His work finished and his body spent, Mike Green skated toward the visitor’s bench at Verizon Center, pulled up along the boards and lurched forward, leaning on the butt of his stick. There, a Detroit Red Wings staffer met him with a simple request: Would he mind stopping for a moment to take a photo, right there in the arena that fostered the first decade of Green’s professional career?
Green obliged, taking a few strides to his right for what would likely be one of many such moments over the coming hours. Once assistant coach Tony Granato opened the camera application on the iPhone and steadied his hands, the two men paused and smiled.