Detroit — The roar was fierce, a reverberation from the attack on Kris Draper 10 months earlier.
The shout of resounding approval from the crowd at Joe Louis Arena rang down like the cry of ancient, resentful hordes, urging retribution against a reviled adversary.
Vengeance is said to belong to the Lord. But in a pivotal episode from one of the greatest rivalries in the history of the NHL — indeed, in all of sport — Darren McCarty laid explicit claim to it.
As McCarty skated with vindictive resolve at Claude Lemieux on March 26, 1997, in the early moments of one of the most riotous hockey brawls of the last 20 years, the 20,066 officially packed into the steeply rising rows issued a fierce exclamation, like some primal battle yell emanating from the guts of the metropolis.