During Sergei Fedorov's jersey retirement ceremony earlier this week, a young Detroit Red Wings player—someone born long after the banners went up, long after Joe Louis Arena fell silent—looked across the ice and asked head coach Todd McLellan a simple, innocent question:
“Who’s the guy in the wheelchair?”
Not out of disrespect. Not out of indifference. Out of honesty.
And in that moment, the weight of Red Wings history showed itself in a way no stat line ever could. Because the guy in the wheelchair is Vladimir Konstantinov.