Karrah's Blog: NHL All-Star Skills

Last night the NHL All-Star Skills event took place in Raleigh, North Carolina. I usually don't watch the all star games for any sports, I find them to be a little boring and old. But I have so far watched each event for the NHL all stars. I really like the new format that they've done this year. On Friday they had two captains voted by the players of the NHL, Eric Staal from Carolina Hurricanes and Nicklas Lidstrom from the Detroit Red Wings. They then had a fantasy draft where each captain with their alternate captains picked players. I really like this format, its new, fresh and different from the previous years. What I think I liked the most was seeing the players interact with each other and joke around. It's always nice to see these hockey players that you watch on the ice and hear that they are jerks actually turn out to be nice. The funniest part of the night was probably Jonathan Toews being picked so late in the draft by team Lidstrom even though Patrick Kane who is an alternate captain said he didn't want Toews on his team. Then Marc Staal brother of Eric Staal was still not picked and said that he was deeply hurt by his brother and that their mother would be upset with him. It was nice to see some of the hockey players have fun and some of them are very funny.

Last night was the skills event where there was fastest skater, hardest shot, accuracy, best breakaway, team relay and team shootout. Team Staal ended up winning by a lot but got easy points from Alex Ovechkin who should not have won best breakaway but the winner was voted by the fans. Corey Perry and P.K Subban did way better tricks that we're harder and more complex. Ovie scored on one of his runs but it was only because Marc-Andre Fleury was on the ground and didn't even bother to try and save it. During the accuracy event Daniel Sedin won by going 4 for 4. It was amazing to watch how fast and perfect he did it. Then during the team relay which Team Lidstrom won because of the perfect performance from Toews who ended up going 4 for 4 during the accuracy part.

All in all, I found that the NHL All-Star weekend is by far the best all star event in all of sports. I love all sports and watch all sports but nothing compares to the NHL all star weekend. Tonight the NFL Pro-Bowl is on and I might watch a little bit of it but I find it to be boring. The teams that are in the Superbowl don't send any players and then many players back out due to injuries they received during the season. They use to show the Pro Bowl after the Superbowl but no one cared to watch it so to try and generate more viewers they put it before the Superbowl as a kickoff to the Superbowl. I don't think it matters if it's before or after the Superbowl until the Pro Bowl gets more exciting it's not going to generate a lot of viewers. That brings me to the NBA all star game. Similar to the NHL the day before they have the Skills event where selected players compete in best dunk and team relay's, three point shot and so on. I use to watch it, but lately I haven't been watching it as much. I like to tune into the dunk competition because you never know what someone is going to do but the actual all star game is boring. Come to think about it, basketball is starting to get boring in general. I prefer watching NCAA because the game feels more real and true. In the NBA the players travel, double dribble and exaggerate everything. Finally I don't mind the home run challenge for baseball. I always wish for an underdog to come in and hit the most of out but I rarely watch the actually all star game.

Today I'll most likely tune into the NHL All Star game for at least the period where Carey Price is in net. That's just because I'm a huge Montreal Canadiens fan and I want to see how well Price does. Also my favourite player Jonathan Toews is playing and where I live the Blackhawks games are rarely broadcasting so it will be nice to see him and a few other players that I don't get to see much of play. Tonight the Pro Bowl is on and I probably won't watch any of it since my favourite player Jared Allen from my team the Minnesota Vikings didn't make it. But what I will be watching is the SAG awards and I'll post later on the best and worst dressed stars. Then I'll be recording the winter x games from Aspen because Shaun White is looking to four peat the super pipe and well I'm a huge Shaun White fan!

- Karrah!

Here are a few pictures from the All Star skills Event. All pictures are from The Toronto Sun online. Another thing I like about the All Star Skills Event is you get to see all the players without their helmets on!!