1997 Stanley Cup Finals

Philadelphia rose to the top on the back of a 17-game unbeaten streak in December and January, and despite losing the Atlantic Division title to New Jersey, had a relatively easy time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres in the first two rounds. The Flyers arrived into the Stanley Cup Finals having beaten their perennial rivals, the New York Rangers, in a memorable five-game Eastern Conference Final series. Eric Lindros and Wayne Gretzky each recorded a hat trick in the set, but the size, strength and discipline of Philadelphia (particularly the Legion of Doom line) trumped the veteran savvy of the Blueshirts.

For Detroit there was the departure of several players whom head coach Scotty Bowman blamed for their loss to Colorado a year prior, including trading away Paul Coffey to get star Brendan Shanahan.^[1] Detroit won 38 games in the regular season, in contrast to the record-setting 62 win season the previous year, making them the dark horse in the Western Conference as the third seed behind the Dallas Stars and the Presidents' Trophy winner Colorado Avalanche. In the playoffs, the Wings dispatched a fractured St. Louis Blues team in six games, and a surprising Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in a sweep to reach the Western Conference finals for the third straight season. In a rematch of last year's Western Finals, the Red Wings upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in six brutal games to earn their second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in three years.

This is the first time that these two teams met in the postseason.

Game 1 in Philadelphia took place exactly ten years to the day after the Flyers' emotional seventh-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1987 Finals. Detroit never trailed in the game: they led 2–1 after the first period, 3–2 after the second, and Steve Yzerman scored the fourth goal 56 seconds into the third period.^[2] Sergei Fedorov scored the winner and was named the game's first star.

Brendan Shanahan scored an unassisted goal 1:37 into the game and Steve Yzerman scored a power-play goal at 9:22 of the first period to give the Red Wings a 2–0 lead before Rod Brind'Amour scored a pair of power-play goals late in the first period to tie the score. In the second, Kirk Maltby scored the game-winning goal at 2:39 and Shanahan scored his second goal of the game at 9:56 of the third and the Red Wings won a second consecutive 4–2 victory and a 2–0 series lead heading back to Joe Louis Arena.^[2]

John LeClair scored at 7:03 of the first period to give the Flyers their first lead of the series. Two minutes later, Yzerman scored on the power-play to tie the score. Fedorov scored two minutes later to put Detroit ahead for good in the game. Martin Lapointe scored later in the first to give the Wings a 3–1 advantage. The Wings tacked on two more in the second and added one in the third for a decisive 6–1 win and a three-games-to-none series advantage.^[2] For his four-point night, Fedorov was named the game's first star.

In his post-game comments, Flyers head coach Terry Murray was quoted as saying the team was "basically in a choking situation," which many observers interpreted as Murray having called out his own players as chokers. The manner in which they played compounded by the insurmountable series deficit along with the Wings' seeming dominance in stretches of the first two games as well as most of game three lent credence to the claim.

The Red Wings controlled the game from the get-go, forging ahead 1–0 after one period and employing the left-wing lock to keep the Flyers' mix of big and speedy forwards at bay. Darren McCarty's second-period tally effectively sealed the deal. The burly checker faked out Flyers rookie defenceman Janne Niinimaa inside the blue line, swooped around him, then did a quick cutback in front of Hextall in his crease to slip the puck into the net. Eric Lindros would score his lone goal of the series with 15 seconds to play. The 2–1 win brought Detroit its eighth Stanley Cup, and its first in 42 seasons, ending what was the longest Stanley Cup drought in the league at that time.

Sergei Fedorov led the Wings in playoff scoring with 20 points. Detroit goaltender Mike Vernon, who had been in net for the whole of the Wings' failed 1995 playoff run, and relegated to the bench the year before, earned vindication and his first Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP by holding Philadelphia to six goals in four games.

Bolded years under Finals appearance indicates year won Stanley Cup.

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Acquired	Place of birth	Finals appearance
30		Chris Osgood	G	L	1991	Peace River, Alberta	second (1995) (did not play)
29		Mike Vernon	G	L	1994–95	Calgary, Alberta	fourth (1986, 1989, 1995)
31		Kevin Hodson	G	L	1993–94	Winnipeg, Manitoba	first (did not play)
2		Viacheslav Fetisov	D	L	1994–95	Moscow, Soviet Union	second (1995)
3		Bob Rouse	D	R	1994–95	Surrey, British Columbia	second (1995)
4		Jamie Pushor	D	R	1991	Lethbridge, Alberta	first (did not play)
5		Nicklas Lidstrom	D	L	1989	Krylbo, Sweden	second (1995)
11		Mathieu Dandenault	D	R	1994	Sherbrooke, Quebec	first (did not play)
16		Vladimir Konstantinov	D	R	1989	Murmansk, Soviet Union	second (1995)
27		Aaron Ward	D	R	1993–94	Windsor, Ontario	first
55		Larry Murphy	D	R	1996–97	Scarborough, Ontario	third (1991, 1992)
8		Igor Larionov	C	L	1995–96	Voskresensk, Soviet Union	first
13		Vyacheslav Kozlov	LW	L	1990	Voskresensk, Soviet Union	second (1995)
14		Brendan Shanahan – A	LW	R	1996–97	Etobicoke, Ontario	first
15		Tomas Holmstrom	LW	L	1994	Piteå, Sweden	first (did not play)
17		Doug Brown	RW	R	1994–95	Southborough, Massachusetts	second (1995)
18		Kirk Maltby	RW	R	1995–96	Guelph, Ontario	first
19		Steve Yzerman – C	C	R	1983	Burnaby, British Columbia	second (1995)
20		Martin Lapointe	RW	R	1991	Ville St. Pierre, Quebec	second (1995)
25		Darren McCarty	RW	R	1992	Burnaby, British Columbia	second (1995)
26		Joe Kocur	RW	R	1996–97	Kelvington, Saskatchewan	second (1994)
28		Tomas Sandstrom	LW	L	1996–97	Jakobstad, Finland	second (1993)
33		Kris Draper	C	L	1993–94	Toronto, Ontario	second (1995)
37		Tim Taylor	C	L	1993–94	Stratford, Ontario	second (1995) (did not play)
91		Sergei Fedorov – A	C	L	1989	Pskov, Soviet Union	second (1995)

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Acquired	Place of birth	Finals appearance
27		Ron Hextall	G	L	1994–95	Brandon, Manitoba	second (1987)
30		Garth Snow	G	L	1995–96	Wrentham, Massachusetts	first
6		Chris Therien	D	L	1990	Ottawa, Ontario	first
8		Michel Petit	D	R	1996–97	Saint-Malo, Quebec	first
23		Petr Svoboda	D	L	1994–95	Most, Czechoslovakia	third (1986, 1989)
24		Karl Dykhuis	D	L	1994–95	Sept-Îles, Quebec	first
28		Kjell Samuelsson	D	R	1995–96	Tingsryd, Sweden	third (1987, 1992)
37		Eric Desjardins – A	D	R	1994–95	Rouyn, Quebec	third (1989, 1993)
44		Janne Niinimaa	D	L	1993	Raahe, Finland	first
77		Paul Coffey	D	L	1996–97	Weston, Ontario	seventh (1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1995)
9		Dainius Zubrus	LW	L	1996	Elektrėnai, Soviet Union	first
10		John LeClair	LW	L	1994–95	St. Albans, Vermont	second (1993)
15		Pat Falloon	RW	R	1995–96	Foxwarren, Manitoba	first
17		Rod Brind'Amour – A	C	L	1991–92	Ottawa, Ontario	first
18		Dale Hawerchuk	C	L	1995–96	Toronto, Ontario	first
19		Mikael Renberg	RW	L	1990	Piteå, Sweden	first
20		Trent Klatt	RW	R	1995–96	Robbinsdale, Minnesota	first
21		Dan Kordic	LW	L	1990	Edmonton, Alberta	first
25		Shjon Podein	LW	L	1994–95	Rochester, Minnesota	first
26		John Druce	RW	R	1995–96	Peterborough, Ontario	first
29		Joel Otto	C	R	1995–96	Elk River, Minnesota	third (1986, 1989)
32		Daniel Lacroix	LW	L	1996–97	Montreal, Quebec	first
45		Vaclav Prospal	C	L	1993	České Budějovice, Czechoslovakia	first (did not play)
48		Colin Forbes	C	L	1994	New Westminster, British Columbia	first
88		Eric Lindros – C	C	R	1992–93	Toronto, Ontario	first

The 1997 Stanley Cup was presented to Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman following the Red Wings 2–1 win over the Flyers in game four

The following Red Wings players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1996–97 Detroit Red Wings

• Hodson played only six games (dressed for 23 games), but name was included on the Stanley Cup, because he spent majority of the season with Detroit.

Included on the team picture, but left off the Stanley Cup

• #22 Mike Knuble† – played nine regular season games, did not qualify to be engraved on the Stanley Cup. He was left off for playing 68 games in the minors for Adirondack.
• Johnny Remejes† (Dressing Room Asst.), Mike Vella† (Dressing Room Asst). Each of the three members and many other members not listed were awarded Stanley Cup rings.

In Canada, the series was televised on CBC. In the United States, Fox broadcast game one while ESPN televised games two through four. Had the series extended, games five and seven would have been broadcast on Fox, and ESPN would have aired game six.^[3]

On June 13, 1997, just six days after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup, a limousine carrying Vladimir Konstantinov, team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov and Viacheslav Fetisov crashed into a tree after returning from a private party. Konstantinov spent several weeks in a coma and suffered from serious head injuries and paralysis. Fetisov, on the other hand, sustained minor injuries and Mnatsakanov suffered heavy head injuries and a coma. Fetisov continued to play, but Konstantinov did not, as the crash ended his career. The Red Wings successfully returned to the Finals the following year, where they swept the Washington Capitals to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. During the celebration ceremonies after winning the Stanley Cup, Konstantinov was wheeled around the ice with his teammates in his wheelchair with the Cup on his lap.

The Red Wings would also win the Stanley Cup in 2002 and 2008 over the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins respectively.

• 1996–97 NHL season

• Diamond, Dan (2008). 2008 Playoff Media Guide/Total Stanley Cup. NHL.
• Podnieks, Andrew; Hockey Hall of Fame (2004). Lord Stanley's Cup. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-55168-261-7.
• Sports Illustrated Article