Trainer John Wharton approved of it from a medical stand point as long as they ate and drank enough between working out and donating their blood.
So after all of their on and off ice conditioning was completed the Red Wings went out to the parking lot and donated their blood to help restore the blood banks around the country in the aftermath of Tuesday’s attacks.
There were also other acts of kindness from the Red Wings giving a few moments of their time with the handicapped who were there to watch the practices and scrimmages.
Young Courtney Bailey, a 7 year old girl from Traverse City, MI, who’s confined to a wheelchair was there to watch her favorite player, Kris Draper, and the rest of the Red Wings. As Mathieu Dandenault walked by getting ready to play in one of the scrimmages, he stopped to talk and have his picture taken with her.
Draper, who’d been on the ice for Team B’s practice, was walking off the ice past her and recognized her from two years before and stopped for a chat. Courtney asked why he hadn’t responded to her letter that she had sent him. Draper couldn’t remember receiving a letter from her but asked for her address promising to write her when he got back home.
As Draper left to change out of his wet hockey equipment, Courtney shrieked excitedly, “He remembered me, he remembered me, can you believe that?”
Former Red Wing, Joey Kocur came by and gave her a big hug and took her and her parents back by the locker rooms to meet the rest of the Red Wings.
The teams A and C took to the ice a few minutes later to play their two scrimmages.
After twenty minutes of play, the first fifteen being five-on-five and the last five being four-on-four, with Nick Pannoni in goal for Team A and Dominik Hasek for Team B, the game remained a scoreless tie so they went to a shoot-out.
Team C went first, sending out one of this summer’s additions, Luc Robitaille. Robitaille came straight down the middle of the ice and at the last moment went to the left but Pannoni was there and made the pad save.
Team A then sent out the Captain, Steve Yzerman. Yzerman came straight down the middle and never wavered with a hard wrister through Hasek’s five-hole scoring the first goal of the game.
Team C then sent out one of the smartest men in the NHL, Igor Larionov. However, Larionov didn’t have any better success than his teammate Robitaille.
Team A sent out the latest addition to the Red Wings, Brett Hull who followed Yzerman’s example and also scored a goal.
Yuri Butsayev and Darren McCarty were both stopped by Hasek but Holmstrom was able to lift one over Pannoni’s glove, below the cross bar. The final score of the first scrimmage was 2 to 1 with Team A over Team C. In the second scrimmage Team C beat Team A two to one with Drew MacIntyre and Chris Osgood in net.
McCarty scored the first goal with a slapshot that went high, over Osgood’s glove, into the net. The assists came from Robitaille and Fredrik Olausson.
The second goal of the game, the first and only for Team A, came from tryout Danny Groulx with assists from prospects Ryan Barnes and Jason Williams.
The last goal came with 5.3 seconds remaining. Osgood stopped the initial shot from Lidstrom and was then interfered with and knocked on his back. The puck was lying in the crease next to him for a brief second before Tomas Holmstrom stuffed it in the net giving Team C the win.
