In the spring of 1997 — a quarter-century ago — the Detroit Red Wings embarked on their quest to end a 42-year Stanley Cup drought.
The Free Press has commemorated that historic quest with a new book: “Stanleytown: The Inside Story of How the Stanley Cup Returned to the Motor City After 41 Frustrating Seasons.”
Day 15: April 30, 1997
The backstory: For the first time in 2½ weeks, when the Red Wings stepped on the ice at Joe Louis Arena, they prepared for an opponent other than the St. Louis Blues. Roughly 12 hours earlier, after the Mighty Ducks eliminated the Coyotes at 1:30 a.m. Detroit time, the matchups were set for the Western Conference semifinals: No. 1 Colorado vs. No. 7 Edmonton and No. 3 Detroit vs. No. 4 Anaheim. The Ducks, in the playoffs for the first time, flummoxed the Wings during the regular season with a stifling trapping defense, stellar goaltending from Guy Hebert and a fast-skating, goal-scoring, pretty-playmaking line of Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya and Steve Rucchin. The Wings went 0-3-1 against Anaheim and were outscored, 7-3. But the Wings owned home ice, were well-rested — it would be five days between Game 6 with the Blues and Game 1 with the Ducks — and had two practices to prep for the trap to come.
At The Joe: Coach Scotty Bowman delved into his strategy against the Ducks’ big line. “You can’t just restrict it to one line of your own because they play so much,” he said. “You can’t get in a defensive posture for an entire series. That would play into their hands. You have to have some offense. I find with those kind of lines, you have to give them as much as you can. You have to give them some toughness, you have to give them some speed, you have to give them some defense and you also have to give them some offense against them. We think we have some lines that can play against them.” As for attacking the Ducks’ trap, Darren McCarty parroted the strategy that eventually wore down the Blues: “They bottle you…