Where Legends Were Born And Dreams Were Made
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Where Legends Were Born And Dreams Were Made

A Tribute to the Joe Louis Arena.

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Where Legends Were Born And Dreams Were Made
Detroit Free Press

This past Sunday, one of the most historic arenas in North America hosted its final NHL game.

The Joe Louis Arena, first opened in 1979, has been the home of the Detroit Red Wings for the last 38 years and seen the worse of times and the best of times for the Original Six franchise. The Red Wings played their first game there on December 27th, 1979.

It saw the "Dead Wings" era of the '80s where the Ilitchs would give away a free car during intermissions to try to draw crowds. It saw the playoff heartbreaks of the 90's when the team so desperately tried to reach the Stanley Cup Finals and win their first Cup since the 50's.

Then there was the infamous blood bath and overtime thriller that saw the Wings finally beat the Avalanche, both physically and on the scoreboard as enforcer Darren McCarty pounded Claude "the Turtle" Lemieux in the neutral zone and then scored the overtime winner in the 6-5 game.

And finally, in June of 1997, it saw the Red Wings bring the Cup back to Detroit, as they won the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 42 years in Hockeytown and all the hard work put in by the players, management and coaching staff finally paid off.

The best part about the Joe wasn't just the games that were won there. It was the players who set foot on the ice. From the Greats like Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe and The Captain, Steve Yzerman, to the most famous pair of enforcers in Joe Kocur and Bob Probert to the Grind Line that featured Kris Draper, Kocur and Kirk Maltby to the Russian Five, the first All-Russian line in the NHL, of the 90's to the Euro Twins, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk of the 2000's to that kid from Waterford named Dylan Larkin who made his debut in 2015 at 19 years old.

And the JLA didn't just host NHL games, it hosted the annual Great Lakes Invitational, featuring NCAA D1 Men's college hockey teams and hosted the Little Caesar's Amateur Hockey League Championship games, allowing youth hockey players to play on the same ice their heroes.

The Joe, as us fans refer to it as, and the Red Wings are what made and will always make Detroit Hockeytown. What the Wings, the Joe and the Illitchs did for youth hockey in Michigan are beyond compare.

I've had the opportunity to skate at the Joe at two different open skates and play hockey there as a part of the Bauer Experience of a Lifetime as well as go on a tour of the locker room and go to four different Red Wings games (they only won one of those games unfortunately...).

It's been a little obvious to those who visit the Joe for quite a number of years that a new arena was probably in the near future. The floors in the arena had a permanent stain on them and were possibly a little sticky. The chairs were beginning to rip a little from the sold out crowds for the last twenty years. And everyone said there was some kind of weird smell, but once you were in there, experiencing the atmosphere that makes Detroit Hockeytown, you didn't care and you didn't notice any of it.

And when you step foot on that ice, you don't care because you're in awe of the fact that you are, in fact, skating on the ice that Steve Yzerman, Niklas Lidstrom and Gordie Howe all skated on and when you're at center ice standing on the winged wheel logo is and you realize you're standing where Steve Yzerman hoisted the Stanley Cup, none of those little faults are even in the back of your head.

In the basement of the Joe, outside the Olympia Room, there names of the entire team and team staff of each Stanley Cup winning team are painted and the Olympia room is filled with the memories of years past. In the entryway to the locker room, there's photos of the greats who once set foot in that very locker room and built their legacies at the Joe.

The Joe is the only arena Red Wings fans under the age of 40 have ever known. It's the rink little boys and girls across Michigan all dreamed of playing at one day.

And it's the place where Justin Abdelkader and Dylan Larkin both grew up watching NHL games.

Abdelkader, a forward from Muskegon, Michigan, played his youth hockey in Michigan before heading out west to play junior hockey in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 2005, he was drafted 42nd overall. He returned to the Mitten to play collegiate hockey at Michigan State. He played in three Great Lakes Invitation tournaments at the Joe as a member of the Spartans, playing in the championship game all three season and finishing first in his freshman year.

Abdelkader played for three seasons at Michigan State, which included scoring the game-winning goal in the National Championship game with 18 seconds left in a tie game. He was signed to a tryout contract in April of 2008 and played in the playoffs for the Wings and then signed a three-year entry-level deal. He was on the ice for the 2008 Stanley Cup victory, which could probably only be described as a dream come true for a Michigan native.

Dylan Larkin, a forward from Waterford, Michigan, grew up playing youth hockey around the Metro Detroit area. To add to the fairytale that his story would become, he spent two seasons with the United States National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, forty-five minutes from Detroit. In 2014, he was drafted 15th overall by the Wings. I remember watching him with the NTDP and can still remember seeing the look on his face when he pulled the Wings jersey on while on the stage at the draft, it was incredible.

Larkin stayed put in Ann Arbor for the 2014-15 season at the University of Michigan. His freshman year, he put up an average of 1.43 points per game, enough to earn him the best in 60 years for a freshman. He and the Wolverines won the Great Lakes Invitational at the Joe that season.

In May of 2015, he signed a three-year entry-level deal with Detroit and joined their AHL affiliate for the remainder of the season in Grand Rapids.

He made the pre-season roster and impressed the coaching staff and management enough to become the youngest player since Steve Yzerman to make his debut in a Red Wings sweater on opening night at the JLA where he would score a highlight reel first NHL goal in front of a packed JLA, just like he had probably dreamed of since he was just a kid from Waterford.

As warm-ups ended for the last time on Sunday, the two Michigan natives were the final two on the ice.

That is what the Joe has done for hockey in Michigan.

We've all seen the renderings of what the new arena, Little Caesar's Arena, is supposed to look like, all of the new fancy features it will have. It will be state of the art, probably the nicest rink in the NHL.

But it will never be the Joe.

The entire day on Sunday was spent by Red Wings fans all over the place watching on TV or social media as we said goodbye to the Joe as they hosted the final NHL game against the Devils.

They went out with a bang, a 4-1 win that featured Riley Sheahan score his first goal in a year to kick things off and then score the final goal in JLA history to close things out.

Prior to the game, alumni and current players all arrived on a red carpet outside the arena. It was only fitting when the widow of the late Bob Probert brought his ashes with her to spread in the penalty box, where her late husband spent more than his fair share of time at the Joe.

And after the game, fans were treated to a ceremony featuring the greats. Scotty Bowman and, of course, Stevie Y spoke along with members of the team of the glory days in the 90's and 2000's and the crowd sang along to Don't Stop Believin' one last time, which was a pretty fitting anthem for the Detroit team.

And for the closing ceremony, it was only fitting that The Captain was the final one to walk off of that hallowed ice surface.

In the next few months, the Joe will be no more. But the memories and legends that were born there will never die.


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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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