Judging from yesterday's comments, some of you did not enjoy the All-Star Fantasy Draft as much as I did. I was laughing out loud on more than one occasion at the ridiculousness of it all.
Even jaded Chicago Blackhawks beat writer Mark Lazerus seemed to enjoy it—and the media cover it off a TV feed from a separate room.
I'm almost disappointed that this is entertaining. I was all ready to make fun of it for two hours.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 24, 2015As Lazerus points out, allowing the players to drink from opaque plastic cups filled with god-knows-what certainly livened up the proceedings.
Give the NHL credit for letting these guys, um, enjoy themselves on live television. Risky, but definitely made for an entertaining show.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 24, 2015If you're looking for confirmation that there was some imbibing taking place:
No sign of @ovi8 's liver at optional skate this morning...... #NHLAllStarWeekend
— Strombone (@strombone1) January 24, 2015Not surprisingly, Luongo was one of the go-to interviews of the night. He got his wish after saying he wanted to join Team White because his kids liked the uniforms better—he has the whole family with him in Columbus.
Ovi was one of the running storylines of the event. He embraced the idea of being picked last so that he could win the new 2015 Honda Accord, but was ultimately foiled when the was chosen third-to-last by Team Foligno.
To make matters worse, both of the final two picks were given cars—and injury replacement Filip Forsberg might actually be able to use his! He and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ended up being the final selections.
First-overall pick went to Nick Foligno's Columbus linemate Ryan Johansen—an excellent hometown choice and a feather in the cap of a local boy from Port Moody.
Team Toews saved Phil Kessel any awkwardness by using their first pick on him—but then traded him for Tyler Seguin later in the proceedings after the teams were encouraged to make some kind of a deal. Even the NHL wants to see more player movement.
The Canucks' Radim Vrbata was chosen by Team Foligno near the lower-middle part of the pack. It's probably not surprising that he skipped over the interview section after he was chosen. Meanwhile, host Daren Millard expressed relief that he didn't have to deal with the complexity of identifying the Sedin twins.
Vrbata will be in two events at today's Skills Competition: shooting accuracy and the shootout.
If you're interested, here are the rosters for the two teams. Team Toews ends up one forward short due to the absence of Sidney Crosby, and will be coached by Peter Laviolette, while Team Foligno will work under the guidance of Darryl Sutter.
And here's the full list of participants in today's Skills Competition.
Embrace the silliness! We should see plenty more hijinx today.
Comets Check-In
Thanks to Boonerbuck for linking to this interview with Utica Comets' coach Travis Green on the progress of first-year pro Hunter Shinkaruk, second-year player Nicklas Jensen and new defensive acquisition Andrey Pedan.
Shinkaruk is progressing, but has a ways to go:
A lot of young guys, they try to base how they’re playing on goals and assists. But I think Hunter has done a good job in not getting caught up in that...He’s learning now, where he’s coming out of those battles with the puck. I’m not as worried about playing him in a one-goal lead late in the game as I was 15 to 20 games ago.
He's following the same development path as Jensen, who has evolved into a solid two-way player:
I went through that with (Nicklas) Jensen last year, where he wasn’t used to not being on the ice late in the game. That’s just part of learning. I’ve seen Jensen’s game improve this year to where he kills penalties now, so his minutes have gone up.
And he sees Pedan as a potentially solid future NHLer:
Most nights, he’s a 20-plus-minute guy for us. He’s a real good skater for a big guy and has a bullet of a shot. Hopefully, in another year you’ll be able to say this guy’s got a chance to be a real good No. 5 or No. 6 defenceman who’s hard to play against.
The Comets are still playing right through this weekend: the AHL All-Star Skills Competition runs tomorrow, and the game is on Monday. For the first time this season, the Comets are on an uncharacteristic three-game winless streak heading into tonight's match in Rockford against the IceHogs. They lost 5-1 to Grand Rapids last night—with Joacim Ericsson allowing three goals on 35 shots (the other two goals were empty-netters). Jacob Markstrom was in net for the previous two losses to Milwaukee—a 2-1 defeat at home on Jan. 16 and a 3-2 shootout loss on the road on Jan 21.
The Comets will still go into their All-Star Weekend in first place in their North Division, but their 54 points are only good for a tie with Rockford for second place in the Western Conference—well behind the conference-leading Oklahoma City Barons, who have 61 points.
Nevertheless, Travis Green will be coaching the Western Conference side at the All-Star Game on Monday, which will feature Comets Cal O'Reilly, Bobby Sanguinetti and Markstrom.
The Skills Competition will be televised Sunday from 5-7 p.m. on Sportsnet 360 (right after the NHL All-Star Game concludes), and the AHL All-Star Game runs on Monday at 4:00 on Sportsnet Pacific.