The rosters were announced Friday for the Feb. 26 outdoor game between the alumni of the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche, the prelude to the Stadium Series game the next day between the two teams and right away you have to give the edge to the Avs in this one.
Mainly because the Red Wings alumni doesn’t have a goaltender.
The Detroit roster will be led by former captain and seven-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom and also includes two other Hockey Hall of Famers in defensemen Larry Murphy and forward Dino Ciccarelli. Also committed to play are defensemen Steve Duchesne and Jiri Fischer as well as forwards Tomas Holmstrom, Martin Lapointe, Doug Brown and the original Grind Line of Kris Draper between Joe Kocur and Kirk Maltby.
The Avalanche lineup features goalies Patrick Roy and Craig Billington, defensemen Rob Blake, Ray Bourque, Curtis Leschyshyn, Sandis Ozolinsh and Adam Foote and forwards Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Stephane Yelle, Chris Simon, Mike Ricci and Red Wings nemesis Claude Lemieux.
The game is slated for 5 p.m. Denver time at Coors Field, or 7 p.m. EST. The game will consist of three 20-minute periods (running time) and two 12-minute intermissions.
A limited number of tickets to the Feb. 27 Avalanche-Red Wings matchup and the special alumni game between the two franchises on Feb. 26 at Coors Field are available for purchase via www.Ticketmaster.com/NHL and www.Ticketmaster.ca/NHL, the official ticket marketplace of the NHL. The offering includes a ticket to the Stadium Series game and a ticket for the Alumni Game. This opportunity is available on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last. For all NHL events every person is required to have a ticket for admission, regardless of age.
Additions, deletions and other potential changes will be announced leading up to the game, so it’s more than likely the Wings alumni will add at least one goaltender prior to game day.
Or if they are really desperate, perhaps the Wings can loan them Jimmy Howard.
Not Worried Detroit coach Jeff Blashill is absolutely right when he insists that there was no way Detroit’s tying goal in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime win at Arizona shouldn’t have counted.
Coyotes coach Dave Tippett issued a coach’s challenge on the play, but the call on the ice of a good goal stood.
“The thing about the NHL is this challenge (rule) came to try to eliminate goals that were egregious penalties, not ones that were borderline, so I think from the beginning of the year to now it’s changed a little bit and those are the goals I think everybody wants to count, to be honest with you,… Blashill said.
The Coyotes argued that Detroit forward Justin Abdelkader interfered with goalie Louis Domingue’s ability to lunge across his goal crease before Gustav Nyquist jammed the puck into the net, but the reason why Domingue needed to dart across his crease was because he’d fumbled the puck away after a fine original save and then missed scooping it with his stick before his desperation dive.
“You don’t want it when it’s against you,… Blashill said of the goal counting, “but for us in terms of having lots of goals scored, those are goals we want counted.…
Minor Deal The Wings traded defenseman Richard Nedomlel to the St. Louis Blues on Friday in exchange for future considerations.
Nedomlel, 22, appeared in a pair of games for the Grand Rapids Griffins this season and recorded a plus-1 rating and 20 penalty minutes. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound defenseman also skated in 10 games for the Toledo Walleye this year and tallied two assists and 14 penalty minutes.
The Prague, Czech Republic native spent the majority of the last two seasons in Toledo and recorded 11 goals, 21 assists and 206 penalty minutes in 109 games with the Walleye. Nedomlel was selected by the Red Wings in the sixth round (175th overall) of the 2011 NHL entry draft. Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer