So as this state continues to grip and cope with the losses of its economic backbone, the people at least have the Detroit Red Wings to provide 60 minutes of distraction.

But Michigan needs an underdog to prevail. It needs the validation that people who are doubted, people who constantly wonder where the next day or even hour might take them, can in fact write the greatest success stories for the record books.

The Detroit Red Wings aren’t underdogs — but forward Justin Abdelkader is. As the National Hockey League attempts to market its game with Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, it’s Abdelkader — the Muskegon native and MSU alumnus who netted his first two NHL goals in this year’s Stanley Cup Final against Pittsburgh — who is taking the spotlight, and he doesn’t plan on leaving it, either.

“I love staying in Michigan,” he said. “I love playing here. I’m going to stay here as long as I can.”

The call-up

Joseph Abdelkader’s phone was ringing on Saturday, May 9. It was Justin.

Joseph Abdelkader picked up the phone, eager to speak with his son. It’d been two days since the Grand Rapids Griffins, Justin’s team, were eliminated from the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Playoffs.

Abdelkader excitedly told his father the news. He was going to be in the lineup for the Red Wings in their second-round matchup with Anaheim. He was just unaware his father knew.

“It was a proud group of six or seven going up for the practice squad, and he didn’t see himself playing at all actually,” Joseph Abdelkader said. “It’s funny, we found out Friday night and it got in (The Detroit Free Press) and it said Abdelkader (would take the) place of (Tomas) Kopecky and he didn’t know it.”

It wasn’t too long ago that he and his family were sitting at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Muskegon, watching the coverage of the 2005 NHL Draft. Abdelkader had just won the Clark Cup with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League and was about to head to MSU to play hockey.

“I got the call that I got drafted. I didn’t see anything on TV, but I said, ‘Yeah, by the way, I got drafted by the hometown team, the Detroit Red Wings,’” Justin Abdelkader said of being picked 42nd overall in the 2005 NHL Draft. “You can imagine how loud it was.”

So when Abdelkader got called up for the playoffs, he grinded it out on the fourth line through series against Anaheim and Chicago. His status in the starting lineup was on a day-to-day basis. Muskegon followed every shift he skated — Joseph Abdelkader said he has to pinch himself when people ask if his son plays for Detroit.

“It almost felt like my first game that I played,” Justin Abdelkader said of his first playoff game against Anaheim. “I was really nervous and excited. It’s nice looking back to get that out of the way and over with.”

And then, after he said he shook off the nerves, he scored in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. And again in Game 2.

“I had so many missed calls and text messages, I couldn’t tell you who was the first one,” Abdelkader said of the reaction to his first goal.

But who could have told you how much of a spark plug Abdelkader, with a whole two career regular season NHL games under his belt, would be for Detroit, a legitimate active dynasty?

The answer: everyone who knows him.

Lack of recognition

Abdelkader is familiar with taking the unconventional road to hockey stardom.

While most NHL hopefuls play at the Midget Major level, Abdelkader instead stuck with his high school team at Muskegon Mona Shores. And although he tore up his competition, the high school playing field inhibited him from garnering much attention.

“My sophomore year of high school I didn’t think that (I would be playing in college) at all,” Abdelkader said. “I was just playing the game and having fun. Obviously it’s the goal and stuff, but I didn’t know I could make it a reality.”

In his junior year, though, Abdelkader scored 37 goals and registered 43 assists, earning him the Mr. Hockey award as the state’s best high school player. Still, even that award wouldn’t be enough, as he played against what is considered a weaker level of competition compared to Midget Major.

Juggling the life of the standard high school student and hockey player was difficult. Abdelkader would get picked up from basketball or football practice, eat a quick dinner and do homework in the backseat of his mother’s or father’s car on the way to hockey practice. And with weekend travel to Toronto and Detroit for tournaments, the Abdelkader family drove all over for Justin to play hockey.

“People always asked, ‘Why are you traveling and wasting time? It won’t make a difference. You could be hanging out with us,’” Abdelkader said. “A lot of people were like, ‘Why do you travel? You could play for the local house team.’”

After his junior year, Abdelkader traveled to St. Cloud, Minn. to play for Team Michigan in the USA Hockey Select 17 Festival. Some of the country’s most talented teenagers participated in the tournament and Abdelkader held his own, tying for the tournament lead with five goals.

And that’s when MSU head hockey coach Rick Comley really got serious about the high school phenomenon from Muskegon.

“I think he had that capability, the total package. I remember seeing him at 16 in the Midget festival and thinking, “Wow, he is going to be a heck of a player,’” Comley said.

Joseph Abdelkader didn’t know what to expect heading into the festival. Justin was competing with players who received scholarship offers at 15 years old. Justin hadn’t received any such interest.

Justin Abdelkader knew, however, that he was going to go to MSU no matter what happened with his hockey career. Both his father and grandfather are MSU alumni and the Spartans have been an enormous part of Justin’s life because of those connections. Being able to wear the Green and White was a dream come true for the Abdelkader family.

“It’s unbelievable, I just can’t say enough,” Joseph Abdelkader said. “We’re so fortunate not only for being close to home but to be at the school where his grandpa and I went. I just waited for him to come out of the tunnel with the practice uniform with the Spartans on the front. That was an unbelievable moment, and that was the summer before they even played a game.”

The pride of Michigan

Justin Abdelkader is well-traveled in Michigan, and his fans are too.

“We support him in whatever he does,” said Charlie Link, one of Abdelkader’s former coaches at Mona Shores. “With the Red Wings and with the Griffins, there are people going to his games whenever he is in the lineup. Carloads of people go down to see him.”

Link said he is an Abdelkader fan “just like everybody in Muskegon and on this side of the state.” And there are plenty of fans to go around.

Abdelkader easily won a fan voting contest to create a bobblehead doll of any one Griffins player this season. Muskegon carried Abdelkader to plaster prominence.

It’s easy to root for a player who is a champion pretty much everywhere he goes.

He won the Clark Cup in his lone season with Cedar Rapids. He won a national championship with MSU as a sophomore. He got to hoist the Stanley Cup last year with the Red Wings, and he might get his name on it this year. The only places he hasn’t won a championship are Mona Shores — his team lost in the title game — and Grand Rapids.

“He always took charge,” Link said. “Whenever we got into a situation, he was always the one (who) stepped up. I think he just makes everybody better. … He’ll do anything.”

That attitude is something Abdelkader’s father instilled in him. Joseph Abdelkader played every sport growing up — except hockey. Having coached several sports and being a teacher, though, Joseph Abdelkader was able to give his son guidance that went beyond hockey.

“I just tried to teach him the work ethic and that you can’t ever take things for granted. You can’t be lazy, can’t just assume, can’t be complacent,” Joseph Abdelkader said.

Abdelkader heeded his father’s advice, and Comley noticed.

“When we brought him here we said, ‘This is what we expect,’ and he blew by that really quickly,” he said.

But it’s that demeanor that keeps carloads of fans shelling out money for tickets and gas. Link went to several Griffins games and to rookie camp in Traverse City to watch Abdelkader play, and he immediately hopped in a car and headed down to Detroit when he heard Abdelkader was in the Red Wings lineup for Game 5 of the Anaheim series. Only when he reached Lansing did he consider the possibility of not being able to find tickets.

Last year, Abdelkader had the Stanley Cup for a couple hours and brought it to Muskegon. Mona Shores had an assembly for him. He took pictures with everyone who wanted one, never breaking a smile. And then he took the Cup back to his home, where more people were invited and where Abdelkader was there until every last camera flashed.

Jeff Lerg, the now-graduated Spartans goalie and former teammate of Abdelkader, visited Abdelkader in Detroit on his day off before the Stanley Cup Final began. The two were roommates at MSU and will be living together this summer once the Cup Final is over.

“I told him to get this done in four (games) so he can come back and have some fun,” Lerg said.

Bleeding Green and White

Abdelkader said he would have loved to stay at MSU for four years. Spartans pride runs deep in his family.

He still says the game-winning goal in the 3-1 win over Boston College in the 2007 NCAA National Championship game with 18.9 seconds left is the most important goal he’s ever scored.

Abdelkader said although he received offers from colleges following his junior year, he wanted to wait and try to get to MSU, the school on the top of his list.

During high school, he thought those chances were “really slim.”

He still visits MSU as often as he can. He stays involved with the hockey team, keeping in touch with players and attending games when possible. He is active in team fundraisers and community service.

Even though he left MSU, the Green and White never left him — the MSU Fight Song even made its way through the Joe Louis Arena speakers when he scored. Abdelkader also gave an unprovoked reference to MSU in an interview following Game 1.

“(My time at MSU) has been really important, those were three big years for me in my development and probably the best three years of my life,” he said.

And it’s why at the end of this interview, when asked if he had anything else to say about his hockey experience — Stanley Cup Finals, growing up, MSU or otherwise — he only had one thing to say:

“I’m just proud to be a Spartan.”