Picture of the day (and All-Star thoughts)

January 24, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Okay who didn’t love Alexander Ovechkin’s final chance in the trick shot competition earlier tonight?  Countryman and former blood rival Evgeni Malkin even helped with the props, which included using two sticks, wearing dark glasses, a dopey straw hat and a Canadian flag on top.  I’m sure the last of those props guaranteed Ovechkin’s second straight win in the competition with over 40 percent of the fan vote - even over hometown choice Alexei Kovalev.

As far as the rest of the skills competition, it had its moments.  The hardest shot competition it almost seemed as if the sticks were corked.  Shea Weber had a 103+ MPH shot that I thought would surely win but of course Big Z himself – Zdeno Chara – set a record with a shot that was over 105 MPH (don’t remember the exact number offhand).  In an inspired move, Chara and the other hardest shooters pooled some money and in conjunction with the NHL and NHLPA, wound up donating $24,000 to Chara’s charity - Right to Play.

The fastest skater competition was won by Edmonton’s Andrew Cogliano, who skated around the rink in just over 14 seconds.  New Jersey’s Zach Parise tied for third in the six-player field.  Unfortunately the event was marred by a clock malfunction, so times had to be kept the old fashioned way, by a stopwatch.  I’m surprised they didn’t have the refs use a sundial

Malkin wound up winning the most accurate shot competition, nosing out Ottawa’s Dany Heatley after both went 4-4 in the initial round.  I really had no interest in the YoungStars game considering no Devils were in it and it’s three-on-three pond hockey anyway, but did pay attention long enough to know that Boston’s Blake Wheeler won MVP, ironically enough getting the best of Carey Price, who wound up pulling double duty starting both this game (as an injury replacement) and the All-Star game tomorrow.

And finally the breakaway competition, which seemed like a Home Run Derby-type marathon, with every All-Star getting a shot in the first round.  It was near-impossible to keep track of who was shooting against who, even in the final stages since goalies alternated like crazy.  Parise missed his only attempt, probably just as well since we wouldn’t want him showing all his shootout moves in an exhibition.  I’m sure Boston’s Claude Julien had Rick DiPietro-like flashes seeing some of the taxing saves his goaltender Tim Thomas made during the competition.

If the competition was long, it also did provide some of the most comic moments, mainly from Boston’s Marc Savard who assisted Doc Emrick and Brian Engblom in the commentary all while advancing to the final himself, though his last ‘goal’ was somewhat dubious considering he was shooting against teammate Thomas, who clearly took a dive to get his teammate into the final (granted earlier Savard had lost an edge on another attempt against Thomas, he got a reprieve when the other shooters also missed).  Finally the Coyotes’ Shane Doan beat out Savard in the final when Savard was stopped by the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist.

One last note while I’m at it…maybe the NHL didn’t make a popular decision suspending Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom one game for not attending the All-Star festivities in Montreal but personally I don’t have a problem with it.  Part of the reason All-Star games are a joke these days is that half the selected team invent reasons not to go.  If a player has a serious injury obviously they shouldn’t make the trip and they probably wouldn’t be able to play two or three days after the All-Star game if that was the case anyway.  And while All-Star games may not get high ratings on TV it is important for the league and the fans in the host city for the players to be there and promote the sport.