Well in my opinion, this was one of the funnest All Star Games/Weekends. And I think that the fantasy draft idea is great. Before this year the All Star Weekend was beginning to fade, and less and less people were watching it.
Let's start off with the fantasy draft.
I think it was fun, but I definitely think Lidstrom was better at the picks, and he also got better late round picks. Lidstrom got Brad Richards in the bottom fifteen picks, and Loui Ericksson in the bottom ten picks, which should have never happened according to their play this year. He also got Jonas Hiller at the tenth round, he should have been one of the first goalies picked as he has been Anaheim's lifeline, instead he was the last goalie picked, at the last possible time. Because of the rules all the goalies had to be picked by the 10th round, Hiller was picked in round 10. I think one of the main reason Lidstrom got so many of those players is also because Eric Staal was mostly trying to get players on his team, or family members, or people from the same area as him. Those players would be: Cam Ward, Jeff Skinner, Marc Staal, and Patrick Sharp. Staal fully showed he was doing this when he picked Cam Ward #1.
Now the skills competition.
I think the skills competition was a big hit. They added new twists like goalie races, and backwards skating races. And then Zdeno Chara blasted a bomb to beat his previous record of 105.4 mph, to set a new record of 105.9 mph, almost 106 mph! I loved the elimination shootout, and also thought the breakaway challenge was great too. The one problem I have with the breakaway challenge is that the goalies aren't trying. The NHL has got to figure out a way where the shooters can still score, but at the same time they aren't basically shooting at an empty net.
Now the game.
Although the game was fun with high scoring I would have liked to see a little bit more compete. I am completely fine with Ovechkin throwing the stick to get laughs and things like that, but when you can tell no one is trying at all, it becomes a little to silly. But at least the players did end up showcasing their skills, and it finished 11 to 10 for team Lidstrom, and I think it is all because of the late round gems I was writing about earlier.
