Road to Stanleytown: 1997 Detroit Red Wings ready for fateful Game 4 vs. Blues

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 1: Red Wings begin quest to end 42-year Cup drought

DAY 2: Scotty Bowman finally makes the Sergei Fedorov switch Red Wings need

DAY 3: How the Red Wings finally solved Fuhr to take Game 2

DAY 4: Red Wings, Shanahan try to break St. Louis hearts

DAY 5: Yzerman, Red Wings take high road — and Game 3 vs. Blues

Day 6: April 21, 1997

The backstory: After their 62-victory season in 1995-96 came crashing down against the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals, the Red Wings threw part of the blame on their earlier playoff series. Simply put, they had to fight so hard, the tanks weren’t filled for the hated Avs. For starters, the Wings needed six games that year to dispatch the eighth-seeded Winnipeg Jets, who were four games under .500 but boasted a white-hot goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin. Then, the Wings needed double overtime in Game 7 — on Steve Yzerman’s most famous goal — to outlast the Blues, who were two games under .500.

The Wings’ mission in 1996-97 was to avoid long, draining series from the get-go. Despite three nip-and-tuck, grueling and penalty-filled games against the Blues, with their 2-1 series lead, the Wings still might have been able to avoid a long series if they could manage a Game 4 victory in St. Louis. However, until a Game 4 victory against the Jets the previous season, the Wings had dropped Game 4 in four straight first-round series.

The buzz: No big news arose as the teams spent their off days practicing at the Kiel Center. The Detroit and St. Louis media focused on two topics: The 17-year rivalry between goalies Mike Vernon and Grant Fuhr, and how the Blues’ blue liners were exhausted. St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville dressed only five defensemen for all three games. Al MacInnis, 33, and Chris Pronger, 22, were logging 35-plus minutes a game. Marc Bergevin, 31, the former Wing, checked in at 30. Igor Kravchuk, 30, would have matched it, but bruised ribs kept him out of Game 3.

“They don’t stay much on the bench … they can’t,” center Craig Conroy told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They’re catching their breath. We’re going to have to find some oxygen tanks to make them feel better.” Bergevin said: “Sleep and eat. That’s all I’ve been doing. Today, I got up. I ate. I went back to bed. I came to the rink. Now, I’m going to eat and go to bed.” Wings associate coach Dave Lewis, who played 1,008 NHL games on defense, said: “Over a seven-game series, it’s a big factor. It wears you down. It affects your ability to rush the puck up the ice. It affects a lot of little plays. We have guys that are still fresh and healthy and that’s good for us.”

Off the ice: Even during the playoffs, hockey players can have some fun. When a media member left a briefcase on the bench, Kris Draper grabbed it and, with Doug Brown and Martin Lapointe tagging along, took it for skate during the Wings’ practice. (A photo of their antics led the front of the Free Press Sports section with the headline Back To Work.)

MORE: Jakub Vrana projects to be Red Wings first 40-goal scorer in a decade

Famous last words: MacInnis offered a unique perspective on Vernon and Fuhr. MacInnis won a Stanley Cup in Calgary with Vernon in 1989 before playing with Fuhr in St. Louis. “The scary part is nothing bothers either of them,” MacInnis said. “They don’t have any of the superstitions. I’ve been sitting next to Grant for two years. For a goalie, he’s as normal as you can get. Vernie? Same thing. Nothing bothers him, really.”

Relive the glory: The Free Press has crafted a 208-page, full-color, hardcover collector’s book with fresh insights and dynamic storytelling about the 1996-97 Wings. It’s called “Stanleytown 25 Years Later: The Inside Story on How the Stanley Cup Returned to the Motor City after 41 Frustrating Seasons.” It’s only $29.95 and it’s available at RedWings.PictorialBook.com. (It’ll make a great Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift for the Wings fanatic in your life!) Personalized copies available via myersgene@comcast.net.

More to read: Another new Wings book arrived in April from Keith Gave, a longtime hockey writer for the Free Press in the 1980s and 1990s: “Vlad The Impaler: More Epic Tales from Detroit’s ’97 Stanley Cup Conquest.” It is available through Amazon and other booksellers and a portion of the proceeds is earmarked for the Vladimir Konstantinov Special Needs Trust. (Plenty of Gave’s prose also appears in “Stanleytown 25 Years Later.”)

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How 1997 Detroit Red Wings readied for big Game 4 vs. Blues