There is no farewell tour, but that's by design. He isn't being showered with gifts at every NHL stop, and that too is part of the plan. Nothing, if Steve Yzerman can help it, is going to take away from the focus being on the team, and not himself.
It's slipping away now, Yzerman's playing career, and it has almost morphed into an unspoken acceptance that this is the way it will be, and that's that.
Some, but not many, were surprised when Yzerman, 40, decided to suit up for the Red Wings last fall, after a one-year, lockout-forced layoff. After all, the last, enduring image of the Red Wings' captain was of him holding a bloodied towel to his face May 1, 2004, skating off the ice, taking some of his team's heart with him. The fans' tickers were in their throats. He had been struck by a shot puck, which crushed his eye socket and face something fierce. Lesser players approaching 40 years old would have bowed out gracefully.
Steve Yzerman recovered -- maybe thanks to the lockout, ironically -- and said "yes" to returning to the Red Wings for a 22nd season. He knew his role would be diminished. No longer would he be a top six forward -- maybe not even top nine. He would continue to wear the captain's "C" on his sweater, but the honor was beginning to become titular. Most teams' captains do not sit on the bench for 45 of the 60 minutes played. They are regular, contributing members on their teams. They are not benchwarmers, as Yzerman has become on most nights. But we're not talking most captains here - just one. Yzerman has been the Wings' captain for 19 of his 22 seasons. So if coach Mike Babcock chooses to chain him to the bench, so be it. He's still The Captain.
So when Yzerman, his broken face healed, returned for another season of 80 games and West Coast trips and back-to-back games and meaningless contests against St. Louis in January and Minnesota in February, Red Wings fans looked at one another and gave each other knowing nods: This is probably it for Stevie Y.
And they were right.
He hasn't announced it officially, but some have tried to weasel such a declaration from him. Jim Rome, who makes a lot of money on television and radio for asking such things, said to Yzerman -- who was appearing on Rome's TV show -- "Are you retiring after this season?"
"You know, I got a pretty good idea right now," Yzerman replied, and he noted the rise of young Red Wings like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. "It's time for players such as myself to back off and let them go. I'm getting a sense that it's time to step away and call it a career at some point."
"Is this the point?," Rome asked.
"I've pretty much made up my mind as to what I want to do," Yzerman said. "We're 20 games from the playoffs ... I don't think it's the right time to make any announcement or any decision today or before the season ends."
If you can't read between THEM lines, then you are officially in denial.
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A Steve Yzerman who on most nights lacks his former brilliance and luster, is still better than some of the fakers wearing NHL uniforms today.
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I am almost certain that Yzerman made his decision about his future the moment he agreed to a pay cut to return to the Red Wings last summer. I don't think there was any doubt in his mind that this season would be his last as a player. And it is so typical of him not to make such an announcement before the season, because that would have turned the Red Wings' quest for another Stanley Cup into a circus. Too much emphasis on Yzerman, and not enough on the team. And that's a "no-no" in Stevie's book.
Will Yzerman hoist one more Cup?
There will be -- and those of you looking for a safe wager can take this to the bank -- an almost anti-climactic confirmation at season's end (not long after the playoffs) that this season was Yzerman's own private farewell tour, after all. There will probably be a press conference, and I'm not saying it won't be emotional, but the announcement itself shouldn't slug anyone in the gut.
Watching Yzerman play this season tells me that there is still some hockey left in his tank. For certainly a Steve Yzerman who cannot do all that he once could, a Steve Yzerman who on most nights lacks his former brilliance and luster, is still better than some of the fakers wearing NHL uniforms today. His shifts are short, his face seems to reflect that it's more of a chore now, but there are still moments when it is quite evident why Yzerman is on the Red Wings roster. He'll still score a goal here and there, make the occasional wondrous pass, come from behind an opponent on a backcheck and strip him of the puck. There aren't too many players that can give you all that on a nightly basis.
But time stops for no man, and thus it maddeningly zooms forward. So despite the occasional flashes of greatness, it is best to be honest and admit that not all of Steve Yzerman's skills have moved through the calendar with the rest of his body. It is, frankly, time for him to, as he so richly put it, "back off and let [the younger players] go."
But if you're waiting for a big deal, don't hold your breath. Yzerman came into the league shyer than shy. He was, at one time, an 18 year-old rookie whose name most people in this town couldn't even pronounce properly. He would hardly look at you when he spoke -- which was, in itself, rare indeed. And he will leave with much of that shyness still intact. When he does speak, he does so with authority, if not with panache. He always spoke softly and carried a big hockey stick.
So when he goes, when he steps away from the game that was, at times, his kingdom, Yzerman will not allow us to blow him kisses. He will scoot away -- take a year off, he says -- before returning to the game in a front office capacity. He says he spoke to the Pistons' Joe Dumars about such a strategy.
Its all mapped out. Even if we choose not to follow it. It's called leaving on your own terms. For only the rarest of athletes is it an option.
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