"It's not just Tomas Holmstrom who is on the verge of playing in his 1,000th career game Friday. It's a milestone for the hidden relics of his 15-year NHL career, too.

When the Swedish "Demolition Man" came to Detroit in 1996, he brought with him two well-worn pieces of hard plastic — hacked-off inserts from an old pair of shoulder pads. He has them rigged to the back of his hockey pants, attached by a pair of shoelaces, so that the plastic covers the exposed back of his calf muscles — a prime target for opposing goaltenders as Holmstrom parks directly in front of the net and proceeds to make himself a nuisance."