DETROIT – Terrible Ted Lindsay had no inkling, when the Detroit Red Wings captain held the Stanley Cup aloft in 1955, that lean year lay ahead.

Let alone 41 of them.

It was the Red Wings' fourth Cup in seven seasons. They had some of the gaudiest names in the National Hockey League in their lineup – Gordie Howe, Sid Abel, Alex Delvecchio, Lindsay, Red Kelly Terry Sawchuk in goal -and fully expected to win many more.

That's why, at age 71, the irreverent Lindsay, still as feisty as in his playing days, has grown so close to this edition of the Wings, the team that finally ended the long wait for Stanley to return Saturday night in Motown.

And he's especially happy for the team's self-effacing captain, Steve Yzerman, who has waited his whole career for this moment, who began his career in Detroit 14 seasons ago and will end it here.

“I think Steve Yzerman is what every athlete should be,”said Lindsay, who received a long standing ovation when he was shown on the big screen at Joe Louis Arena during the first period of the Cup-clinching 2-1 Detroit win Saturday. “You see all these cementheads paid all this money today and they're nothing but jackasses. Steve has been the ultimate professional

“When he got here, there was nothing else. He was the franchise. He was the whole organization. He owed this team nothing and could have demanded a trade, but he remained one of the classiest guys you'd ever want to meet.”

Yzerman, for his part, has relished the time spent with Lindsay.

“He's down here a lot,” said Yzerman. “When we're leaving after practice, Ted always comes in and works out. He's still in tremendous shape and he's got such an interesting image, a real tough guy from old-time hockey And he's a small man. The guys who spend some time with him all walk away saying, “That was the killer of the '50s and '60s?' He's like a really neat old man.”

But Yzerman himself does not romanticize the difficult years he's endured, 11 of them as captain: “There have been a lot of ups and downs, but nothing seems that bad after a while.”

Yzerman – who had a goal in each of the first three games of the final – is so quiet, some find it difficult to warm up to him. He often frowns while choosing his words carefully, and he'll never make anyone's list of the best quotes in hockey.

But it is precisely because he is so shy and understated that he is revered as a gentleman, not only by his teammates and fans, but around the league.

“He (Yzerman) is the heart and the soul of this team.” said defenceman Slava Fetisov. “For his size, he is one of the horses in the NHL. And now he knows he did not spend his life here for nothing.”

EDMONTON JOURNAL

CAM COLE
Southam Newpapers