Sports Publications

Motoring … to the top

Sporting News, The, July 6, 1998 by Bob Hille

"Hi, Ozzie."

"Hi, Kozzie."

"Hi, Shanny."

"Hi, Mac."

"Hi, Drapes."

He remembered each of the players from the Best Sports City's best team; he couldn't remember the score of the last playoff game, his wife, Irina, explained. Short-term memory is only part of what a brain injury has robbed of Konstantinov; it also has robbed him of his hockey-playing career.

Now? Now. 8 1/2 minutes from the end of Game 4 of the 1998 Stanley Cup finals and light years of progress since emerging from a coma caused by the accident last June, Konstantinov is being wheeled through the concourse at MCI Center, heading to ice level from his seat in Section 116, behind the goal his teammates have attacked in the first and third periods of a 4-1 victory, up beyond the sign that reads, "WE BELIEVE, YOU BELIEVE."

The Wings' sweep of the Capitals assured, ahead is the roar from the crowd, Wings fans who've made the 530-mile trip to D.C. and Caps fans, too--"Vladdie! Vladdie! Vladdie!"--and a most touching tribute: Detroit captain Steve Yzerman, the playoff MVP, raising the Cup and then putting it in Konstantinov's lap for the first victory skate. Everyone would then gather for a very untraditional traditional team picture.

Ahead is the celebration in the visitors' dressing room, the stereo blaring Bruce Springsteen's "Glory Days," a bittersweet song about victories past and working through everyday reality after the sheen of youthful athletic success has dulled.

Ahead are the streets of Detroit--Gratiot in Roseville and Main in Royal Oak on this night and Woodward Avenue two days hence for the victory parade--running red and white with throngs of fans celebrating, dancing and waving brooms, united in their unbridled passion for the Red Wings and the closure this victory offers from a celebration cut short on June 13 of last year.

A year ago the focus was on coach Scotty Bowman when, thank God, only the revelry died in an auto accident. This year, despite Bowman's tying Toe Blake's record with his eighth Stanley Cup coaching victory, the victory honors a rugged defenseman and a team masseuse.

As the celebration goes on, I can't help but recall a night in May when I was explaining to Molly, a bartender at Muskie's Urban Pier, across from the Palace of Auburn Hills, that I was in town to discover what sports means to Detroit.

As I left, Molly said, "I hope you find what you're looking for."

I did, Molly, I did.

If Michiganders define summer as three months of bad sledding, then here in the heart of July the summer's over. The sledding is getting smoother.

As good as the sports news in Detroit has been the past 12 months--two Stanley Cups, groundbreaking on a new stadium, Barry Sanders' 2,000-yard season, NCAA Tournament bids and national championships in college football and hockey--there is triumph in a larger sense for two members of the Red Wings family and for a city as well.