Looking back, I think it was good to get it over with early. Maybe it would have come at the end of the game. Yikes.’ But I think it would have happened anyway. Nicklas Lidstrom first thought on the ice was, ‘Oh, this is escalating into something really bad. “Lemieux used to joke with me and blame me for starting the whole thing,” Forsberg said. Brendan Shanahan intercepted Roy, and they both went flying. Then Roy came storming out of his crease and skated to the middle of the ice to fight Detroit goalie Mike Vernon. Lemieux took to the turtle position, down on all fours to try to protect himself, and did not hit back. He blindsided Lemieux and started punching him. I did talk to Lemieux afterward and told him that I had no idea that him and McCarty were on the ice at the same time.” “We were two guys that had never been in a fight, and then we start this chaos. “I have seen it on video afterward and it’s kind of funny to watch,” Forsberg said. When Forsberg looks back at that night, he is still confused about how it turned so ugly. It didn’t look like much from the start, but the two skilled stars ignited a brawl that would spread all over the ice. The two European players engaged in a wrestling match next to the Detroit bench. It started with a scrum between Colorado’s Peter Forsberg and Detroit’s Igor Larionov. The scene was Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The next chapter in this bloody war came on March 26, 1997, exactly 301 days after Lemieux’s hit on Draper. At least not his close friend on the team, Darren McCarty. Draper’s bloody and broken face was something his teammates would not forget. Detroit wanted revenge for the hit Lemieux had placed on Draper the season before. Heading into the next season, there was a feeling that things could escalate quickly between the two teams. This was only the beginning of a heated rivalry over the next several years, Lidstrom and his teammates would endure many wild and brutal battles with the Avalanche. That suspension caused Colorado coach Marc Crawford to accuse Bowman of manipulating the media, referees, and league officials. Lemieux was suspended for one game after a review of the incident by the league. Lemieux skated up to Kozlov and sucker punched him in the mouth. Foote was bleeding hard, but none of the officials saw the hit and no penalty was called.
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Lemieux had been involved in earlier incidents and scrums during the series he had punched Slava Kozlov after the Detroit forward had slammed Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote facefirst into the glass in Game 3. His jaw had to be wired shut for weeks and he underwent plastic surgery to repair some of the other damage.
Lemieux was assessed a major penalty and thrown out of the game, while Draper ended up in the hospital and needed 30 stitches to close the facial cuts. Draper suffered a broken cheekbone, a fractured jaw, a broken nose, and several broken teeth, as well as a concussion. Another magical season had ended in heartbreak for the Wings, but this time, it also ended with broken bones and bloodshed that would ignite one of the most fiery and bitter rivalries that hockey has ever seen.Įarly in Game 6, Avalanche forward Claude Lemieux hit Detroit center Kris Draper with a forceful check from behind that sent Draper crashing into the boards face-first in front of the Detroit bench. The Wings fell 4–1 in Game 6 at McNichols Arena. The Wings gained a split in Denver and after a solid 5–2 home-ice victory in Game 5, held to a semblance of hope that they could survive again just as they had against St.
The Avs jumped on the weary Wings quickly, winning the first two games of the series at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings got only two days’ rest before the Western Conference Final against Colorado. It was not enough time to regroup. “We were tired and couldn’t handle Colorado, it was as simple as that,” Lidstrom said.
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