Sunday evening was one of the best hockey moments in my entire life.
I’ve had a few special hockey moments. One would be watching my team, the Carolina Hurricanes, win the Stanley Cup in a thrilling Game 7 in 2006. Second would be Rod Brind’Amour chasing a dumped puck, stealing it from Jason Smith and Ty Conklin and depositing it into an open net for the game-winning goal in Game 1 of that series. A third is the night Ron Francis’ (my favorite player of all-time) jersey number was retired. I was in the RBC Center for the latter two events and I could have been at the first (I still regret not going, I thought we were going to lose).
So Saturday’s Skills Competition and Sunday’s All-Star Game had to be pretty darn special to be ranked among those amazing moments. Here are some snapshots of why:
The Celebrities Rained Cats and Dogs: I went to the All-Star Game festivities with my dad, which was special enough in itself. But the people we ran into that were somewhat famous were numerous. On Saturday night, we had a conversation with Pete Weber, the television play-by-play voice of the Nashville Predators, whom my dad had met a couple weeks ago when he was in Nashville with a friend. We also met James Duthie. Now, this name may be somewhat familiar if you followed all the All-Star proceedings this past weekend. He was the guy that boldly MC’d the Fantasy Draft on Friday night. My dad and I were walking around the concourse, saw him and stopped him. Yeah, I felt a little bad about that, but I don’t care, I met James Duthie! He is the kind of guy that I want to be, and getting to talk to him for a couple minutes was awesome. Today, my dad and I saw and talked to Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford for about 30 seconds (he’s always busy) and my dad talked to Jim Cain, the former US Ambassador to Denmark and a former COO for the Hurricanes. These may not be humongous celebrities, but to hockey nuts like my dad and myself, it was awesome.
Ovi Being Ovi: I just cannot get enough of Alexander Ovechkin right now. He did four things that made him more lovable to me tonight. First, when Team Lidstrom’s Matt Duchene had a breakaway and Ovechkin was the closest defender to him, #8 threw his stick on the ice at the puck, which led to an unsuccessful penalty shot. Hilarious. Second, he had a great opportunity to score, but he was denied. He keeps on skating and jumps into the boards like he scored. Third, he tried to dive and draw a penalty. There are no penalties in the ASG, come on. Fourth, when Team Staal’s Ryan Kesler’s microphone that he wore during the game came off and fell to the ice, he shot the device softly over to the side of the ice so a ref could pick it up. Classy. Congrats to #8 for getting a new fan. I always admired the way he played. Now I just like him in general until he does something dumb to a ‘Canes player. Then I hate him again.
Raleigh Gets the Stamp of Approval: Listening to NHL Home Ice on XM Radio and reading blog postings from analysts really revealed how awesome Raleigh was to the NHL’s elite and semi-elite this weekend. USA Today NHL beat writer Kevin Allen wrote a blog afterwards that listed his 10 favorite moments of the weekend. Among them: “7. The uniqueness of Raleigh. Wish I had time to go to the Biscuitville restaurant. It has a sign in the window that reads: ‘Bologna is back.’ Of course, I want to know where Bologna has been and what were the circumstances of its departure.” “8. Love hearing the story of a local journalist about how you can get anything fried in Raleigh. He told us a story of having a hamburger served between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I’m not making this up.” Team captain Nicklas Lidstrom said, “It was a great atmosphere. The crowd was really into the whole game, cheering all the goals.” Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward said after the game about opposing players that he thought “they’re going home with a different perspective on Raleigh and the game in itself, because it was just a party and entertainment.” Kevin Weekes, a former Hurricane and current analyst for the NHL Network, tweeted, “BIG success this All Star was ! On the hockey fans in NC I’ll quote Biggie “If you don’t know, now you know” - take a bow NC, great job!” Michael Farber of SI.com entitled his ASG-recap article “Raleigh will go down as biggest star of NHL All-Star weekend.”
Where’s the Run-’n-Gun I Love?: As fun as the game and the skills competition was, I miss real hockey. Seeing the stars score a combined 21 goals and shoot 90+ shots was fun indeed, made for a great time. But in the end, I can’t wait for the rest of the regular season. My ‘Canes will come back rested and ready for a charge at the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Thanks to the NHL and Raleigh for a fantastic All-Star weekend, but let’s get back to the hockey where players dish devastating body checks, wicked slap shots and hard fought board battles.