All Star Weekend Recap

Following the NHL All State Skills Competition Saturday, I felt the need to either drink heavily or call Montreal and ask Gary Bettman for the previous 3 hours of my life back. Here are some notes and comments I had following the debacle that the night was:

• You knew we were destined for a long night when the clocks for the fastest skater didn’t even work. Over a year to plan the event, 2 days to make sure everything was working properly, and they couldn’t even get that part right. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #1. Kudos to Andrew Cogliano for winning.
• I don’t know when they changed this but why did they move away from keeping the event an East vs. West competition? The scoring system they had made for a much more interesting night all together. Because there were points at steak for the winning side in each challenge.
• Next came the FanFav Breakaway Challenge – the lowlight of the night. If you don’t believe me, nor agree with me that this event was pointless and horrendously boring, look no further than the expression on Ryan Getzlaf’s face as he had his minute to deke some kid plucked from the streets [almost literally].
• To further discredit the event, the voting was done by text message only which speaks even further to the validity of the event. At least last season they had guys on the ice grading them to make it somewhat entertaining, and it was the best of 1 or 2 shots, not as many as you could do in a minute. Ovechkin wins the event with 42% of the fan texting vote, and a very entertaining goal. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #2.
• Luckily for the viewers, the Youngstars Game came next, unlucky for them both CBC and Versus somehow managed to screw it up by cutting to replays or interviews for too long and missing multiple goals. [get used to this, because this became a frequent occurrence for the remainder of the night.] At this point, I began to severely wonder who the hell was running this. Skills Challenge Organizers FAIL #3.
• After an actually exciting 9-5 victory by the rookies over the sophomores, the accuracy contest was held. I understand the premise behind the number and placement of the targets represents the hardest spots to score on a goalie, but I almost feel like they should add a target or two to make it a little more interesting. Malkin gets the win in a shoot-off against Shane Doan. While watching, this was the first event I had no complaints about, at all. Shocking, I know.
• The best event of the night was the Hardest Shot. Shea Webber set the tone early with a very impressive 103.4. and the mark held up until 6’9” Zedeno Chara stepped up, fired a 103 and change before blowing away both Webber and Al Iafrate’s record by hitting 105.4. my jaw hit the floor quicker than the puck hit the back of the net, straight up impressed. Because the event actually flowed flawlessly, I’ll knock off one of the Fails I gave the organizers, now they’re back to 2.
• The Elimination Shootout was a good idea on paper but then you realized two things: 1.) There are 32 players who would need to shoot at least once 2) each goalie who would be involved in the event had been doing absolutely nothing for the past 3 hours [okay, a little exaggeration] since the event started. FAIL #3. Add in a 4th fail because during just the first round of skaters, we missed multiple attempts, including Jarome Iginla’s.
• Hats off to Shane Doan, however, for winning the event. This guy had not been used by Coach Wayne Gretzky at all during the season in shootouts and here he is beating out some of the most prolific scorers in the NHL at their own craft. Another plus to him for keeping his daughter on the bench so she could experience the thrill of the night too. You see it a lot in baseball during the home run derby, but no so much in hockey. Well done Shane, I’ll pull for you and the ‘Yotes out of the West now.

The All-Star game it self on Sunday redeemed the heck out of the weekend and managed to salvage it from the path of disaster which the Skills Challenge seemed to put it destined towards. Even with god awful renditions of the national anthems, the players began to light up the scoreboard early and often. 6-2 after 1, 8-8 after two thanks to horrendous goaltending by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvst, and then 12-12 after regulation and overtime set up a shootout and thankfully not a repeat of the previous night. Kovalev scored, Ovechkin sealed it, and Doan got a shootout attempt in a game. Kovalev deservedly got MVP, with a little help from the hometown faithful, but, as stated before, the game managed to deliver the luster.

One thing of note: the NHL needs to stop trying to shove Sidney Crosby down the fans throats. That’s great that he didn’t pull a Datsyuk nor a Lidstrom and showed, but enough is enough. He isn’t even the best player in the game right now, and, frankly, I think he’s a soft wuss. That’s right, I’ll go right out there and say it, he is a wimp. If he’s not getting calls handed to him left and right by some referees, he’s diving trying to draw them. The past 2 seasons the fans have voted him to be a starter and how does he show his appreciation and thanks? By sitting out, claiming to have an injury. Carey Price has a tissue paper groin and he played. Tim Thomas played like a madman during the breakaway challenge, then again Sunday night during the 3rd period, overtime and shootout without crying, and he was in a hostile, rival city.

When I began to write this article, his return for the Penguins first game after the break against the Rangers was listed as questionable. There was zero doubt in my mind he’d be in the line up, and sure enough, he says he expects to play as of 1 am. At some point in time, he should man up and start earning some of this praise he is getting, in my opinion, very undeservedly. This isn’t jealousy nor discrediting how good of a player he is, but when you’re being toted as the best, how about you step up and act like it rather than a primadona. If you want to lose the Cindy nick name, it really is time for you to just grow up, Sidney.