The NHL's All-Star Weekend is in the books.
With all the talk of young players dominating the All-Star rosters this season it was the old guy Sidney Crosby who walked away with his first-ever All-Star MVP Award after posting eight points in two games and helping the Metropolitan Division win the $1 million overall prize.
Elias Pettersson's host Pacific Division team did not fare well, eliminated in the first round after losing 10-4 to the Central Division. Poor John Gibson got roasted by the San Jose fans as he was torched for seven goals on nine shots in the 10-minute first period. Not surprisingly, Pacific coach Bill Peters dished out big dollops of ice time to his three Sharks players, Burns, Karlsson and Pavelski, as well as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and his boy Johnny Gaudreau. That left Petey to skate primarily with Clayton Keller and Drew Doughty.
The Pacific team was already down 2-0 before Pettersson even got his first shift, 2:39 into the game. In a team-low 5:13 of ice time, Petey was held off the scoresheet but had four shots on goal, two takeaways, one giveaway, and went 2-for-3 in the faceoff circle. His best chance was probably his attempted stuff on Pekka Rinne on a move that looked similar to the penalty-shot goal he scored against Nashville back in December. This time, Rinne was able to hold his ground.
Earlier in the weekend, Pettersson was notably star-struck over the opportunity to meet legend Henrik Lundqvist. He seemed to particularly enjoy the opportunity to spend time with some of his fellow Swedish stars.
One other Canucks-related note from San Jose: anthem duties for O Canada were handled by country singer Chad Brownlee, a native of Kelowna who was drafted by Vancouver in the sixth round in 2003.
One for the books. 🇨🇦 #NHLAllStarGame @NHL @Canucks pic.twitter.com/XrfP4fMAJU
— Chad Brownlee (@ChadBrownlee) January 28, 2019
As for the rest of the Canucks, this year's big group destination was Cabo San Lucas. Via Instagram stories, I've been able to place Boeser, Stecher, Virtanen, Hutton, Gudbranson, Eriksson and Tanev at this location—and there may be more.
Elsewhere, Jacob Markstrom is in Scottdale, Thatcher Demko is in his hometown of San Diego and Bo Horvat and his fiancee Holly are in Palm Springs.
I believe the plan is for the group to reconvene for practice on Thursday and Friday before getting back to game action on Saturday night in Denver. Playtime's over starting this weekend; the Canucks will kick off their stretch run with a four-in-six road trip, starting with an important game against the Colorado Avalanche, who currently hold the second wild-card spot in the West—tied with Vancouver with 52 points, but with one game in hand.
Elsewhere, the AHL's All-Star Weekend is now underway. On Sunday, Utica Comets sniper Reid Boucher hit four targets in six attempts to share the win in the league's shooting accuracy contest with Francis Perron of the San Jose Barracuda.
The All-Star Challenge goes Monday at 4 p.m. PT, with the league's four divisions squaring off against each other in 3-on-3 action. Here are the details—all times listed here are ET.
For those interested, Reid Boucher and the North Division play at 7:40, 8:10 and 9:20 p.m. on Monday during #AHLAllStar Challenge
— O-D Comets (@OD_Comets) January 27, 2019
(Skills events announced Sunday)
You can catch the game on Sportsnet One and stream it free on AHL TV.
Finally, if you want a thorough rundown on all the Canucks prospects who were in action over the weekend, you'll find it all here.
Canucks prospects tracker: Woo a road warrior on western trip https://t.co/yaElx7MUsZ pic.twitter.com/mQ9UglqkFA
— Province Sports (@provincesports) January 28, 2019
The good: Jett Woo, who's producing at nearly a point-a-game pace for the Moose Jaw Warriors this season. He's positioning himself to cause some arguments next year at training camp—he turns 19 in July, so he won't be eligible for the AHL; his options will be making the Canucks or spending another year in junior and taking another crack at the World Juniors roster for Team Canada.
At the other end of the spectrum, the weekend did not go so well for Mikey DiPietro, who's finding himself in a brewing goalie controversy in Ottawa, or for Quinn Hughes, whose defensive deficiencies were on full display in Michigan's big-stage game against Penn State at Madison Square Garden.