The long-awaited official announcement of the 2012 Winter
Classic between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers at Citizens Bank
Park will finally come on Monday and while the game itself will be a tremendous
spectacle; the announcement also gives us two other big things to be excited
about, HBO’s
“24/7” and the annual Winter Classic alumni game.
If tradition holds, the two teams will also bring in alumni
for an old-timer’s game prior to the actual Classic. Thanks to a long history of acquiring
superstars, the Rangers should have no trouble icing a tremendously
entertaining squad for the game.
While some players will turn down this opportunity because
of age, health issues or other commitments, the list of intriguing names that
could appear in the game is lengthy.
Ideally the New York alumni squad would feature a handful of
NHL legends, members of the 1994 Stanley Cup Champions and primarily players
that wore the Rangers’ sweater for multiple seasons.
If I had my way, this is the 25-man team I’d like to see
next winter:
*Last year’s game
between alumni from the Pittsburgh Penguins and
Washington Capitals only featured
two players born before 1953, Gilles Meloche (1950) and Yvon Labre (1949), so
only players born after 1953 were considered (sorry Nick Fotiu, 1952). And as fun as it might be to see Glen Sather
(1943) take the ice, that’s probably not realistic.
Forwards
Jan Erixon - Wayne Gretzky – Theo Fleury
Adam Graves -Mark Messier – Mike Gartner
Don Maloney - Ron Duguay – Tony Amonte
Brendan Shanahan – Eric Lindros - Tomas Sandstrom
Stephane Matteau - Sergei Nemchinov - Esa Tikkanen
Other possibilities: Pavel Bure, Doug Weight, Matthew
Barnaby, Valeri Kamensky, Ray Ferraro, Ulf Dahlen, Pat LaFontaine, Markus
Naslund, Tony Granato, Luc Robitaille, Steve Larmer, Bernie Nicholls, Rick
Middleton, Nicklas Sundstrom, Pat Verbeek, Kevin Stevens, Nick Kypreos, Eddie
Olczyk, Darren Turcotte, Mike York, Joey Kocur
Defense
Brian Leetch – Jeff Beukeboom
Ulf Samuelsson – Dave Maloney
Ron Greschner – James Patrick
Kevin Lowe – Sergei Zubov
Other possibilities: Doug Lidster, Bruce Driver, Kim Johnsson,
Darius Kasparaitis, Mathieu Schneider
Goalies
Mike Richter
John Vanbiesbrouck
Extras: John Davidson
What would your ideal alumni team look like? Could it beat the Edmonton Oilers?
Winter Classic Coverage:
6 Potentially Great Subplots of “24/7” >
HBO Begins Filming "24/7" Today: Why The Show Might Not Be Quite What You're Expecting >
Who Could Be On The Rangers' Winter Classic Alumni Team? >
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