Carter Mazur still remembers the shift -- who could forget it? He was seven years old, the Red Wings were a game away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Final, and Darren Helm picked up the puck short-handed and raced into the Blackhawks' zone. He didn't relinquish it until the penalty was over and Joe Louis Arena was roaring, 30 seconds that will last forever in Red Wings lore.
In school the next year, Mazur drew his dream in crayon and pencil, "that I could be an NHL hockey player on the Detroit Red Wings. And give money to the poor and hospitals." On Thursday night, the 22-year-old from Jackson, MI will make his Red Wings debut, wearing No. 43 in honor of "my favorite player Darren Helm."
"Everyone loved Pavel Datsyuk and all the skill guys," Mazur said with a smile, "but in the playoffs he had that one penalty kill that really stood out to me. I don’t know why, but I took a liking to that and just fell in love with him."
Helm, 22 at the time himself, went on to score the overtime winner that night to send the Wings to the 2009 Cup Final. He'd play 14 years for the team as one of its heart-and-soul players. A few months after Helm's final season in Detroit, the Red Wings drafted Mazur. And Helm, Mazur said, "was the first person to call me."
The person calling Mazur on Wednesday was Steve Yzerman. Three times, in fact, while Mazur was napping. And with the trade deadline looming, "it's kind of a bad time to get a phone call from Steve," Mazur laughed. "Waking up I’m like, did I get traded?" Mazur quickly called Yzerman back and learned that he got promoted.
"Thought I was still dreaming," he said, "but it’s pretty awesome that it’s real."
The race is real for the Red Wings, who are trying to snap a franchise-worst eight-year playoff drought. They collapsed on this lap the last two years. After they lost their third game in a row Tuesday night, head coach Todd McLellan said it looked like they were skating in mud. He said their legs looked tired and their game lacked pop. McLellan doesn't know Mazur well, having just joined the Red Wings organization, but he does know this: "He has a tenacity to his game."
"That ingredient is something we could use right now," he said.
"I love to battle," said Mazur. "Detroit’s a gritty city, too, so I think that’s something I can add to this team."
Mazur impressed the Red Wings in training camp and nearly made the team under Derek Lalonde. Then an upper-body injury in October cost him four months. He was searching for his game when he first returned. He has found it, with seven goals and 11 points in his last 11 games for Grand Rapids. The winger is not just a grinder.
Mazur has an edge, and a nose for the net. He brings "pace and intensity," said McLellan, and "really competes for open ice." He brings Darren Helm, with a little more size and a little more skill. Mazur does see parts of himself in Helm, "a little bit of the speed, the penalty killing, but I want to be my own player here," he said.
"I want to make my own name, for sure, and just be Carter Mazur."
That's all the Red Wings are asking him to be. He will start on the fourth line, "and hopefully he can provide a little spark," said McLellan. "But there are some other players that have to find their own internal spark, too." Mazur isn't here to save the day, or to play a major role right away like defenseman Simon Edvinsson did when he arrived last March. But he can force his way into one.
"This wasn’t just a, 'Hey, bring him up and let’s see what we have,'" McLellan said. "He’s earned the opportunity. He’s overcome the injury, now he’s got his legs underneath him in the American League, began to produce some points, which at that level we expect from him. A lot of the things he’s done down there, he’s promoted his own game to the people that make the decisions. He’s ready, it’s time."
Mazur has traits the Red Wings' forwards are missing. He has an attitude they need. He has a style suited to the cramped, tight-checking games they will have to win down the stretch, when a battle here or a body there is often the difference. He's missing two front teeth, and his dad decided two and a half years ago that he wouldn't shave his beard until his son made his NHL debut. Maybe he should keep it for the playoffs.
"Growing up a Red Wings fan and seeing how much they’ve won and how much the fans really love the playoffs, it’s something that I hope I can be a part of," Mazur said. "It’s pretty awesome to join a team in the push that they’re in right now."
On Thursday morning, Mazur's mom sent him the picture of his drawing from 15 years ago. As he sat in his stall in the Red Wings locker room, he was asked what that eight-year-old would say if he could see him today, what might be going through his head. Mazur grinned his toothless smile and said, "Man, he’s as proud as he can be."
"It’s just a lifelong dream, and it’s finally coming true.”