Russians on the Wings. So then it wasn't Yzerman or Shanahan anymore, but Yzermanov and Shanahanov. lol

[amberlynn25 9]

any one else got stories? the more the merrier (and better paper) just remember to give me your name, not your screen name. I cant cite the person as their screen name on here.

[reyalp 4]

My name is Matt, I was ten years old and I was in San Antonio Texas watching the game with my Dad. I remember my dad going crazy because hes been a Wings fan his whole life being from Michigan and all. That was my first taste of the glory of being a Red Wings fan and Ive been die hard ever since. I remember just seeing the explosion of the Joe when Stevie finally got to lift that cup and at 10 years old it gave me goosebumps every where. The best thing is now I live in Michigan like 10 minutes out side of Detroit and now I get to celebrate wins and what not with tons of fans just like me

[Offsides 21]

Well, I remember that everyone was very down on Vernon, and wanted Osgood to play, and he was ragged on a lot, but then by the end everyone was sort of changing their tune as he was quite instrumental in winning...obviously.

Everyone I knew (who were not hockey fans btw, the Wings didn't have quite as many fans back then) were very down on the Wings the whole year since they'd gone out in the 3rd round the year before, and they would make fun of me and tell me that the Wings were going to lose. The year before had been heartbreaking with the loss to the Avs and Draper's face getting smashed, etc.

Emotions were very high when playing the Avs, and it was such a huge deal to win that series, but everyone was convinced we'd go down in the finals. I remember being so happy when we won...just euphoric..and proud of the team, like I probably never will feel about a team again.

But then a couple days later the accident happened. I had gone to bed really early (I had to take my A.C.T. exam the next day) and my mom woke me up to tell me that Sergei (Fedorov) had been in a limo crash. I remember sort of feeling like it was not going to be serious. But it was serious and I ended up getting up and watchng all night. (It was first reported that it was Sergei Fedorov and Konstantinov in the limo, but it turned out it was the masseur Sergei Mnatsakonov.) Sergei is probably my all time favorite player/Wing obviously tied with Ozzie. I was very concerned for him. But I loved all of the Russian 5, so when it turned out to be Vladdy and Fetisov it was just as bad, especially when we found out how serious it was.

So, really...it was the greatest mixed with the worst. That whole Cup run was so tainted by all the bad stuff. When it happened it was the greatest feeling, but it only lasted a couple days...so that's what I remember most.

[amberlynn25 9]

im bumping this up to see if any one else has some stories for me to put in my paper. I havnt worked on it in a while, but its due in a few weeks. just remember to put your real name on this so I can give you credit. I dont think my prof is going to like me using screen names.

thanks!

[lidstromboli03 0]

I was locked in my uncle's crawlspace for both cup runs, wish I could be of more help to you.

Go Wings

[kwailman 0]

"Darren McCarty comes back with Niinimaa in front of him. McCarty draws, McCarty in, McCarty... Scores!!! a magnificent goal. Darren McCarty!"

"15,395 days since they won the cup, 3 seconds left, into the zone, the Detroit Redwings are STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!"

-Gary Thorne, ESPN/ABC commentator of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

Edited March 11, 2007 by kwailman

[Earthhuman 8]

"Darren McCarty comes back with Niinimaa in front of him. McCarty draws, McCarty in, McCarty... Scores!!! a magnificent goal. Darren McCarty!"

"15,395 days since they won the cup, 3 seconds left, into the zone, the Detroit Redwings are STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!"

-Gary Thorne, ESPN/ABC commentator of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

That second quote would be a great way to end your paper. Just sayin'.

[MargaritavilleRedWinger 0]

Hey there.I have been reading posts on here for quite a while and I never replied to any,but I have a lot of good memories from 97 and I hope they help with your paper.My name is Chris and I am 37 years old.Well,just as the playoffs were starting in 97,my son was born.After having two girls this was already a special year.Our second daughter was born during the playoffs in 95(something about playoff hockey,I guess).In addition to a screaming baby, our house was full of screaming hockey fans (at least four or five ,sometimes more)for every game.I made a cool Stanley Cup with a bucket and a Maxwell House can and a salad bowl and load of foil.It sounds cheesy but it ended up looking pretty good.The Cup was on top of the entertainment center for the whole playoff run.We all had car flags and Wings stickers on our vehicles.My friend bought my baby son a lttle Yzerman jersey that we still have hanging in the closet.Our daughters were even getting into it.They knew the "Let's Go Red Wings" cheer and they celebrated every goal with us.The only night that we didn't have a full house was for game four.My two good friends had concert tickets that they had for months and everyone else had other commitments.What a bunch of slackers!!I sat at home with my wife and kids and watched the game.The kids fell asleep and my wife nodded off so I watched Stevie skate with the Cup all by myself.After months of full houses for every game,I watched it by myself. When my friends got home from their concert,we piled in the car and took my homemade Stanley Cup down into town. There were people walking up and down the main street in town celebrating.We stopped at Subway and everyone took turns carrying my Cup around the parking lot.That was a blast.I wish I would have brought my camera.We drove around for a couple hours looking for the Detroit papers to buy.I don't think we ever found any that night.We went to the parade and sat right on the curb so we got a ton of good pictures.My friend brought one of those disposable panoramic cameras and got a sweet shot of Stevie holding up the Cup with the crowd around him.I was at work the night of the limo crash.My wife called me and I sat by the radio with a couple of other guys listening for news about who was in the crash and what happened.Well,I guess that's quite a bit for my first post.I hope it helps with your paper.

[dadair 0]

You can also try calling the Wings' business phone number (check the phone book) and explain what you are doing and you might be able to get some help from their front office personnel. I did a paper when I was in college about 12 years ago for a labor class and was able to speak to Jimmy Devallano. I called and left a message with one of the secretaries and he called me back a couple hours later. One advantage I had was that the paper was for a summer class and not right before the playoffs, but it won't hurt to call.

As for my memory, I was at a college graduation party for a friend and as the game wore on it was almost unbelievable that the Wings, OUR WINGS, were about to win the Cup. I had followed the Wings as a kid since the mid 70's so growing up with the Dead Things you just got used to bad teams and disappointing seasons. Once the Wings took the 2-0 lead midway through the 2nd the realization kicked in and the last period and a half was a mere formality.

The best memory of that game was listening to Bruce Martyn call McCarty's goal on the radio. I grew up listening to Bruce and Sid Abel back when radio was the prime outlet for games and a TV game was a treat and not the norm. I went to bed every night listening to those two call the games on the radio, so you could say they were my bedtime story tellers. Call me biased, but Bruce Martyn was the best Wings play-by-play guy ever and him getting to call the Cup winning goal a season after his retirement was fitting.

Darryl

Edited March 11, 2007 by dadair

[mooose kiiisses 0]

I don't know how much this will help cause i dont remember everything but...

My name is Alex

I had just turned 5 years old when the Wings won the cup in 1997. I watched it at home with my family. When the Wings won i heard yelling in all the houses around us (i lived in a suburb of Detroit at the time). I can still picture Yzerman jumping on Vernon to this day. And when Stevie took the cup that was the first time i had ever seen my dad cry. and he isnt the kind of man that cries. Me and my brother were jumping up and down screaming "They won! They won!" That was my very first memory of my life. And because of that game i'm still a die-hard Red Wings fan to this day.

Okay that sounds kind of lame.

[Legionnaire11 0]

here's something different.

in 1997 there were no Nashville Predators. And the summer before I had just moved to Nashville, so Philadelphia was still strong in my heart and I loved no other sports team more than the Flyers. I was a freshman in high school that year, and obviously coming here to Nashville at the time, there wasn't a lot of hockey fans.

Slowly and surely as I made friends throughout the year and they came to my house to hang out, I managed to get many of them into hockey. Either through watching on TV, playing video games or playing street hockey (those games were fun since no one knew what to do).

Well, as you can imagine, I had been pumping up the Flyers all season and since they weren't exposed to any other team, all of my friends became Flyers fans. And I really believe that had the Flyers not been so successful that season, that many of those friends wouldn't have stuck with hockey and it would have been harder for them to become the die-hard preds fans that they are now.

So, where was I? We had viewing parties at different houses for each game of the series. And it was a horrible series, it was just shock. Shock that the Flyers were so badly outplayed and dominated from the first puck drop until the cup was hoisted.

The thing that most stands out in my mind, was that halfway through game 3, when we all realized that the Flyers had absolutely no hope in the series, we all really started pulling for Mike Vernon. He played one of the greatest final series that i've ever seen from a goalie and he and the Red Wings earned a lot of respect in my circle from that series.

Ryan

Edited March 12, 2007 by Legionnaire11

[Inultus 12]

As for me, my name is Joshua and I'm 29. I became a Wings fan in high school so I hadn't really been watching them that long.

Coming off the severe disappointment of the 96 season I was elated when they took Colorado out in 97.

After they won the first 3 games of the Finals I convinced my buddy (not nearly as big a fan as I am) that it would be worth it to drive 2 hours to Detroit.

I told him that they would win it that night and that we needed to be in Detroit when it happened.

We watched the game at a hotel right across the street from Cobo Hall. My favorite player was Darren McCarty so to see him score the GWG was a wish come true for me (although I still like his hat trick against Roy better).

We flooded the streets and celebrated!