All in all it was a very successful return to All Star Weekend for Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby. The world's best player had not taken part as a participatory member since the 2007 season. Over the years the league has cancelled the game because of the Olympics and the other years Crosby had various injuries which held him out, some worse than others.
On Friday night Sidney Crosby was included as one of the best 100 players of all-time.
Saturday night saw him win the accuracy competition, score on his breakaway, and flawlessly complete the stick handling portion of his relay assignment.
Last night he was part of the victorious Metropolitan Division team. He along with his other teammates will get to split the one million dollar price.
The champs are here. #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/W6lluobPqa
— NHL (@NHL) January 30, 2017
Crosby finished with a goal and an assist and the cool part about that was having Alexander Ovechkin on the scoresheet as part of those points. Coach Gretzky gave everybody the duo that they wanted to see
METRO WINS!
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 29, 2017
Crosby with a backhand beauty, as per usual.
See you soon, Pacific. pic.twitter.com/r3D3BlCazS
That was Sidney Crosby's first ever all star goal and point. Yes you read that correctly.
Crosby to Ovechkin is something that really happened.
Crosby → Ovechkin → GOAL! 🚨
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 29, 2017
Our whole world is being turned upside down. pic.twitter.com/Rb9RtPu1Px
That was with one second left in the period.
It probably would have happened more often, but the Crosby/Ovechkin duo was saddled with probably the defenseman with the least offensive upside in the tournament. Ryan McDonagh isn't a bad player, but the things he does well aren't really highlighted in a 3 on 3 tournament. As a result I thought he held back the potential of Crosby and Ovechkin doing some cool things out there.
Ovechkin on if he is friends with Crosby now: "Yes. Best friends.… pic.twitter.com/yuMG1EUj7r
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 30, 2017
Sid and Ovie exchanged sticks after the game.
Cam Atkinson was Evgeni Malkin's replacement and it was a great choice. Atkinson's skill set is perfect for three on three hockey and it showed. He finished with three goals and two assists.
Wayne Simmonds was the MVP for the event and was a deserving choice. He had the game winning goal in the finals. Throughout both games he flashed his ability to handle the puck with some nice moves and isn't that what this game is for?
The Metropolitan Division may not have had the best defense trio in the tournament, but their goaltending was great. Both Sergei Bobrovsky and Braden Holtby did a wonderful job in an environment which is certainly not conducive to goaltender success. Holtby pitched a shutout during his ten minutes sample in the final game.
After the game Sid talked about his experiences from the weekend:
Crosby: "Our bench was pretty loose. We had a lot of fun there."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 30, 2017
It's safe to say that Sidney Crosby enjoyed his time at #NHLAllStar. pic.twitter.com/hkRYsTu4ey
Pittsburgh's former first line got together for a photo
#66 #10 #68 -Pittsburgh Penguins 1997 first line.....almost unstoppable 😀💪 pic.twitter.com/i3ikirAmN6
— Jaromir Jagr (@68Jagr) January 29, 2017
I'm not much for the plus/minus stat (it is garbage), but the people who think Jonathan Toews is an all-time top 100 player are the people that do like it. The Chicago Blackhawks trio (Toews, Kane, Keith) was a combined -9 in their blowout loss to the Pacific Division.
Pittsburgh will resume game action tomorrow night when they host the Nashville Predators.
Thanks for reading!