Red Wings honor 1996-97 championship team in pregame ceremony

The building has changed and so have many of the hairlines and waistlines.

None of that has changed Detroit's love for the late-90s Red Wings, the team that ended the city's 42-year championship drought by sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1997 Stanley Cup Final, then did the same thing to the Washington Capitals a year later.
Scotty Bowman led them to another title in 2002, with one of the greatest rosters ever assembled, and many of the players were still around for the 2008 win over Pittsburgh, but it was the first champions who were honored in a 25th-anniversary ceremony on Thursday.

The 89-year-old Bowman was, as always, the main speaker, telling a story about how, as a scout, he was at the Olympia on April 14, 1955, to see the Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in Game 7 to win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time in six years.
"I would have never imagined it was going to take 42 years to get the Cup back here, or that I would be the one doing it," Bowman said. "I had already been to St. Louis, Montreal, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, but I was excited about the chance to go back to Detroit and win there."

For the fans, it was an opportunity to see the stars of 1997 back in uniform, including captain and current general manager Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom, Conn Smythe winner Mike Vernon and with a dramatic late arrival, Brendan Shanahan.
However, there was no question about who would be holding the Stanley Cup for the photo and re-raising of the championship banner. As he did on the ice after the 1998 Final, defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov cradled it in his wheelchair.

The 1998 team will have a separate ceremony before Detroit's game against the New York Islanders on Saturday.