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McCarty Wonders Whether Lemieux Will Go Him Again - November 28, 1997 - Volume 51, Issue 12 - Cynthia Lambert

The ugliness between the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche may never end. More specifically, Darren McCarty will not let it die.

McCarty, who pounded Colorado’s Claude Lemieux bloody during the March 26 game last season in retaliation for Lemieux’s behind the back hit on Kris Draper during the playoffs the season before, was more than willing to go with Lemieux again during the Nov. 11 rematch between the teams.

Lemieux started the fight, but McCarty did his fair share to provoke Lemieux through what he said before the first drop of the puck in that game.“

I told him he was still gutless,” McCarty said. “And I had no respect for him.”As referee Mark Faucette dropped the puck, the players dropped their gloves.

“I have to respect him for what he did,” McCarty said. “But I don’t respect him as a person. In my mind he’s still an idiot because he has never apologized to Drapes. In my mind, he’s not worth anything.”

McCarty also believed he got the better of Lemieux in the fight. (See pg. 16 for Lemieux’s prespective on the fight.)

“Go ahead and look at him,” McCarty said. “His face is going to be black and blue. I got him good and he might have landed two or three to me. Like I said, I respect him for doing what he did, but he did it once. Will he do it a second time? How about a third, or a fourth? No way.

”NOTEBOOK: Center Steve Yzerman’s two goals in Detroit’s 4-2 win over Ottawa on Nov. 13 were his first in seven games. Though he is not counted on for the bulk of Detroit’s offense anymore, he said it was good to get a couple.

“The objective is still to try and score goals,” Yzerman said. “I’m relieved or pleased a bit to score these.”

…In a private ceremony, the Red Wings received their Stanley Cup rings Nov. 8.

The ring, which has at its center the winged wheel, is yellow gold with about four and a half carats of diamonds.

“It’s really a classy ring,” said right winger Martin Lapointe.

Injured defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov also attended the ring presentation, as did injured team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov.