A Look Back on NHL All Star Weekend

Hurricanes Eric Staal and Red Wings Nicklas Lidstrom were excellent choices to be the team captains at this weekend's NHL All Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina

           

Heading into this weekend’s NHL All Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina, there were mixed reviews regarding the new fantasy draft formatting. It was believed that the players wouldn’t be open to the draft, but I think it was just the opposite.

            To begin, Eric Staal and Nicklas Lidstrom were excellent choices to be the team captains.  At 40 years old, Lidstrom was the oldest and most experienced all star and it will be one of his final seasons in the league (unless he tries to follow Chris Chelios’ footsteps). Staal was the hometown hero, so as long as he took care of his ‘boys’, he’d be in the fans good books.

            I found the draft very entertaining to watch, even though I didn’t agree with some of the selections. A few come to mind. For example, Cam Ward going first overall was a little puzzling. Yes, Ward was Staal’s ‘boy’ and had to be his goalie, but I don’t think Lidstrom would have picked a goalie with his first pick anyway

            I was also surprised that Phil Kessel was chosen last. Yes, many thought that he was the worst player of the 36 all stars, but in my opinion he would be the perfect player for this kind of game. The Maple Leafs forward has a killer wrist shot, but his backchecking isn’t anything to write home about. That is exactly the kind of player who excels in an all star format. He would be able to dipsy-doodle around the offensive zone and meander aimlessly back towards his defensive zone at his own pace. Instead, I really thought that St. Louis Blues forward David Backes should have been the last player selected. He’s more of a power forward and one who plays a ‘grinding’ dump and chase style of game. Since there’s no hitting during the all star game, he would almost be useless on the ice.

            Saturday night’s skills competition was also entertaining to watch. Having 16 top rookies was a great way for the league to promote some of their young talent and future all stars. The best moment of the event had to be the goalie version of the fastest skating contest. Tim Thomas looked to have the early edge over Cam Ward before completely blowing a tire turning around the net. Ward went on to win the race. The NHL did a great job with some of the new events, although the relay competition that involved several different skills took far too long to complete.

            As for the game itself, it was a typical all star fiasco for most of the first two periods.  It was evident that the players started to kick it up a notch with Team Lidstrom up 7-6 late in the second frame. The game was entertaining in the third, as the players started to compete harder. We saw the first ever all star game penalty shot in that final period, when Alex Ovechkin threw his stick at Matt Duchene (Duchene was then stopped by Henrik Lundqvist). In the end, Team Lidstrom was victorious 11-10 over Team Staal. Patrick Sharp won the game MVP with a goal and two assists. He’ll definitely be driving fellow Thunder Bay natives Eric, Jordan and Marc Staal around during the off season.

            Looking back on the weekend, I thought it was a success. The draft was great to see and created some intriguing storylines for the rest of the weekend. The moment that caused the world to giggle was when Phil Kessel was about to be selected last. When he was sitting all alone, Alex Ovechkin pulled out his Blackberry and snapped a picture of him with his incredibly great (cough) smile beaming. For those who didn’t see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scg8Vzu7PK4 (go to the 30 second mark).

            Seeing Jeff Skinner excel throughout the weekend was also cool. I’m proud to say that he sniped a few past me during my ‘hay day’. Lastly, Daniel and Henrik Sedin were on different teams for the first time EVER, so that was definitely cool.

            I think the NHL should use the same format again at next year’s all star game in Ottawa. Besides, 1.5 million people viewed the draft Friday night on TSN. It appeared that the players were open to all of the changes and all in all, the entire weekend was a success.