Detroit fans get their wish -- Lemieux bleeds

Detroit fans get their wish -- Lemieux bleeds
By Jim Iovino, Ace Reporter

Payback's a bitch, and Claude Lemieux's got the stitches to show for it.
Lemieux returned to the Joe Louis Arena for the first time since he cross-checked Detroit's Kris Draper from behind into the boards during the Stanley Cup Semi-finals last season. And as the Red Wings promised, Lemieux received the just punishment that all Detroit fans thought he deserved for causing serious facial injuries to Draper.
It wasn't Draper who got Lemieux back for the incident, however. The newest hero in Detroit is Darren McCarty, who pounded Lemieux first into the ice and then into the boards during the first period of the Red Wings' 6-5 overtime win, causing "Pepe" to leave the game and get 12 stitches sewn into the back of his head.
The excitement started before the teams even took the ice. Threats were reportedly called in against Lemieux, so the Avalanche received a police escort on their arrival at the arena. But for the first 18 minutes of the hockey game, all seemed quiet as the two teams played controlled, playoff-style hockey. But with 1:38 left in the period and the Avalanche leading 1-0, Igor Larionov and Peter Forsberg began pawing at each other along the boards. And as soon as the two unlikely scrappers fell to the ice, all hell broke loose.
Almost all of the skaters on the ice gathered around the two and started squaring off with one another. But notice I said almost all of the skaters. There were two more players at center ice -- a pair that every fan's eyes in the rink turned to Detroit enforcer Darren McCarty and the most hated man in hockey, Claude Lemieux. McCarty was not about to miss his opportunity.
As McCarty circled in on his prey at center ice, Lemieux did his best impersonation of a turtle. But he should have just shaved his head and painted a bulls eye on it, because Lemieux's melon was McCarty's target, and there was no way he was going to miss.
McCarty started landing blow after blow on the back and sides of Lemieux's head. And this is where the wackiness starts. Seeing that Lemieux was getting hammered and needed protection, Patrick Roy darted from his crease to center ice. But before he could reach his fallen teammate, Brendan Shanahan took a flying leap at Roy and dragged him down to the ice.
Because Roy left his crease, Mike Vernon decided to join the fracas. He met up with Roy, Shanahan and Adam Foote at center ice. The two goalies soon locked horns and bets were placed. While most money was riding on Roy, because he's, like, a mythical god or something, but it was Vernon who looked more like the heavyweight champ, ripping off Roy's jersey and cutting St. Patrick over the right eye with a left jab.
But, ladies and gentlemen, that was just the undercard bout. While all of that was going center stage, McCarty was still pumping away on Lemieux's head. By now Lemieux, who was still posing as a turtle, had been dragged to the boards right in front of the Detroit bench. While video replays were inconclusive, it seems that Lemieux cut the back of his head open when McCarty slammed it against the boards. But of course, by the number of times McCarty pounded Lemieux's head, there were plenty of opportunities for Lemieux to bleed.
When the donnybrook finally settled down enough for the referee to dish out penalties, Lemieux had left the ice to get stitched up. But remnants of his presence could still be seen. A puddle of his blood stained the ice and boards below the Wings bench.
But the intensity didn't end when Lemieux left the ice. Just 15 seconds after play resumed, Adam Deadmarsh and Vladimir Konstantinov dropped the gloves. Even when the period ended, the action didn't stop. Four seconds into the second period, Brendan Shanahan and Adam Foote reunited in another tussle. As the period went on, the tempers didn't subside. Severyn vs. Ward, Keane vs. Holmstrom, Deadmarsh vs. McCarty, Krupp vs. Pushor, etc...
To his credit, Lemieux did come back to the game. The man just doesn't know when to quit. That's one reason why he is such a marked man. He returned to the ice about two minutes into the second period with the Avs on a power play, and he took a regular shift the rest of the game and even chalked up an assist. Lemieux took some more hard hits throughout the final two periods, but he dished some out as well.
The Red Wings might have gotten revenge, and they might have won the game, but Lemieux showed Detroit and the rest of the hockey world that you can beat him down and knock him out, but sooner or later "Lemieux the Bad" be back and as annoying as ever.
And payback will probably be right around the corner.