All-Star Weekend Highlights

 The past four days have been pretty busy for the NHL All-Stars as they traveled to Ottawa for the big game.  The weekend was full of memorable highlights, especially for the 17 players who were making their first appearances at the game. In this blog post I'll talk about the five biggest highlights from the weekend. 

1. The Fantasy Draft- On Thursday night, Zdeno Chara and Daniel Alfredsson took to the stage to select the teams that would compete this weekend. After winning the puck flip, Team Chara surprised many people and chosen Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk with the first pick. The two captains and their assistants, Joffury Lupal for Chara and Henrik Lundqvist for Alfredsson, went back and forth picking players until there were only two left. Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars and Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks were the final two and in the end Benn went to Team Chara and Couture to Team Alfredsson. For being picked last, Couture was given a new Honda Crosstour and $10,000 for a charity of his choice. The players and the fans all had a good time and the draft has become an exciting way to kick off the weekend.
2. The Breakway Challenge- Saturday night was the Super Skills competition and one of the more exciting events is always the Breakaway Challenege. Alex Ovechkin had won this event the past three years but since he was not at the game the oppertuntity for someone else to win was there. Three players from each side were given the oppertunitity to do what ever crazy moves they wanted and then fans could text in and vote for their favorites. Goalie Carry Price was defending the nets for Team Chara and was also giving CBC some play by play as he made silly moves to try to mock the shooters. One of the more memorable highlights came from Corry Perry of Team Chara who dropped his gloves and stick and pulled out a mini-stick from his equipment before scoring a goal on Brian Elliot. However, the most voted shot came from Patrick Kane of Team Chara who put on a Superman cape and some Clarke Kent glasses then slid on his stomach, passed the puck from his hand to his stick and knocked it in with one hand. It was a super move both on the difficulty and on the entertainment value. This event was a big fan favourite and should remain so for a while. 
3. The Hardest Shot Competiton- Coming into this competition, there was a lot of build up of who would have the harder shot, Shea Weber of Nashville and Team Alfredsson or Zdeno Chara of Boston and Team Chara. During the 2010 Olympics, a Weber one timer against Russia beat the goalie and ripped a hole in the netting for a goal. And last year in Carolina, Chara broke the hardest shot record with a 105.9 mph shot. This year was even more historic. All four of Chara's shots broke the record and his hardest reached 108.8 mph. Weber got his up to 106 mph but he still was unable to top the master Chara who has now won the event five years in a row. This will be a heated competition between two powerful shooters for years to come.
4. The 59th All-Star Game- The game was held on Sunday afternoon and though it was not as action packed as an actual hockey game, it was still entertaining. In the end Team Chara beat Team Alfredsson 12-9 but the game was a lot closer than the score showed.  Players like the Sedin twins, Pavel Datsyuk and Marian Hossa were constantly setting up highlight reel passing plays while Joffury Lupal and Scott Hartnell were able to offer the CBC's audience some funny comments. In the first period, Steven Stampkos of Team Alfredsson was awarded a penalty shot and even though he tried a cool spin move, Jimmy Howard shut the door. The NHL was also able to get Canadian superstar rapper Drake to perform during the second intermission and it was cool to see how even the stars of the hockey world get pictures and autographs from the singer. The player that won the MVP award was Marian Gaborik of the NY Rangers and Team Chara who finished the game with three goals and an assist. He also was awarded a Honda Crosstour and $20,000 in his name to a charity of his choice. In all it was a more exciting game than recent years and I think that can be attributed to the fact that this is the first time going for many players. The players were very happy and privileged to be chosen for this game and they wanted to put on a good show, which they did. 
5. Daniel Alfredsson- The captain of the hometown Ottawa Senators and the face of that franchise was front and center all weekend. Every where he went cheers of "Alfie! Alfie!" could be heard and whenever his name was announced over the PA system, huge cheers erupted from the stands. So when Alfredsson scored a goal in the game the arena went crazy with cheers and the next faceoff was paused so he could acknowledge his fans as they gave a standing ovation. And when he scored a second goal the same cheers came again and the anticipation of a hat trick was on everyone's mind. Tough he hit the post and had many oppertuntities in the final moments, Alfredsson could not get the third but that didn't really matter to anyone. What mattered is Alfredsson at age 39 had one of the most memeorable weekends of his NHL career and it was an exciting journey to follow as a fan and a blogger. 

Next season the game and festivities will be held in Columbus Ohio as announced by Gary Bettman on Friday. They have a lot to live up to though as the fans in Ottawa were crazy and loud the whole time. Some people still wonder if this event is actually important to the game and besides the fact that it brings in lots of money and promotion, I think the players actually enjoy it. Obviously the game was missing some of the biggest names because of injury such as Johnathan Toews, Sid Crosby and the suspended Alex Ovechkin, but the event still was a great showcase of what the game has to offer. I look forward to it every year and will do so again for Columbus next year. 

 

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