Brian Manzullo

Detroit Free Press

Before she became a movie star, Kristen Bell’s claim to fame was her appearance on a Red Wings ticket.

The Huntington Woods native submitted a photo of herself in a Wings jersey with the Stanley Cup when the team asked metro Detroit fans for their “I love hockey” photos to feature on ticket stubs during the Western Conference finals two decades ago.

“That was a big deal,” she said Tuesday on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “It’s all been sort of (fart noise) since then.”

Growing up in metro Detroit just as the Red Wings were hitting their peak in the mid-1990s, Bell might have been one of the biggest fans around. She bantered with Eisen, a Michigan alum, for several minutes about the team’s championships, the Darren McCarty-Claude Lemieux fight from 1997 and the Red Wings’ fierce rivalry with the Colorado Avalanche (“biggest rivalry there is”).

“My high school career, nobody cared about Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise,” Bell, 36, said. “As a young girl, I had posters of Darren McCarty and Chris Osgood and all those guys on my wall.”

Steve Yzerman, too.

“They were all gods to me. I wore a tag on my shirt in high school that said ‘Mrs. Osgood.’ So, I was like really trying to live the secret and put it out there so, I was like 16 and like, ‘Maybe if I just wear it on my heart, he will know we’re meant to be together.’ ”

Obviously, that didn’t work out. She instead ended up with actor Dax Shepard, whom she met at a Los Angeles Kings game. The fact that Shepard is a Michigan native (from Highland) was a big connection at the time, Bell said.

“I wouldn’t have my husband (if not for the Red Wings), wouldn’t have my kids,” Bell said. “Everything comes from the Red Wings. I owe them a lot.”

Related:

First glimpse of seats in Little Caesars Arena

Kristen Bell learns about herself on West Michigan vacation

Bell is helping promote the film "CHiPS," a reboot of the 1970s-80s television series, starring Shepard. She portrays the wife of Shepard's character, officer Jon Baker.

Bell is perhaps best known for her work in "Frozen," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Veronica Mars."

Contact Brian Manzullo: bmanzullo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianManzullo.

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