Chelios A Red Wing Longer Than Anything Else --- Which No One Expected

Chris Chelios didn't have much use for the NHL's regular season. He wasn't much different from many hockey fans in that regard -- both casual and intense.For it's the post-season that stirs the hockey fan's blood -- and the hockey player's, too."This is the time of year I like the most. I live for this time."The words were Chelios's, and he spoke them to the interloper sitting beside his personal space in the Red Wings' locker room.The interloper was me.The scene was just before the start of the 2007 playoffs. Chelios, then 45, and his teammates had just come off the ice after one of the last practices before the second season was to begin.A bunch of us media types trudged into the dressing room after them, recorders and microphones and notepads in hand. Coat-tailers, all of us, in search of some memorable nugget to write about or talk about before the playoffs got rolling.Chelios was peeling off his gear when I invaded.My query was, "D...