Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Winter Classic Alumni Games


Here are your complete Winter Classic alumni rosters for Tuesday's games:

GAME 1 ROSTERS (1 p.m. ET)
Red Wings: Forwards: John Ogrodnick, Dallas Drake, Jimmy Carson, Martin Lapointe, Petr Klima, Dennis Polonich, Red Berenson, Garry Unger, Kevin Miller, Pat Verbeek, Paul Ysebaert, Brent Fedyk, Mike Knuble; Defensemen: Jason Woolley, Aaron Ward, Steve Duchesne, Mathieu Dandenault, Jiri Fischer, Mathieu Schneider; Goalies: Kevin Hodson, Ken Holland and Eddie Mio; Coaches: Scotty Bowman and Barry Smith; Ambassadors: Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Vladimir Konstantinov.

Maple Leafs: Forwards: Dan Daoust, Mark Osborne, Bill Derlago, Stew Gavin, Pat Boutette, Rob Pearson, Claude Loiselle, Brad May, Shayne Corson, Tom Fergus, Mike Krushelnyski, Dave McLlwain, Todd Warriner, Dave Reid, Nikolai Borschevsky, Lou Franceschetti and Mike Johnson; Defensemen: Mike Pelyk, Jamie Macoun, Matt Martin, Brad Marsh, Greg Hothan and Cory Cross; Goalies: Mark Laforest and Peter Ing; Coaches: Tom Watt, Ron Ellis and Dan Maloney.

GAME 2 ROSTERS (3:30 p.m. ET)
Red Wings:

Forwards:
Line 1 - 19 Steve Yzerman, 14 Brendan Shanahan, 22 Dino Ciccarelli
Line 2 - 13 Slava Kozlov, 91 Sergei Fedorov, 20 Mickey Redmond
Line 3 - 33 Kris Draper, 18 Kirk Maltby, 26 Joe Kocur
Line 4 - 8 Igor Larionov, 96 Tomas Holmstrom, 25 Darren McCarty
17 Doug Brown
Defensemen: Nicklas Lidstrom, 24 Chris Chelios, Mark Howe, 55 Larry Murphy, Slava Fetisov, 77 Paul Coffey and Brian Rafalski
Goalies: Chris Osgood and Manny Legace
Coaches: Scotty Bowman and Barry Smith
Ambassadors: Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Vladimir Konstantinov.

Maple Leafs:

Forwards: Darryl Sittler, Rick Vaive, Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour, Dave Andreychuk, Darcy Tucker, Kevin Maguire, Gary Leeman, Russ Courtnall, Gary Roberts, Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams, Mike Walton, Tie Domi, Mike Gartner, Joe Nieuwendyk, Steve Thomas and Steve Sullivan
Defensemen: Dave Ellett, Bryan McCabe, Bob McGill, Al Iafrate and Bryan Berard
Goalies: Curtis Joseph, Felix Potvin and Mike Palmateer
Coaches: Pat Quinn and Red Kelly.

OTHER INVITED AMBASSADORS
Red Wings: Marcel Pronovost, Gerard Gallant, Lee Norwood, Bill Gadsby, Dave Lewis, Eddie Giacomin, Nick Libett, Norm Ullman, Dale McCourt, Greg Stefan, Brad Smith, Dennis Hextall and Jim Rutherford.

Maple Leafs: Johnny Bower, Jim McKenny, Frank Mahovlich, Bob Nevin, Terry Clancy, Brian Conacher, Pat Hickey, Rod Seiling, Jim Dorey and Doug Favell.

So many former Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to play in the Winter Classic alumni game that they staged two games. So all the old Wings and Leafs converged Tuesday afternoon on Comerica Park, a baseball stadium transformed into a wintry ice arena, where some 35,000 fans in tuques and gloves and red sweaters or blue sweaters stamped their feet and thrilled to the sight of their heroes skating down the ice again.


It was amazing to see all the people, to see all the excitement,” said Tom Fergus, a Leafs alumnus. “When it started snowing, that topped it off.”

Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Mickey Redmond, Garry Unger and Nicklas Lidstrom were there for the Wings. Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Doug Gilmour, Tie Domi and Mike Palmateer showed up for the Leafs. Gordie Howe, 85, strode a little unsteadily along a red carpet to center ice and dropped the puck for the ceremonial face-off before the second game. The fans chanted his name. His son Mark, also a Hall of Famer, took his arm and escorted him slowly back to the Detroit bench. Vladimir Konstantinov, 46, whose career was ended by a limousine accident six days after the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997, was propped up by his Russian teammates to pose for a photograph at rinkside, the old Russian Five reunited. The fans chanted his name as well.

I was proud of that moment,” said Sergei Fedorov, 44. “I haven’t seen Vlad that happy in a long time.”

Dallas Drake, 44, walked down the runway, jumped onto the rink and said, “Let’s hope I don’t hurt myself.” The Wings’ Red Berenson, 74, hooked the hands of Leafs defenseman Mike Pelyk, 66, on a forecheck. Chris Chelios, 51, celebrated a goal by diving onto his back and sliding half the length of the ice on the back of his head.

Tiger Williams rides his stick, I ride my head,” Chelios said.

Wendel Clark, 44, played in a tuque. Jamie Macoun, 52, played in a fur-trimmed hat. Matthieu Schneider, 44, played bareheaded, even though, as a players’ association official, he must monitor player safety.

I was hoping it would tell people to stay away from me,” he said by way of explanation.

The first game was played mostly by older players, with Berenson the oldest to skate. He was one of the first stars of expansion after scoring six goals in a game for the St. Louis Blues, still a modern-day N.H.L. record. For the 30 years, he has coached the Michigan Wolverines. So with 14 seconds left, a face-off in the Detroit zone and the Red Wings ahead, 5-4, Coach Scotty Bowman sent Berenson out to defend the lead. He set up his teammates for the draw, and the Wings held on to win.

Maybe he put me out there because my head was into it, because I spend every day as a coach,” Berenson said. “Scotty put me out there and knew I could figure it out. It feels good to have a coach’s confidence, and I feel the same way when I put somebody out there.”

Brad Marsh of the Maple Leafs said: “Red Berenson is my new idol — I hope I can do what he’s doing when I’m 74. And I’m 55 now, so you do the math.”

The Leafs rallied to tie the second game, 5-5, on a Bryan McCabe goal with two seconds left, but Detroit won the shootout on a Tomas Holmstrom goal. Between the games, Johnny Bower, 89, sat on a table in the Toronto dressing room. Bower was the Leafs’ goalie in 1963 and ’64, when they beat the Red Wings and his friend from Saskatchewan, Gordie Howe, in two straight Stanley Cup finals. On Monday, at a practice at Comerica Park, Bower and Howe met again, and the photograph of their embrace became a Twitter sensation.

I was very happy to see Gordie,” Bower said, adding, “When he come in with those big elbows, well, I’ve got two nice big bruises now. I said, ‘You’ve got to keep those elbows down.”

Bower laughed. Outside, during a long, joyous winter afternoon, it was still snowing.
 

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