From the start, Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has preached his desire for a world class organization.

And, in naming Detroit Red Wings icon Steve Yzerman as the first hand-picked GM of his ownership tenure, no one can debate he is off to a flying start.

This morning, the Lightning announced a press conference has been scheduled for 3:00 PM to announce the sixth general manager in franchise history and, for the first time in what has been a very tight-lipped search for a GM all the while, word quickly spread that it will indeed be Yzerman after all.

NHL reporters from multiple outlets confirmed the news, including Rogers Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun and Jeff Marek of the CBC.

While this will be Yzerman’s first GM gig, he was the architect of the Canadian Olympic team that won gold in Vancouver and has been Vice President of hockey operations in Detroit in recent years. Further and perhaps most importantly to fit with the theme that Vinik so desperately wants to institute through all levels of the franchise, both Yzerman’s Hall-of-Fame playing career and his reputation have been widely recognized as world class, no doubt a major reason for his landing on the Lightning’s radar from day one.

With much to prove in the GM ranks and plenty of work to be done with the current Lightning roster, Yzerman has no easy task ahead.

But if a world class individual is who Vinik wanted running the day-to-day operations of his hockey club, it looks like he has his man.

JJ
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Here’s a light-hearted, personal reflection on Yzerman, the player, from a piece I wrote after last year’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony:

Damn You, Yzerman!
November 10th, 2009
Steve Yzerman’s double overtime, game seven goal that ousted the St. Louis Blues from the 1996 playoffs absolutely broke my heart.

It’s not as though I was pulling for St. Louis, however. I just didn’t want that game to end.

Part of it, naturally, was the whole school-the-next-morning thing. The other (more importantly) was the intensity of a scoreless game seven in OT with two goaltenders in Jon Casey for the Blues and Chris Osgood for the Red Wings turning aside chance after chance in highlight reel fashion.

I was fired up. At any given moment, one of these two clubs was going home for the summer (and I was going to bed). Keeping this in mind, as the second extra frame began, I hoped that the game would last forever and thoughts of three, four and five overtime periods crept slowly into my head.

And then, just like that, the moment came.

Yzerman’s near 60-footer tucked under the elbow of the goal behind Casey and down went the Blues. Down went their season, down went that wonderful hockey game and down went my visions of an all-nighter that would surely save me from the tortures of another day of high school in the morning.

Damn you, Yzerman.

I really was angry with him for a long time, as I would have been with whomever scored the eventual game-winner. Years later, though, as I was rummaging through a box of old things at my parents’ house, I came across a box of VHS tapes and remembered my old habit of taping NHL playoff games. Atop the pile was a tape labeled, “Red Wings/Blues: WCSF Game 7, May 16th, 1996 – Yzerman’s 2OT Winner”.

Still have that tape too.

Maybe it’s time to relive that one again (assuming I can get my hands on a functional VCR, that is).

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