WingsNation has no direct affiliation to the Detroit Red Wings, Ilitch Holdings, NHL, or NHLPA

There is a greater than zero chance that fists fly in the Wings/Avs alumni game tomorrow

By Jeff Veillette

Feb 25, 2016, 20:48 ESTUpdated:

Comments

Embed from Getty Images

We’ve been hearing bit by bit about former players from the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche joining the roster’s for tomorrow’s Stadium Series Alumni Game. Today, though, the Avalanche announced the final rosters, and it looks like we might be in for a game more entertaining than the real one.

#	Pos	Colorado Player	Rivalry GP	#	Pos	Detroit Player	Rivalry GP
1	G	Craig Billington	7	29	G	Ty Conklin	4
33	G	Patrick Roy	57	34	G	Manny Legace	10
4	D	Rob Blake	23	2	D	Jiri Fischer	14
7	D	Greg De Vries	33	5	D	Nicklas Lidstrom	97
7	D	Curtis Leschyshyn	9	8	C	Igor Larionov	50
8	D	Sandis Ozolinsh	40	11	RW	Mathieu Dandeneault	46
9	C	Mike Ricci	18	14	RW	Brendan Shanahan	60
12	LW	Chris Simon	5	17	RW	Doug Brown	39
13	RW	Dan Hinote	18	18	LW	Kirk Maltby	72
13	LW	Valeri Kamensky	31	19	C	Steve Yzerman	62
19	C	Joe Sakic	75	20	RW	Martin Lapointe	48
21	C	Peter Forsberg	55	21	C	Boyd Devereaux	16
22	RW	Claude Lemieux	32	22	RW	Dino Ciccarelli	14
23	RW	Milan Hejduk	72	22	RW	Mike Knuble	4
24	D	Jon Klemm	41	23	C	Stacy Roest	6
25	RW	Mike Keane	20	24	D	Chris Chelios	49
25	LW	Shjon Podein	31	25	RW	Darren McCarty	64
26	C	Stephane Yelle	41	26	RW	Joe Kocur	18
29	LW/D	Eric Messier	37	28	D	Steve Duchesne	23
52	D	Adam Foote	75	33	C	Kris Draper	88
77	D	Ray Bourque	8	55	D	Larry Murphy	32
				96	LW	Tomas Holmstrom	74

Rivalry Games Played, in this games, means how many games that each Red Wing has played against the Avalanche while wearing the Winged Wheel, and vice versa. The amount of history these guys have against each other is astonishing, with a total of 1618 Wings/Avs games played and an average of 38 per player in the lineup. These weren’t games that long ago either; many of these guys are younger than Gordie Howe was before retirement. Heck, I’m pretty sure that Ty Conklin was just in an outdoor game, like, a week ago.

Not all of that history is clean, however. As fun as its going to be to see Stevie Y, Niklas “The Perfect Human” Lidstrom, and Igor Larionov turn back the clock with timeless intelligent plays, there’s also the totally serious possibility that this game gets under hand. Just ask Dino Ciccarelli. From the Star Tribune:

He and old foe Denis Savard even kiddingly got into a scrap seconds after the faceoff. Ciccarelli may not be kidding next weekend.

He said he’s already disgusted the way the Avs are treating the Red Wings, saying “Patrick Roy and Peter Forsberg have said they don’t want any interacting between the two teams. Next week’s game will be intense.”

He reminded that it was Claude Lemieux that rearranged Kris Draper’s face in 1996, not the other way around. Should be interesting, and if you know Dino, he’s not joking around. He’s really ticked.

This isn’t the only sign of competitiveness that has come out of the Colorado camp, either. Adam Foote was on a local radio station earlier today, and when asked who he’d like to punch in the face, he quickly and firmly responded with Kris Draper. It was all laughs at first, but with every second that passed, Foote went into more and more detail and showed that he was quite serious with his intentions. Patrick Roy has also been practicing for months to make sure he’s in top shape; it makes you wonder if the Wings intentionally avoided picking any of the goalies who have fought him in previous years.

As well, Chris Chelios told Ansar Khan that he expects a certain someone to, well, be themselves:

“There’s always that screwball that’s going to run around and take it serious, but as far as any of that, no,” Chris Chelios said. Who is this screwball to which you are referring?

“Claude (Lemieux),” Chelios said. “You always have to give Claude the nod for that. He’ll do something dumb. At the end of the day … who knows? One player thinks he got wronged, hockey players are hockey players.”

If nothing else, adds another layer of excitement for tomorrow. Whether we see players reminisce or throw fists remains to be seen, but hey, that’s part of the fun, isn’t it?