Close Encounters of the Best Kind

Date: September 9, 1998
From: Sharon

I went ice skating with my 2 best friends at Troy Sports Center. It is a brand new sports complex with 3 ice rinks and 1 indoor soccer rink. They have hockey and figure skating programs there. The Center hosts Victor Fedorov's (father of Sergei Fedorov, Red Wings' superstar ) Russian-American School of Hockey, and Red Wing head trainer John Wharton has a training facility on the upper level. It's a really nice place, and during the day on week days, there's hardly anyone there.

We (My friends & I, and and my little brother and sister) went in the back door. My mom was still getting the baby out of the car. My little bro and sisran ahead of me to the end of the hallway. Just as they stopped, a very tall hockey player in full uniform ( we later found out he was one of the Detroit Vipers, an IHL team) walked right in front of my little sis. He was about 7 feet tall with his skates on. She stared in awe for a moment, and then turned to me, pointed up, and said, "Look at that! " He laughed, and we laughed, and we all came into the center area, where the concession stand is. I glanced over towards one of the rinks, and recognized Mike Krushelnyski, who was an assistant coach for the Wings in 1997. I went over to say hi to him, and then I looked into the rink he was watching, and got the shock of my life. About 20 feet in front of me was Kris Draper!!! He is a Detroit Red Wings center, a good player, and he's very cool. I shrieked and ran back to my friends. They finally figured out that I was trying to say that the Red Wings were here, and then all three of us had heart attacks. We knew the Wings practiced here sometimes, but I never thought I'd actually see them!!!!

When my mom came in, she somehow understood what was going on, even though we were practically speechless. She told us to go on in, so we did, and sat down on the bleachers. We were essentially the only spectators there!! When my little sis came in, the first person she saw was Wings back-up goalie Kevin Hodson, who was in net right in front of us wearing red & white head-to-toe. She stood on the bench, bounced on her toes, and yelled at the top of her voice, "Hey! It's Ozzie! Hi Ozzie!!" It wasn't Ozzie (Chris Osgood, star goalie) but Kevin waved to her, which caused me to have a second heart attack. I was basically hyperventilating, but I was sane enough to identify (because my mom doesn't know all of them by sight) Draper, Hodson, Kirk Maltby, Joey Kocur, Marty Lapointe, Chris Osgood, Anders Eriksson, Nick Lidstrom, Aaron Ward, Doug Brown, Larry Murphy, Mathieu Dandenault, and Slava Kozlov, all prominent Red Wings players. Murphy and Kozlov left for the locker room just a few minutes after we arrived, but the rest continued playing for about 20 minutes. We figured out that they were playing a scrimmage game with some of the Vipers (IHL).

My mom took the little ones and walked to the store next door to buy a disposable camera and a permanent marker. I took off my Stanleytown T-shirt (I had a sweatshirt on too). Before my mom got back, I was able to get with a borrowed marker the autographs of Marty Lapointe and Anders Eriksson. I could also see Kozzie (Slava Kozlov) standing up in the glassed-in balcony of the Training Room, watching the practice. I waved to him, and he smiled and waved back at me!!!! When Chris Osgood came off the ice, he was having problems signing autographs and hanging on to his gloves, so he handed them to me ( I was right beside him because he had just posed for a picture with me) and asked me to put them on the floor just inside the locker room. Well I did, but I also tried on the catching glove, and it was HUGE!!!

When all the players had left the ice, we went into the lobby to wait for them to come out of the locker room. I was standing at the end of the hall, watching the locker room door. Doug Brown poked his head out the door and stared at me. Then he pulled it back in, and a second later sprinted desperately across the hall and into the employees-only stairwell. I had called out when I saw him first, and everyone (there were about 10 other fans by this time) stared after him. Then someone said, " I told you he was sneaky " and suggested we move down and stand right outside the door to catch them when they came out. These are all public areas in the Sports Center. So we did, and I got autographs and had my picture taken with Draper, Kocur, Lapointe, Ward, Dandenault, and former Wing Bob Probert, who was also there. Blessing got in the picture with Aaron Ward, and Baby Majesty was in the picture with Mathieu Dandenault . Dandenault said, "Cute baby!"

When Eriksson and Lidstrom came out of the locker room, they made a mad dash down the hall to the elevator, and we all trailed after them. Some alert fan planted herself against the elevator door so it couldn't close, and everyone was holding their stuff up in front of the guys's faces. When she finally moved, Nick still had someone's pen, and so he was holding it out asking whose it was. Eriksson had been holding down the button that was keeping the door open, but now he was gazing at the ceiling. The elevator door started to slide shut, and everyone screamed, "It's going to crush his hand!!" Since I was the nearest person, I risked life and limb by slamming it back with my hand as Nick snatched his out of the way.

We finally decided to go skate, and went out on the ice. I noticed that this person I had been wondering about was watching the three of us and our pitiful attempts to skate, and so when he left, I asked the person he was with about him, and he confirmed my suspicions; it was indeed Fedor Fedorov, Sergei's 17 year old younger brother, who is going to play for the Vipers this season. I grabbed my camera, and we all three stumbled after him, trying to run with our skates on. We just missed him, as he left the building. We went back towards the lobby , and I turned around to see Lidstrom and Eriksson leaving the elevator and going back into the locker room. I decided my blister was too painful to skate anymore, so I took off my skates, and waited outside the locker room for them to come out.

The door opened and many people came out, but not who I was waiting for. Finally they appeared, and I got my autographs, and then I realized that there was no one to take my picture with them. My friends were skating and my mom was in the lobby with the babies. So Eriksson took the picture of me with Lidstrom. In fact Nick and I even had an argument about the flash button!! (I was right) Then Nick took the picture of me with Eriksson. I was in my sock-feet! I also got a picture of the little ones with Nicklas Lidstrom and Anders Eriksson.

I did eventually get a picture of Fedor Fedorov, who was running around trying to find someone with jumper cables because his car's battery was dead. At one point my little sister walked up to Fedor and said, "Hi, Sergei Fedorov." (because they look very much alike.) She was very excited to see all the players, and several times she came up to me and said, "Look, Joey Kocur!" or "There's Malts!" She can correctly identify many of the players when I show her pictures, and several times she asked me where Steve Yzerman was.

All the players were so very nice. They were so friendly and awesomely sweet to complete strangers who are frenziedly interrupting a quiet practice day. They were happy to have us there.

This was the most exciting day of my life!!!!!! I still can't believe it happened to me!!!!!!!

Date: November 23, 1999
From: Sharon

Today I had ANOTHER encounter with Red Wings!!

A friend of ours knew about a Red Wings practice at the Troy Sports Center, and she invited 2 of my brothers to go. My other brother Steve and I were dying to go, but we had already agreed to babysit for someone. But at the last minute my mom figured out thet if the lady dropped us off at TSC instead of at home, we would only miss about half an hour of the practice. So Steve and I showed up at about 11:45 am. As we drove into the back parking lot, I saw Steve Yzerman's Porsche!!! I was so excited, because he's my absolute favourite!!!

We were able to see about 15 minutes of the practice. It was lots of fun, because the players were loose and relaxed. I was so excited I tought I would faint because ALL the players were there!! Steve Yzerman!!! Brendan Shanahan!!!!!! Chris Chelios, Kris Draper, Chris Osgood, Marty Lapointe, Kozlov, Larionov, even the new guys, Steve Duchesne and Pat Verbeek.

Brendan Shanahan skated over and stopped right in front of where I was crouching by the boards (trying to get good pics). I banged on the glass, and he turned around and gave me the most ferocious glare!! I just about died of fright, he looked so intimidating, just like during games.I was thinking, "Oh no he's going to burst through the boards and kill me." I was petrified with terror! But then he burst out laughing, tapped his stick on the glass, and winked at me. I guess I must have looked as terrified as I felt!

I stayed down by the boards for the rest of the practice. It was soooo exciting to see the superstars up close! But at noon I slipped out to get a good spot for autographs. There was about 20 people bunched up at the end of the hall which is always closed off since it's where the players come in and out from the parking lot and the Training Room. As the players started leaving the ice, more and more people were pouring out of the arena, so it's good I left when I did.

We all waited for someone to come out of the locker room. Pat Verbeek came out and sat on a chair to try on skates. But I don't think anyone recognized him (at the time, he had just been acquired from the Dallas Stars) since they didn't scream at him to come sign.

Slava Kozlov came out all dressed and came down the hall towards all the screaming fanatics, which was very nice of him. He signed and signed! Once the people in front got their stuff signed, they started passing forward stuff from those of us who were further back, which was extrememly nice of them.

A bunch of people left after Koz did, and one lady gave me her spot at the very front, so i collected stuff from all my friends to be signed if anyone else came out. I saw Lidstrom. Larionov, and some others driving out of the parking lot, and Chelios left the locker room and went upstairs. Marty Lapointe came out and began trying on skates. He was going to go back in the locker room when he finished, but everyone screamed at him, so he came down and started to sign. He signed for a long time. I got my book signed, and some of my friends' stuff. He was really nice.

The only bad part was right at the beginning: one of the first things he signed was someone's stick. As he was passing it back, he accidently jabbed me in the side with it! I was like, "Oomph," and he apoligized all over the place. It didn't hurt to bad at the time, but no it's really aching!!

After Marty left, this security guy came and told us that hardly anyone was left in the locker room, so most of the rest of the fans left. There was about 20-30 of us left. Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan came out and walked toward the exit. There was this little boy, probably about 3, in a wheel chair waiting with his dad by the door. Steve and Shanny knelt down by him and signed his stuff and talked to him for a while before the left. What nice guys!!

The staircase door opened, and Mathieu Dandenault emerged. The other 2 times I've met him, he was one of the nicest of all the players.Everyone yelled for him to come sign, and he said, "Awwww you guys don'twant my autograph do you?? And of course we go "YESSSSSS" so he came down and started signing.

When Marty was signing, this lady in back had passed her jersey to me to get signed, and I was still holding it, so I gave it to Mathieu to sign and then I passed it back. When the lady got it, she shreked something along the linmes of "OOOH OOOH OH OH O H I CAN"T BELIEVE IT I"M GOING TO DIE RED WINGS AUTOGRAPHS OH OH OH!!!" He looked up, winked at me, and squealed "oooooooooo autographs" in a falsetto, and everyone cracked up.

I was still just watching him sign, because I was hoping to get a picture with him before he left. Suddenly my friend's sister Genna appeared beside him (we were all still behind a rope) and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and she said "Excuse me, would you sign my brother's stick?" Everyone was frozen for a minute, except for Genna, who just stood there placidly looking at him, and Dandy, who went on signing. Then Kami behind me says, "Hey ! That's Genna" and I said, "Genna, smile!"and snapped a picture! Then everyone else came to life and screamed, "How did you get there?!?"

Mathieu was so nice!! He signed and signed and signed, everyhting that was put in front of him. Before he left, he said, "OK, is that everyone? Anyone else need an autograph? Anyone else want a picture?" Then he shook hands with everyone and patted all the little kids heads.

This day was very exciting!!!! I got to see all my favourites!!! Something that made it especially exciting was Sergei Fedorov NOT being there!! I can't stand him, cause he is rude and conceited. All the players were so nice, and it was fun to see the scrimmages and drills!!