It’s crazy to think that it has already been over 25 years since the Detroit Red Wings won their first Stanley Cup since 1955. In 1997, the Red Wings defeated the Philadelphia Flyers four games to zero to hoist their first Stanley Cup in 42 years and the entire city of Detroit (and everyone else in the area) celebrated in the streets. On Thursday, some of the players from the ’97 squad were at Little Caesars Arena to celebrate the 25h Anniversary of winning the Cup, and one of the players in attendance was Igor Larionov, who had to miss coaching a game to be at the celebration.
Igor Larionov left his team to be with Detroit Red Wings
Larionov, who is now the coach of Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, told his team that they had to “play without me the next game” because he was not about to miss the 25th Anniversary celebration with his former Red Wings’ teammates.
“In my mind, when you celebrate special couple wins back-to-back, with a special team, special coach, and a group of players are in town — even though I am missing the game Saturday back home, I told the boys in the locker room Tuesday that I have to go,” Larionov said. “Play without me the next game. This is nice to see the guys here.”
Via Helene St. James – Detroit Free Press
According to St. James, the former players from the 1997 team to attend the celebration were Doug Brown, Mathieu Dandenault, Kris Draper, Anders Eriksson, Brent Gilchrist, Kevin Hodson, Tomas Holmstrom, Mike Knuble, Joe Kocur, Vladimir Konstantinov, Martin Lapointe, Nicklas Lidstrom, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty, Larry Murphy, Chris Osgood, Jamie Pushor, Bob Rouse, Shanahan, Tim Taylor, Mike Vernon, Aaron Ward and of course Steve Yzerman. In addition, Scotty Bowman was also in the house for the celebration.
“I talk to Drapes a lot, I talk to Scotty about players in the KHL,” Larionov said. “Once in a while with Shanny. Not much with Stevie, Stevie is too busy building this team.”
Via Helene St. James – Detroit Free Press
It was a great night at the LCA and those in attendance, including the former players and coaches, will never forget it.
Let’s Go Red Wings!
