Liam Maguire's Ultimate Hockey

Simply put, the 59^th edition of the NHL all-star game and the accompanying four day extravaganza was a resounding success. If the reaction from the participants, fans, the attending media and the NHL brass were any indication then the city of Ottawa received two thumbs up. Here’s what went well from my point of view.

Despite inclement weather the trophy presentation still made its way down the Rideau Canal. I found it somewhat ironic to think of the Cup on the canal ice where years ago, 1905 to be exact, a former Ottawa Senator, Harvey Pulford, drop kicked the football sized trophy as it was then, into almost the very spot where it began its trip last week.  Pulford was in, shall we say, a celebratory mood after the Senators ( then nicknamed the Silver Seven) had retained the silver mug by beating a team from Dawson City in a two-game total goal series.  It was retrieved immediately. The fan fair was a resounding success with just under 30,000 people coming through the doors to test a number of skill displays, see the NHL trophies, the Stanley Cup, get photos and an assorted group of alumni and the current all-stars were present to add to the feeding frenzy. And there was a bar…who knew? Great stuff.

The weekend was full with a variety of social activities and centered in and around the skills contest on Saturday night and the game itself on Sunday.  I have a couple of comments, thoughts and observations about all of that. Like most of you I found the skills contest lengthy but I was in attendance with my 15 year old son, we had great seats in what’s called ‘the Ledge,’ up on the fourth level of Scotiabank Place.  I knew a ton of people and I had a few pops, frankly I didn’t really notice the time it was taking to move from skill to skill. I heard some of my Ottawa compatriots complaining on the radio during Monday’s shows and in some on-line comments but frankly  I think many of them wake up each morning and wonder, ‘how can I find the black lining in today’s silver cloud?’ 

The interesting thing year to year is watching the NHL struggle to try and find a proper way to do the fastest player skill.  Not sure what was wrong with the two players starting at either end of the center line and racing around to a timed result as they did for years and as Mike Gartner did in 1993 when he set the all time mark circling the ice surface.  While I’m on the subject, here’s something I’d really like to see; why don’t the NHL invite the various teams’ winners in their respective skills to the overall championship event? Granted nobody is going to beat Chara in the hardest shot, not in the foreseeable future but the fastest skater or most accurate shooter , the other drills, why not have the top players in terms of targets and times, etc., represented at All-Star weekend?  Some would be the players selected for the game, no question but others might be just players who had a good day or who simply fly under the super star category yet can do a particular skill very well.  Overall though I enjoyed the skills contest very much and kudo’s to Patrick Kane, Cory Perry and Carey Price for keeping it as light as possible.

As for the game, I’m not sure who said it first but it’s an appropriate line. The –All-Star extravaganza is all good, until they drop the puck to play. Now that’s funny. The game had its moments. Watching from the stands we did not know Scott Hartnell was mic’d up but those comments to Phaneuf were hilarious. The player on Chara’s team, who reached out over the bench to stop a puck that was motoring around the boards, loved it.  The Thomas-Giroux exchange in front of the net, Chara holding up on the slap shot, some of the incredible passing and puck handling, it truly is amazing to witness and in a one-off game, I’m okay with it. There is no solution to improving the game as it is. The players are not going to buy in, nobody wants to get hurt, it’s simply skill on display and next year in Columbus and in the years beyond, it will be more of the same. And the same number of you will complain about the game.

During the first intermission there was a very nice tribute to some former greats who were in attendance.  Ted Lindsay, Johnny Bower, Yvan Cournoyer, Brad Marsh and Jason Spezza were selected to honour each decade since the all-star game became a permanent fixture on the NHL landscape.  There was an accompanying voice over from a young lady with footage of many of the games greats from over the years. At one point the images were that of Rocket Richard and his brother, Henri. She referred to them as the Rick-ard brothers…wow…..Might want to have an editor go over these projects in the future. I also thought that during the official player introductions things could have been spiced up. On Saturday for the skills they had photos of some of them in their youth that accompanied their introductions. Ottawa just got a brand new score board, granted the HD is not set to go on it yet but it’s huge and looks great. Why not appropriate video footage of these stars, for example for Jordan Eberle, he scored one of the biggest goals in international hockey history, certainly World Junior history, right in Ottawa. They should have had that up on the screen for both Eberle and John Tavares who passed him the puck in that epic game against the Russians.

At the end of it all, the adulation from the majority of the crowd who were Senator faithful, for their captain and long time leader, Daniel Alfredsson, was worth the price of admission. In fact that was pretty evident throughout the four days and it culminated in a crescendo during the skills when he blasted a couple of pucks over 100mph and during the game with his two goals and an assist, especially his first goal which even by all-star standards was a beauty.  All in all, Ottawa stood up to the micro-journalism that exists today-this blog included and passed the test in a big, big way. Over to you Columbus, they did a great job at the draft a few years back, I expect nothing but the best from them again even if they can’t buy a win to save their lives. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaTySgo-j9g      NHL skills contest 1970′s style.   Audio not the best but great names and video.