The East wins the NHL All-Star Skills Competition
So what’s the relevance behind this? Not too much actually. It’s more for the fans and allowing the players to have some fun on a de-facto day off. Does this event have an affect on the All-Star Game? No. Does the All-Star Game have an affect on anything? No. So do the results mean anything at all? No. All we know now is that Andy MacDonald had the fastest lap out of the six guys participating, Marian Hossa and Eric Staal both hit four targets in five shots and that Zdeno Chara can shoot the puck harder than the guys he competed against. Oh, and never forget that Rick Nash can skate and stickhandle faster than a big defenseman. Just remember to take everything that happened at face value.
East holds off West in Young Stars Game.
In a game seriously lacking anything remotely resembling defensive play, the young guns from the Eastern Conference held off a comeback attempt from the West’s kids 9-8. While it is fun to see what the future of the NHL can do, especially Evgeni Malkin, what kind of message it is sending to the kids who watch these future stars play and let their opponents walk around them? Their should be at least some effort put into defense in this game, if anything, not to just hang your goalie out to dry.