Yzerman: 'I just feel really lucky'

Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

Toronto -- Here is the combined resume of the four players -- three of them former Red Wings -- being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame tonight.

Seven Stanley Cups, 34 All-Star appearances, 2,348 goals, 5,518 points, two Conn Smythe trophies, two Lester B. Pearson trophies, two Norris trophies, two Calder trophies, a Lady Byng, Selke, Hart and a Masterton.

As Jimmy Gregory, chairman of the Hall of Fame selection committee said at the ring ceremony honoring Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Brian Leetch and long-time New Jersey Devils boss Lou Lamoriello (add three more Cups to the total), this may be the most radiant class of inductees in the Hall of Fame's storied history.

"I just feel really lucky," Yzerman said. "Mr. (Mike ) Ilitch bought the team in 1982 and I was drafted in 1983 and we were able to build a team that eventually won a bunch of Stanley Cups. I was just real fortunate to play with such great players, with great coaches and for an ownership group that insisted on and demanded winning."

As you would expect, given that Yzerman, Hull and Robitaille were on the team, there was a lot of talk about the 2002 Stanley Cup championship team in Detroit at the ring ceremony.

"Playing with Stevie and Luc in Detroit was tremendous," Hull said. "I played a lot against them, especially Stevie being in the same division all those years I was in St. Louis. But knowing what he was on the ice and getting to know him and learning what he was all about off the ice, really showed why he was considered one of the greatest leaders in all of sports."

That 2002 team was coached by a hall-of-famer (Scotty Bowman), built by a future hall-of-famer (Ken Holland), and propelled by hall-of-famer Igor Larionov, the three new inductees plus future hall-of-famers Brendan Shanahan, Dominic Hasek, Nick Lidstrom, Chris Chelios and perhaps Sergei Fedorov.

The fourth line that year was Tomas Holmstrom, Larionov and Robitaille -- arguably the best fourth line in the history of the NHL.

"It was ridiculous how many hall-of-fame caliber players that were there," Hull said. "But the greatest thing was how everyone just put their egos aside and played the game. We just really enjoyed playing the game together. I mean to have 600 goals from Shanny, 700 from me, 600 from Robitaille and 600 from Stevie and nobody complained about getting the puck or scoring goals."

Yzerman has been given a lot of credit for keeping the egos in check on that team, but both he and Hull said it went deeper than that.

"It was just the blueprint," Hull said. "When you walked in that door, you checked your ego and played the game. You watched Stevie on the ice and off the ice, playing the game the way Scotty wanted us to play. I mean, it was just a matter of fact that that was the way you were going to do it. If not, you got the boot."

Said Yzerman: "We didn't look at it like that. I mean, we didn't sit around the room admiring each other's careers. We just really had a lot of fun. We all played on different lines. We were all given roles and we all played less than we'd been accustomed to in other situations. But everybody had fun with it."

Yzerman has quite a posse with him -- his parents, his wife and her parents, his three brothers and his sister, his wife's two brothers, some nieces and a nephew and handful of friends from inside and outside hockey.

"A great preparation for this was when they retired my jersey," Yzerman said. "That was kind of stressful for me going into it, but I really enjoyed those couple of days and appreciated the ceremony so much. This is similar. I am more comfortable being here and I'm able to enjoy it and not worry about everything going perfectly."