Today marks the end of an era in the NHL.

Steve Yzerman announced his retirement after a 22 year career and weeks of debating whether or not to come back to give it one more shot.

In his press conference, Yzerman said that throughout his career, he felt like he could be the best player on the ice on any given night. At 41 years old, he admitted that feeling wasn’t there anymore and he had given up hope on improving.

Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux (a couple times) and now Yzerman. I watched his press conference and I tried to get emotional and I really tried to reminisce about how Yzerman’s retirement officially puts an end to the glory days of 80’s style hockey.

I felt nothing.

I thought the site of Yzerman holding back tears, the sound of his voice cracking and even seeing Red Wings legends Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay in attendance would really give my tear ducts a workout.

Not a tear was shed.

Why is that? Why didn’t I care? The man is a hockey legend who was the longest serving captain in NHL history. He won three Stanley Cups, one Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP and each time after he hoisted the Cup, you could always count on Stevie Y to pass it to person who deserved it most. Remember the time he skated over to partially paralyzed Vladimir Konstantinov and propped the Cup on his lap? The fans in Detroit and around the hockey world didn’t know whether to cheer or cry.

Yzerman’s announcement deserved at least one tear from me didn’t it?

Maybe it’s because he spent the majority of his career in the shadows. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux dominated hockey in the 80’s and 90’s, while Yzerman quietly put up six consecutive 100+ seasons from 1987-92 and failed to miss the playoffs only twice in his 22 year career. Wayne and Mario had something to say about who would take home Stanley’s Cup in the early years, but Yzerman finally tasted glory in 1997 with the help of Sergie Federov and Mike Vernon’s MVP performance.

Even with his personal accolades, Yzerman failed to impose himself on the hockey world. I can’t remember one endorsement or one TV commercial. I never saw Yzerman pulling away in an oversized truck, smiling at the camera with a cheezy grin and forcing out the words “Build Ford Tough.” Pouring an orangey colored liquid all over his face with the voiceover “Is it in you?”

Never happened.

And this is why I didn’t cry. He wasn’t part of my conscience. He wasn’t part of my everyday life. I rarely saw him play, unless it was in the playoffs and the Canadian media and sponsors didn’t embrace him the way they embraced Gretzky and Messier (how could you forget Messier’s Lay’s “Chip?” commercials)

It didn’t feel like Yzerman was ours.

He’ll go into the Hall of Fame on the first vote, he’ll have his number retired in Detroit probably next year and he’ll have a very prosperous job with the Wings front office for as long as he wants it. But for me, Yzerman’s career was spent in the shadows.

It’s the beginning of a new era.

Posted by Josh Plummer from Vancouver on 07/03/06 at 04:55 PM ET