“We had to get back to the Western Conference finals. We had to beat Colorado. We had to win a Stanley Cup.”
Those words fueled Kris Draper during his long recovery in the 1996 off-season after suffering a broken jaw—and several other broken bones in his face—on a brutal hit from Colorado’s Claude Lemieux.
Everyone knew the revenge would come. The two clubs were bitter rivals heading into the 1996 post-season, and the hatred between the franchises grew exponentially with each meeting.
It all came to a head almost a year later, on March 26, 1997.
“Exactly 301 days after I had my face caved in, my teammates stood up for me. We settled it,” longtime Red Wings forward Kris Draper wrote in an article for The Players’ Tribune on Wednesday. “But this is what a lot of people don’t remember: For the players on the ice, that night wasn’t just about the fight. That night was about proving that we could beat Colorado on the scoreboard.”
As the records show, Detroit would go on to beat Colorado four more times, defeating them in the playoffs on their way to winning the Stanley Cup that year — one year after the Avalanche hoisted the Cup.
Draper’s article details the whole story before, after, and of course, during the fierce battle.
“Those gongshow days are gone now, and it’s probably for the betterment of the game. But ask anybody from Detroit, and they can tell you exactly where they were when that brawl went down. Long after that arena is torn down, people will still remember that night.”
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Here are some of the best excerpts from The Players’ Tribune:
On how Detroit matched up with the Avalanche:
Colorado was not a team full of goons. That’s the thing. They were an unbelievable team that had everything you could want — pure skill with Sakic and Forsberg, grit and experience with Lemieux, Kamensky and Ricci. And, of course, they also had Roy.
They had everything we had. They were a tremendous team, and we didn’t like them one bit.
On being in the hospital during the Avalanche’s 1996 Stanley Cup victory:
I couldn’t stand to watch. It’s still the only Stanley Cup finals that I’ve never seen a single second of.
On idea of revenge, and the buildup to the battle:
To be 100% honest, I rarely thought of getting revenge on Lemieux. It wasn’t about that. Unfortunately, Detroit did not feel the same way. It was like the entire city took the hit personally. When the season started, and I was back in the lineup, all anybody wanted to talk about was our first game against Colorado. But, as fate would have it, Lemieux wasn’t in the lineup for our first two games. The third game in Colorado got very heated — you could feel the tension — but the referees were on top of it. Nothing major happened. But you could feel the hatred building and building….
Right up until March 26, 1997.
When it all exploded at The Joe.
On the roar of the battle:
You just heard this incredible roar out of nowhere.
I look to center ice, and there’s Mac.
Darren McCarty, the guy who visited me in the hospital every day. Mac is raining punches down on Claude Lemieux right in front of our bench. Lemieux’s helmet pops off, and he goes down on all fours, trying to turtle to protect himself.
Goalie fight!:
And then another huge roar — louder than the first one.
Patrick Roy leaves his net. Mike Vernon leaves his net.
They’re skating toward one another from across the rink, like a Wild West movie.
But then, out of nowhere, Brendan Shanahan intercepts Roy and they both go flying.
Next thing I know, Mac is dragging Lemieux over to our bench, as if to say, I told you I’d get him, boys.
Then Vernon and Roy finally make it to one another, and they start brawling at center ice. Not just tying up, but throwing haymakers.
On facing—and beating—Colorado in the 1997 Conference final and finally getting revenge:
We beat them in six games, and I got what I really wanted — what I had burned for since I was in the hospital. I got the handshake line. I got to look every one of them dead in the eyes, and I got to shake their hands knowing that I was going to the Stanley Cup finals, and they weren’t.
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Read the Players’ Tribune in its entirety here.
