25 years ago, a Joe Louis bloodbath helped propel the Detroit Red Wings into a glorious era

25 years ago, a Joe Louis bloodbath helped propel the Detroit Red Wings into a glorious era
Darren McCarty’s gory vengeance on Claude Lemieux is core hockey lore

By Joe Lapointe on Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 4:00 am


(Detroit Metro Times) In the summer of 1996, I took my son, Marc, on a coast-to-coast tour of college campuses so he could choose a school. By chance, we crossed paths with a prediction for a hockey explosion that would launch a championship era for the Detroit Red Wings.

We lived on the East Coast then, but Marc wanted to check out (among others) the University of Michigan, in our state of birth. While we ate pizza in an Ann Arbor restaurant, a tall man with an athletic build and a mustache approached our table.

I recognized Dave Lewis, an assistant coach with the Red Wings. By then, I'd covered the National Hockey League for three newspapers in three cities; he'd played in the NHL for four teams before coaching.

"Joe," he said. "It's going to happen at Joe Louis Arena. Be there. People will come from Saskatchewan to see this."

He was smiling, slightly, but his tone and words were serious. I can't directly quote most of them because I didn't take notes and it was a quarter-century ago.

But I recall vividly his vow: the Red Wings would then wreak vengeance upon Claude Lemieux of the Colorado Avalanche for maiming the face of Detroit's Kris Draper with a blind-side check into the boards in Denver that spring during a bitter Western Conference finals series in the Stanley Cup playoffs of 1996. ...............(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/news/25-years-ago-a-joe-louis-bloodbath-helped-propel-the-detroit-red-wings-into-a-glorious-era-29601798