VICE Sports Q&A: Kris Draper on the Epic Red Wings-Avalanche Playoff Rivalry

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Ask anybody what their favourite rivalry is over the last 20 years and it's a pretty safe bet that the Detroit Red Wings/Colorado Avalanche battles will be near the top of their list. Between 1996 and 2002, the Red Wings and Avalanche met five times in the playoffs. Three of those five head-to-head series came in the Western Conference finals. It was really a perfect storm of factors that led to it becoming as heated as it did over a seven-year period. In 1996, the Red Wings set a record for the most wins in a regular season with 62 but it was the Avalanche, in their inaugural season in Colorado after moving from Quebec City, that spoiled Detroit's party in the West finals before going on to win the Stanley Cup.

The rivalry became turbocharged, though, when Claude Lemieux hit Kris Draper from behind into the boards, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken cheekbone, broken nose and a concussion. You knew it was only a matter of time until retribution would come and it did the next season on March 26, 1997, when the Wings exacted revenge on behalf of Draper and exorcized their demons against the Avalanche before winning a Stanley Cup of their own later that season, snapping a 42-year drought.

As we approach the 20th anniversary of that incident, we caught up with Draper—now the assistant to the general manager with the Red Wings—to relive the rivalry and get his thoughts on the current state of the NHL.

VICE Sports: In game 6 of the 1996 Western Conference finals, you took an awful hit from Claude Lemieux that still lives on as one of the most referenced postseason plays in recent memory. What do you remember about that play?

Kris Draper: I just remember that Marty Lapointe and Joe Sakic were kind of battling along the bench boards and the puck squirted out. I went into grab it and my momentum was taking me backwards. I was going to get it deep and then change as I was right by the bench. That's probably one of the last things I remember. I know I got hit and was on all fours and didn't feel right and then I know I was kind of in and out of consciousness for a little bit there in the dressing room with our trainers and team doctors.

Claude was suspended two games for that hit but returned for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals. Did you feel a two-game suspension was sufficient punishment?

We're talking a long time ago; the game was different back then. I think anytime you talk playoff hockey and a suspension, obviously one game means a lot more in playoff hockey than it does in the regular season and now you're talking Stanley Cup finals so that was probably the thought process behind it. To be honest, it didn't matter to me. We were done, we were eliminated. There was no chance for us to fight for the Stanley Cup. I did watch the Cup finals but I didn't care (about the suspension). That was really how I felt at the time with that. For me, what's done was done. It wasn't going to impact the Detroit Red Wings in any way.

Dino Ciccarelli said of Lemieux, "I can't believe I shook the guy's frigging hand," after that series. Have you ever seen dislike and even hatred to that extent in any other rivalry?

No, I haven't. With the alumni game that we just went through, we just relived the whole experience from 1996-2002 and it brought back some great memories. When it comes to the hit, my teammates didn't know the extent of the injury. I was in a separate room with our doctors and trainers so nobody really saw me until after the game. Then at that point, that's when my teammates realized the extent of it. We had an unbelievable year; we set the record for wins in the regular season with 62. The expectations that year were for us to win the Stanley Cup and obviously that didn't happen. You put in the hit and my injury and us losing in six games, we were obviously a very bitter team right after that series ended. We felt that was going to be our year but you tip your hat to Colorado and the playoff run that they went on. In the West from 1996-2002, it became pretty clear that it was going to be either Detroit, Colorado or Dallas coming out of the West. Because of that, it took the rivalry to the next level when you factor in everything—the hit, the animosity, the hatred, the fact they had become Stanley Cup champions. We knew that we were going to have to go through Colorado to win the Stanley Cup and obviously that led to some pretty eventful games in the 1996-97 season, certainly March 26th at the Joe Louis Arena.

That was the date of the legendary brawl between the Wings and Avalanche including Darren McCarty going after Claude Lemieux and the Patrick Roy/Mike Vernon fight. It was 301 days after the hit you took from Claude Lemieux. The Red Wings went on to win that game 6-5 in overtime. What do you remember about that night and why did all hell break loose after having met the Avalanche three times earlier in the season without incident?

I know Claude Lemieux was hurt for two meetings earlier in the season. In one of the games in Colorado, there were some very close calls but it didn't escalate to what it did at the Joe at the end of March. We were 0-3 against the Avalanche that season and that was the last game we were going to play against them. The playoffs were starting in three weeks, we hadn't beaten them and they were the defending Stanley Cup champions. They were actually up in that game as well and we ended up scoring three goals late to win it and Darren McCarty ends up scoring the overtime winner so you want to talk about irony on that. Really how it happened was Igor Larionov and Peter Forsberg got into it along our bench and as soon as that happened, it just escalated. There was McCarty going after Lemieux and Brendan Shanahan and Adam Foote were tied up. Then Shanny saw Patrick Roy coming out and tackled him in midair and Mike Vernon came out and got into it. It was just something that I know that our fans know exactly where they were when that brawl took place. It was a huge moment for our hockey team, it was a bit of a statement for us physically and how we responded. But more importantly, we came back to win the game and I think that was a huge rallying point for our team getting ready to go into the playoffs three weeks later.

Later that season, the Red Wings would go on to win the Stanley Cup, ending a 42-year drought. Along the way, you defeated the Avalanche in a rematch in the Western finals. Did that night in March play any role in galvanizing your team?

Absolutely it did. How we did it was probably the biggest thing for us just with everything that had been going on, we were able to physically answer the challenge. And to be able to come back and win that hockey game and for Darren McCarty, what he did in that game going after Lemieux and then to come back and score the winning goal, it's something Red Wings fans will never forget.

Coming up on 20 years after the incident, what is your relationship with Claude Lemieux like today?

It happened so long ago. From that hit and over the next six years, what went on with the Detroit Red Wings, a lot of good things happened to myself and our hockey team. I never had a relationship with him, I didn't know him, he was just a guy I played against and that was really the extent of it. Now post career, he's a player agent, I work in the front office of the Detroit Red Wings and we drafted one of his clients (Joren Van Pottelberghe) last year at the draft in Florida. Obviously with the recent alumni game, there were some interactions and some conversations and that's really how it is. Things happen, I wouldn't change anything in my career and what happened and the success that I was able to have. That's really how I feel about the whole situation. But I can tell you one thing; it (the hit) led to the best hockey that I think the NHL had seen in a while. It was physical, they hated us, we hated them but the bottom line is every year it seems like somebody from that rivalry is going into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Do you think the NHL will ever see a rivalry like the Wings/Avalanche again?

I don't think we will. The game has changed. I think there are some great rivalries in the NHL right now but I think when you look at it, you just look at the skill of what those two teams had, those two teams were just a special combination of high-end skill and rugged toughness. You look at the forwards that we had—Brendan Shanahan, Marty Lapointe, Joe Kocur, Darren McCarty, those guys could go out and score goals, play in any situation, they could fight, too. The Avalanche had Adam Foote, Mike Keane, Claude Lemieux—they had the type of players that could play that way as well. You just don't see teams that have that combination of skill and power forwards and grit and probably in the salary cap era, it would be hard to keep all those players in one spot as long as they were. I don't think you could keep a team like the Detroit Red Wings had (in those days) together anymore, there's not enough money to go around for those type of players.

It seems like the game today does not have the same dislike amongst opponents as it did 15 to 20 years ago. Would you agree with that statement?

It's just a different generation; it's a different type of player. For myself, when I went to the rink, I knew that I had to be the hardest-working player. If I wasn't, I felt like I could be replaced. I think right now, you look from top to bottom, fourth-line guys can play in any situation. I just think the average player has become that much better with everything that's given to them. The nutrition, the off-ice training, the facilities every team plays in, I think all that has led to players from top to bottom getting better. You see some games and they're physical games but I just don't think on a nightly basis you see the hatred that you had in the late '90s and early 2000s.

You were fortunate enough to win four Stanley Cups in your career (1997, 1998, 2002, 2008). Is there one that means the most to you?

I've got a story for each one but I would say just that first Stanley Cup because of everything that core group had gone through. If you think of it, in 1993 the Wings lost in Game 7 in the first round to Toronto. In my first year in 1994, we lost in Game 7 to San Jose. We got swept by New Jersey in 1995. We lost in six games to the Avalanche in the Conference finals in 1996. There were a lot of people who were doubting the core group of the Red Wings and just to be able to find a way to finally overcome everything and the adversity that we had gone through and to see Stevie Y (Yzerman) at center ice getting the Stanley Cup is something that I'll certainly never forget.

Everyone knows about the tragic accident that we had that summer in 1997 with Vladimir Konstantinov. I think in 1998, that's what made it so special knowing that we were able to rally around the injury and rally around Vladdy and we ended up turning ourselves into back-to-back Cup champions. That one was really bittersweet. I remember Stevie getting the Cup in 1997 and it was so emotional and so exciting. In 1998, we did it again and the first thing Stevie did was hand it to Vladdy in his wheelchair at center ice. You talk about emotions, I still get emotional talking about that.

The 2003-2004 season was a great one for you personally. You won the Selke Trophy as the NHL's top defensive forward and you scored a career-high 24 goals—just one shy of Brett Hull and Brendan Shanahan but they played 81 and 82 games, respectively. You played 67. Where did that offensive explosion come from?

That was the year that Sergei Fedorov left and it just kind of seemed that there was more opportunity and more quality minutes that were given to me. In a defensive roll, I think my roll even expanded that year. Our head coach Dave Lewis had a lot of confidence in me to play in any situation. And for some reason, the puck just started going in for me. I'm telling you, I'd go home and I didn't want to go to sleep because I didn't want this dream season to end. It was obviously something special for me. The thing that I'm most proud of is that as a teammate, our teams were able to accomplish so much and that's what I was. I tried to be a very good teammate and be part of a winning culture and a winning team. I never really set any individual goals but all of a sudden the puck started going in for me and there was talk about being an All-Star and the possibility of the Selke Trophy. It was an overwhelming year and it was something, obviously, I was super proud of how things went for me. To go on to win the Selke Trophy that season, it was just a special year.

You finished tenth in scoring on the 2002 Red Wings. Eight players who finished ahead of you are in the Hall of Fame. Pavel Datsyuk finished ninth and is likely on his way there. Dominik Hasek is also in the Hall of Fame. Did you appreciate in the moment just how good that team was?

Absolutely. I remember when we traded for Dominik Hasek and we were all just like, 'Wow, we've got the Dominator coming in.' At that time, he was arguably the best goalie in the NHL with the Hart Trophies and the Vezinas he'd won. And then from there, free agency continued with us signing Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull. Robitaille and Hasek came out and said they wanted to come to the Red Wings because they wanted to win a Stanley Cup. We had a good team but those additions put it over the top. With that said, though, I think everybody realizes it's easy to talk about the 2002 team now because we won the Stanley Cup, but there was a ton of pressure on us to win the Stanley Cup. I remember we were down 0-2 to Vancouver in the first round of the playoffs and we got booed off the ice and to this day, it's the only time I've ever seen a Red Wings jersey thrown on the ice. I was one of the last guys off the ice after Game 2 and there were three jerseys on the ice and I was just like, 'Oh boy.' We knew it wasn't good but then Nik Lidstrom scored from centre ice in Game 3 and it was all over after that. We won four straight. Brett Hull had a hat trick in Game 6 and it all came together. You talk about an All-Star team full of Hall of Famers facing adversity, well we got it right out of the gate in round one and we obviously handled it well and went on and ended up beating Carolina in five games in the Cup final. I'll be honest, I've got a couple of team signed jerseys from that year that mean a lot to me knowing all the Hall of Famers that are on it.

Scoring has trended downward in recent seasons and now sits at its lowest level since before the 2004-05 lockout when drastic measures were implemented to open the game up. In fact, the league averaged more goals per game in 1999-00 and 2000-01. What do you feel has led to a drop in scoring?

The biggest evolution of our game is goaltending. They've turned themselves into athletes. You just watch every night what these guys can do, how good they are at whether it's playing the puck or making a save, the quickness that they have, it's impressive what these guys can do right now. The biggest change for me is that the goalies have evolved. They're super athletic; they work just as hard as anybody else.

The other thing is the size of these players today. When I was playing in the late '90s and early 2000s, the bigger guys were tough and hard to play against but you always thought, 'Well they aren't great skaters.' Now I'm scouting on the amateur side and I'm watching guys that are 6'5", 6'6" get up and down the ice like they're 5'10"—it's amazing how these bigger guys can skate. The education that young players are getting with the health and nutritional aspects, the off-ice training, a skills coach, a power skating coach, all this stuff that they have has brought parity into the league up and down lineups. Then when you mix in goalies that are 6'3", 6'4"—Pekka Rinne and Ben Bishop types—sometimes you just don't see any net. Not only that, they're quick as cats. Just the overall size of the players, the skill level from top to bottom, and how athletic and good the goaltending is has made it really hard to score goals.

Fighting has also trended downward but many will argue this is a good thing. Why do you think fighting has diminished to this extent?

It's because you need players who can play today. For us, an example is a guy like Justin Abdelkader. We look at him like a power-forward-type player—he's by no means a heavyweight but if someone is going to take liberties at Pav (Pavel Datsyuk) or Z (Henrik Zetterberg), we know that Abby is going to be able to stick up for himself in those situations. That's what makes him so valuable and that's why we just extended him on a long-term deal. Those are the type of players when you get them, you don't want them to go. You need players that are able to play in all situations. Now you have the icing rule where you can't change players after icing the puck so you have to be careful about that match up. Now for the most part, among 30 teams and 30 coaches, when they have their fourth line out there, they trust them in any situation. There's no more room for the one-dimensional player.

How has the process in which teams deal with potential concussions changed from when you played to what you see today?

The one thing that is very different today is the awareness and the education that has been received on it. For us with the Red Wings, if there is anything that happens head-wise, concussion related-wise, we go right to protocol. That's just the way it is league wide with the so-called quiet room where guys have to go in and be evaluated. It was just a different generation, a different era when I played. We didn't have a quiet room. You'd come back to the bench, squirt some water on your face and you thought you were ready to go again. That was the extent of it.