Last week we heard about how Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey, Bryan Trottier and Bill Guerin would be taking the ice on New Year’s Eve at Heinz Field for the 2011 Winter Classic Alumni Game. With that array of talent headlining things for Pittsburgh, we were immediately curious about who the Capitals would dust off to take on this hall of fame group.
Ultimately we knew already that legendary Caps goal scorer Peter Bondra was already set to play but who else could the Caps break out? Today, On Frozen Blog digs up the details and the lines the Caps will throw out there on December 31st and we’re left still excited but a bit disappointed.Peter Bondra Michal Pivonka Alan Hangsleben
Paul Mulvey Dennis Maruk Mark Lofthouse
Errol Rausse Alan May Nick Kypreos
Blair Stewart Greg Adams Pete LeBoutillier
Pat Ribble Ken Sabourin
Robert Picard Sylvain Cote
Yvon Labre Gord Lane
Don Beaupre
All right so sorting through that we’re left to see more names that aren’t there than that will be playing. OFB makes mention that Donald Brashear and Kelly Miller will also play and those are notable Caps so that’s good. Seeing Michal Pivonka and Greg Adams makes us feel nostalgic for the 80 and early 90s all over again but there’s some huge names missing here.
On the forward unit we don’t see anyone like Mike Ridley, Steve Konowalchuk, or former captain Dale Hunter. On defense you could come up with an All-Star alumni unit of guys that are missing. Calle Johanssen, Scott Stevens, Phil Housley, and Jeff Brown all immediately come to mind as well as legendary king of the slap shot Al Iafrate. While it’s fun to see Don Beaupre’s name again, we’d be wrong to say we’re disappointed that Olaf Kolzig won’t be getting a shot.
We understand that a lot of these guys may have other job commitments (Dale Hunter owns a team in the CHL for instance and Calle Johanssen works on Swedish TV) but it’s a bit of a bummer to be without them nonetheless. Does this make us any less excited to see the game though? Hell no.