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Mccarty Cancer Foundation

Picture this: On June 7, 1997, champagne drips from the ceiling of the Red Wings locker room. A few feet away from the Stanley Cup, Craig McCarty stands proudly next to his hockey-playing son, Darren, and Craig's dress shirt is soaked after a sweaty embrace. Smiles? As big as the world

For the McCarty family, the current of life, and death, always has run through hockey rinks, big and small, far and near. At hand now, in these Stanley Cup finals, is an opportunity for the cycle to begin anew.

"It's something to share," Darren McCarty says. "It's what the Stanley Cup's all about?'

Sitting on a bench outside Joe Louis Arena during the finals, McCarty admitted he has thought about what it would mean this spring, not just for him, but for his family, to once again raise the Cup.

"I was just saying to my wife (a win) this year would be really cool" says McCarty, 30.

McCarty's son, Griffin, was a year old when the Red Wings hoisted the Stanley Cup five years ago. McCarty's daughter, Emerson, now 4, was not yet born. Ditto daughter Avery, who will be 2 in October. As you can see, more sharing of the Cup is on the line.

"All those times that Craig and I said, `Wait until you have kids of your own.' That's playing out in his life now,," says McCarty's mother, Roberta.

Of all the Red Wings battling the Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup finals, few have a better perspective on success, loss and all that passes between than McCarty.

A stubborn child, McCarty refused in his first youth hockey season to wear the garter belt required to keep his socks in place.

Just because.

So Craig put the equipment away until Darren agreed to wear the garter belt, which was one season later.

Before hockey took him away from home, McCarty worked at his father's refrigeration and air conditioning business. Again, stubborn met stubborn. More than once, father fired son.

Now McCarty sometimes feels his dad's shadow as he faces his own challenges as a father. "Sometimes it's the things that I didn't like, and (I) try and change them," he says.

Despite being saddled with an awkward skating stride, McCarty was determined to play competitive hockey. His parents were concerned he would be embarrassed by better players and thought about holding him back, but they worried they might regret it. So they let him play.

McCarty got his chance when he played three seasons of major junior for the Ontario Hockey League's Belleville Bulls and was an All-Star in his final year after scoring a league-leading 55 goals. It was in Belleville that he met his future wife, Cheryl, and her family.

"They practically raised me when I was there. They fed me, clothed me" McCarty says. Even now, they remain a strong influence in his life, a second family to share a Cup with.

McCarty's Cup quests began when the Red Wings made him their second pick, 46th overall, in the 1992 draft.

Five years later, he would score the Stanley Cupwinning goal, ending a 42-year drought in Motown and establishing himself as a local hero for his rugged, uncompromising play. When the Wings added a second Cup a year later, McCarty was a key contributor and had 11 postseason points.

He earned those two Cup rings and the adoration that accompanied them while waging a personal war against alcoholism, a battle he still fights today. At the same time, his father was engaging another enemy--multiple myeloma, a rare form of bone cancer diagnosed in January 1996.

Father and son agreed they would embrace these challenges together. And they did, becoming close friends after spending much of their lives as stubborn adversaries.

By the time the Wings were preparing for their Cup runs, Craig McCarty was a fixture in the Red Wings' dressing room, developing strong ties with his son's teammates, coach Scotty Bowman and the arena staff. Sometimes he would be too weak to climb up to his seat, so he watched the games from the Zamboni entrance.

He was, in many ways, part of the team.

"I don't think you're off by saying that," says former teammate and current close friend of the McCarty family, Aaron Ward, now a member of the Hurricanes. "I wouldn't call what he was going through a journey, but it was obviously a challenge. And outside of guys rallying around Mac, we rallied around Craig also. It's a tough situation. You're in a locker room, it's a family atmosphere, guys are aware of what's going on:'

"He was part of our family, and we were part of his" Wings associate coach Barry Smith of says of Craig. "He was a very positive person going through what he was going through."

As a 1997 Father's Day gift, Darren established the McCarty Cancer Foundation, which raises funds for cancer research and provides a forum for those suffering from multiple myeloma to share information, stories and hope. To date, the foundation has raised $2 million.

A year later, Craig returned the favor, giving his son a long, heartfelt letter that became a short book, Rinkside: A Family's Story of Courage and Inspiration.

"I wanted to give Darren something that he couldn't go out and buy" Craig said at the time.

In the book, Craig recounted watching Darren take his turn in the dressing room with the Cup in '97.

"The rest of the team was still celebrating when Darren took his turn to drink from the Cup," Craig wrote. "Darren poured the existing liquor (champagne) out onto the carpet and poured in a soft drink. I then knew he was going to be able to take care of his family. This made me the proudest parent in the room"

A little more than two years later--on November 24, 1999--Craig McCarty lost his battle with cancer.

"Craig accomplished more in those years than a lot of people do in a lifetime," Roberta says.

"As you got to know Mac--as we got to know Craig--you saw the type of bond they had" Ward says.

Once again, McCarty and the Red Wings are on the verge.

The three-year absence from the finals seems longer for McCarty. In 1999-2000, he missed all but 24 games with a spate of injuries. This season, he played in only 62 for the same reasons. Rumors floated that McCarty would be traded.

"He's done a great job handling it" Smith says.

McCarty hopes to spend the rest of his career in Detroit, and he has played with with renewed vigor in these playoffs. Through Game 3 of the finals he had four goals and four assists after finishing the season with five goals and seven assists. Smith says the playoffs have been a "second life" for McCarty.

Along with the intense excitement that comes from being so close to sharing another Cup, McCarty is keenly aware of the gap in his life this time around.

"He was part of being here" McCarty says of his father. "I'm really sad about it."

At the same time, there is no sense of regret about unfinished business. "We knew it was coming and everything was said," McCarty says. "I've always tried to play the same way. No regrets:'

Picture this: On May 18, 2002, Darren McCarty scores a natural hat trick against Colorado in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, a series many think is for the Stanley Cup. As he comes off the ice after the game his son, Griffin, 6, is in the hallway leading to that familiar dressing room. His father leans over and soon Griffin's little Wings jersey becomes damp from a sweaty embrace. Smiles? Oh, yeah.

Grind Line to the rescue

Darren McCarty's Grind Line is getting it done for the red Wings this postseason, but that's nothing new. On a team that has seen its fair share of changes over the years, the gritty line has stuck together through thick and thin.

Ever since coach Scotty Bowman put McCarty on a line with Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper more than three years ago--McCarty replaced original Grinder Joey Kocur--the trio has formed a high-energy unit that has delighted fans with its persistence.

None of the three ever has scored 20 goals in a season, yet once the playoffs roll around, Bowman relies on them for crucial goals and hard-nosed play.

Through Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals, the Grind Line had scored 19 points--just under 11 percent, of Detroit's 175 postseason points. The line provided 9 percent of the team's points during the regular season.

"They are tough to play against," Bowman says. "They bring a lot of ingredients that you want ot a line, and they obviously have chemistry."

Teammate Brett Hull calls them the team's foundation.

"I think we're comfortable with each other," Maltby says. "The coaches are showing some confidence in putting us out there. It's just something we thrive on, getting a chance to go out there and play against some of the other teams' top lines."--S.B.

Scott Burnside is a free-lance writer based in Toronto.

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