Detroit Red Wings legends beat their Toronto Maple Leafs counterparts in the Centennial Classic Alumni Game on Saturday afternoon, though the final score is already immaterial.

Supremacy is a moot point in this sort of exhibition. It's really nothing more than a reunion - a chance to celebrate team, and brotherhood, and to feel those feelings one more time.

But old timers remain intrinsically proud and competitive. And for that, the entire process, from selection to beer-in-hand completion, is an emotional one. Just ask Kris Draper and Gary Roberts.

Here is that spectrum, in their words:

Pride

Lanny McDonald: It is such an honor. Not just the 100th anniversary of the league, but the 100th anniversary of the Maple Leafs. To be able to come back and be a part of this, how they have it set up with the alumni sitting in between the current players. It is so cool. What a class move by Brendan Shanahan and Mike Babcock. Three different generations all hanging out, loving the fact they wore the Maple Leaf.

Bryan McCabe: Pure excitement. It is a complete honor to be included in this group of players, and to participate in this special weekend - especially here in Toronto, where I played seven years. It's a real special time.

Dave Andreychuk: I was honored. There are so many good players here, and there's obviously a lot of guys to pick from. I didn't spend a lot of time in Toronto, when you think about it. It was only three and a half years of my career. But three special ones, that's for sure.

Sudden angst

Steve Thomas: Don't expect very much from me. That's all I have to say right now - seriously.

Darren McCarty: The worst part is playing.

Good nature

Darcy Tucker: We'll have some fun in the first couple periods, then we'll see how it goes.

Chris Chelios: I wanted to cheer for the Leafs. We won the last game, so I was hoping they would pull it off.

Instinctual competitiveness

McCarty: Not shocking. You almost expect it. Guys are volatile. Just because you're retired doesn't mean you don't have the same jam. You just don't have the ability.

Chelios: It started slow, then at the end it comes out. Most players have that.

McCarty: We're no different than buddies getting together on Thanksgiving to throw the football around in the backyard. When you're playing something, and it (starts) getting a little out of hand, and it gets a little more intense and down the wire. Boom.

Perspective

Chelios: This is the best part of the whole alumni weekend, getting together with guys that you haven't seen in 20-25 years. (The game) gives you a little feeling from back when you were playing, and now the fun part is having beers with the guys and reminiscing about the old times.

McCarty: It's just cool - cool to be around the guys.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Tie Domi appears to have been taking shooting lessons from his son.

The former Toronto Maple Leafs pugilist took part in Saturday's alumni game versus the Detroit Red Wings as part of the Centennial Classic celebration.

The tough customer's hands were on display, but not from throwing fists - rather, while firing a puck past Red Wings netminder Manny Legace.

Tie's son, Max Domi, a forward with the Arizona Coyotes, was quick to applaud his father's newfound offensive touch:

Domi begin his career with the Maple Leafs in 1989, playing until 2006. His career also included a five-year run with the New York Rangers and time spent with the original Winnipeg Jets franchise. He finished his career with 1,020 games played and 104 goals.

Wendel Clark and Darcy Tucker also scored for the Maple Leafs on Saturday, while Nicklas Lidstrom, Igor Larinov, and Brendan Shanahan replied for the Red Wings.

Forward Kris Draper then sealed the 4-3 Red Wings victory, beating Curtis Joseph with a slap shot late in the third.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Buffalo Sabres received some bad news Saturday, as coach Dan Bylsma announced forward Johan Larsson will be out 'weeks' with a dislocated wrist.

Larsson left early in the first period of Saturday's game versus the Boston Bruins after taking a heavy hit from Bruins blue-liner Adam McQuaid.

Larsson has recorded 11 points in 36 games this season.

Sabres defenseman Josh Gorges also left the game with a hip pointer injury; however, no further update was provided.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Boston Bruins announced Saturday that center David Backes is out indefinitely after suffering a concussion.

Backes sustained the injury in Thursday's 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

The 32-year-old has appeared in 33 games this season, scoring nine goals and 10 assists.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It all starts with the right mindset.

For a long time, times were bad in Edmonton, with the pinnacle of poor play marked by three consecutive first overall picks, the latest in 2012.

That landed Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov in Edmonton, one of who remains with the club.

Then, one more time, in 2015, the Oilers chose first overall, selecting phenom Connor McDavid, who has 90 points through his first 82 NHL games.

Now, after years of ugly games and mounting frustration, the Edmonton Oilers are finally on the road to recovery.

This season is different. Through 37 games, the Oilers sit second in the Pacific, owning a 19-12-6 record and 44 points.

Not only does that performance surpass any recent Oilers season, but the team is on pace for 98 points - such a finish would mark the best season in Edmonton since 1987-88, coincidentally Wayne Gretzky's final season in Alberta, a season capped with the Oilers fourth Stanley Cup in five years.

The Oilers returned to the winner's circle two years later, but playoff appearances soon become infrequent altogether over the next two-plus decades, as Edmonton qualified for the postseason just nine times in the next 25 years, a stretch which includes the franchise's current 10-year playoff drought.

That could all change in as little as four months, as McDavid, whose 42 points sit tied with Sidney Crosby for first in the NHL scoring race, has Oilers fans believing that, for the first time in a long time, playoffs are a real possibility in Edmonton.

"It all starts with believing when you come to the rink that you can win," McDavid told Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal. "We've found ways to pull ourselves back. You look at a game like San Jose, where we didn't have much going on, we were still able to pull a point."

Through December, the Oilers have missed out on points just twice, carrying a 7-2-4 record through 13 games. That includes four wins in their last five, and 11 points out of a possible 14.

"When we're up we can hold it, when we're down we can come back," McDavid added. "We feel we can play with anyone in the league. It's definitely a good feeling as opposed to last year."

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New Jersey Devils defenseman John Moore was stretchered off the ice Saturday in the first period following a hit from Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson.

Wilson drove Moore into the end boards from behind, but there was no penalty on the play.

There's no update on Moore's condition yet, but he appeared to be talking to trainers while on the ice, according to Deb Kaufman Placey of MSG Network.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Jaroslav Halak is on his way to Bridgeport.

The club placed the netminder on waivers Friday, and the 31-year-old has cleared them, resulting in a trip to the AHL, the Islanders announced.

Halak could have been an upgrade somewhere else, but his $4.5-million salary likely kept suitors away.

On a struggling New York team, Halak hasn't enjoyed his best season, accumulating a 6-8-5 record with a 3.23 goals-against average and .904 save percentage.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It's been a long, long, very long time since the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs played a game that mattered. More than 23 years, in fact.

It was on the night of May 5, 1993 when Toronto ended what was, until then, the greatest Red Wings season of all time - a 103-point, .613-winning percentage campaign - in overtime of Game 7. And it was shocking.

Steve Yzerman's 137-point regular season was over after one playoff round. And it cast serious doubt over whether he could lead Detroit where it wanted to go.

Comeback

Toronto was no slouch. The Maple Leafs finished with 99 points, and were led by Doug Gilmour, who set Toronto's single-season record for points with 127. Nikolai Borschevsky, an overaged rookie out of Russia, had 34 goals and 74 points. Glenn Anderson was third on the team in scoring, Dave Andreychuk arrived before the trade deadline, Wendel Clark was the team's heart and soul, and Felix Potvin, only 21, also a rookie, was the kid in goal.

Toronto dropped the first two games of the opening-round series in Detroit, thoroughly outmatched by a combined 12-5. It was loud at Joe Louis Arena. Intimidating. Toronto, which came out of nowhere with Pat Burns behind the bench, seemed destined to lose the series - and fast - before it could figure out how to win in its current incarnation.

A different Maple Leafs team showed up at home, however. Toronto, host to playoff hockey once again, was buzzing. The atmosphere at Maple Leaf Gardens was electric. And after being lit up in Games 1 and 2, Toronto allowed only four goals across the next two - Potvin was stellar - and, somehow, the series was tied 2-2 heading back to Detroit.

Best of 3

Maple Leafs supporters of a certain generation can still hear Joe Bowen screaming "Michael Foligno!" They can still see Foligno leaping - twice - in customary fashion after his overtime winner gave Toronto a 5-4 comeback win, in Detroit no less, and a 3-2 series lead.

Toronto was outshot 30-21. The Maple Leafs trailed 4-1 at one point in Game 5. Yeah.

Game 7

Detroit wasn't going out like that. It dominated Game 6 in Toronto. Dino Ciccarelli had a hat trick, Yzerman a goal and an assist, Sergei Fedorov two assists, and Paul Coffey a goal and three assists. Back to Detroit.

Late in the third period of Game 7, the Maple Leafs trailed 3-2. Clark chased down a loose puck in the corner behind the goal line in Detroit's zone, to Red Wings goalie Tim Cheveldae's right, and threw it out front. Cheveldae redirected the puck with his stick into the slot - right to Gilmour. Tie game, 3-3, with 2:43 to go.

That set up the heroics of Gilmour, Bob Rouse, and Borschevsky.

A dump-in by Rouse ended up on Gilmour's stick. From the slot, he fed Rouse at the top of the right circle. Rouse, a stay-at-home defenseman, fired a slap-pass on the ice to the top of the crease, where Borschevsky tipped the puck into the empty net; 4-3 Toronto, in Game 7, and in the series.

Toronto went crazy. That same group of Maple Leafs supporters who can still see, when they close their eyes, Foligno leaping, can still see general manager Cliff Fletcher losing it in the Toronto press box, and can still see team trainer Chris Broadhurst spraying a bottle of water onto the ice in celebration. The Maple Leafs had done the impossible.

Gilmour finished with a goal and three assists that night. It was one of the most incredible playoff appearances by a Maple Leaf.

Nik the Stick

After the game, Borschevsky, who couldn't speak much English, put it perfectly when asked how he felt.

"Oh, unbelievable."

He spoke for every single Maple Leafs fan on the planet that night.

It's been a long time, too long, but we're due for another Red Wings-Maple Leafs playoff series. It would be something else, like it was in 1993.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Winnipeg Jets forward Marko Dano will miss roughly eight weeks after suffering a lower-body injury, head coach Paul Maurice announced Saturday.

Dano crashed into the boards Thursday versus Columbus and was helped off the ice. Maurice didn't provide the specifics of the injury.

In 28 games this season, Dano has managed three goals and seven assists.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

See ya, 2016.

Over the past week, we've been looking back on the year that was in the NHL. The past 365 days gave us a little bit of everything.

From youth being served, to remembering those who left us, to hockey's Person of the Year, to our favorite moments, here's theScore's NHL year in review:

• 2016 belonged to the teenagers
• Remembering those we lost in 2016
• Sidney Crosby, NHL Person of the Year

• 5 players who reached new heights in 2016

• VIDEOS: The 10 best hits of the year
• VIDEOS: The top 5 saves of 2016
• VIDEOS: 5 unforgettable goals in 2016

• 4 of our favorite moments of the year
• 5 storylines that dominated hockey in 2016
• 3 teams on the rise in 2017

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.