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