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Some might say Meditations Of A Goof, but one man's trash . . .
The title of this blog is inspired by the NHL All-Star Skills Competition I had the pleasure of attending last night at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. For the most part, it was a whole lot of silliness signifying nothing, but I can safely say the 20,000 plus who packed the building left feeling entertained and caught up in the good feelings evident in the players.
That, to me, was the best part of the evening: seeing the players bond in the spirit of the two 'amalgamated' teams (Toews and Foligno). Really impressed to see "mega stars" like Alex Ovechkin giving sticks away to the crowd. Great to see Patrick Kane joking around with former teammate Dustin Byfuglien. And yes, Ryan Johansen's well-orchestrated breakaway "moves" definitely stole the show in an obviously Central Ohio-dominated crowd.
That was another thing that was really great to see: all the colors of the NHL represented in the various sweaters, not to mention the accents of those that wore them—Maple Leaf blue, Rangers, a large percentage of Penguin fans, Sabres, Senators, Canadiens, Wild, Bruins, Blues, I had a fun conversation with two Islander fans at dinner after the game.
But by far, the most popular sweater, after the home Columbus Blue jackets, was that of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The competitions themselves were interesting to varying degrees.
I thought fastest skater seemed to favor Team Foligno due to their skating counter-clockwise and perhaps some bad ice on the far turn for Team Toews. The passing portion of the Relay looked incredibly difficult. Anyone else notice how virtually all the shooters in hardest shot were right handers?
And Corey Crawford definitely gave Team Toews an outside shot at a comeback in the shootout, where he acquitted himself well in shutting down some of the league's top one on one players in rapid fire fashion.
So tonight, Team Toews tries to gain a measure of redemption—and Jonathan Toews' personal desire to even the score could make it a more competitive game than usual.
Should be fun.
All for now,
JJ
Chicago Blackhawks Blogger • 
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