But tonight the fans were right. They were cheering for mostly every player; with a notable exception to Maple Leafs own Tomas Kaberle. To be honest, I was slightly nervous before the American national anthem but the fans behave as I hoped they would for such an event. The “Ole” chants were heard at the end of the game and it was short and sweet. They were also great during the presentations of great Habs players for the Centennial Celebrations which were kept simple and sober. And in the end, the ballot stuffing was a pretty good idea.
Alex Kovalev was one of the controversial presences at the All-Star game. His season wasn’t really good enough to deserve an invitation but his performance made him totally deserving of the MVP title and Honda car that goes along with it. When the East was leading 2-1 over the West, he accepted a great long pass from Kaberle to go alone on J.S. Giguere and made a beautiful changeup shot that would have made Mike Mussina proud. And with the game tied 7-7 late in second he was again on a breakaway and this time used his famous top shelf backhand to beat Niklas Backstrom.
Carey Price was another choice that wasn’t popular, at least as a starter, but even coming back from a somewhat long hiatus he was the best goaltender allowing only 2 goals in his 20 minutes of play. And while Andrei Markov presence at the All-Star game shouldn’t surprise anyone, it’s his second time in a row voted as a starter, Mike Komisarek needed some very vocal supporters to give some credibility to his presence in such an event. Yes, he is an important part of the team but then again, so was Guy Carbonneau and he was never invited to the All-Star game. Well, Big Mike may not have done much but he ended up getting his name on the scoresheet with the only penalty of the game and his 22:38 icetime was the highest of both teams.
So Montreal was represented with the best at every position in this game. Forward, defensemen, goalie, coach and most importantly, the fans themselves. I have seen many games in my life but I didn’t hear often the crowd scream “De-Fense” during an All-Star game. I can’t even recall it happening once. And how about the crowd reaction to Markov breaking up a three on one? This is the best example of how much Habs fans know and love hockey.
And in the end, the players gave back to the fans. It was a fun game to watch and players seem to have fun while still giving more effort than we’re used to see in a meaningless exhibition game like this. Towards the end the atmosphere was getting electric and the intensity followed.
Simply put, this was the best All-Star game I’ve ever seen in my life.
Random notes about the weekend:
- Pierre Boivin was on RDS during the Superskill competition and was asked how he felt about Vincent Lecavalier dressing up in the Canadiens dressing room. “Not only that, but tomorrow he’ll wear red and I’ll ask Claude and Guy if they can put him on a line with Kovalev a couple of times”. How about to start the game?
- Pierre Boivin also made a prediction. His mentality was that not only French speaking players but all good players elevated their game when playing in Montreal so this could be the most intense game we’ve seen in some time. And while it wasn’t intense all game long, the last couple of minutes in the third period and the overtime showed us players that seemed to genuinely want to win.
- Funny thing about the Hardest shot competition: there was a Montreal player, his arch rival, two old players from here and a player rumoured to be coming here for years. And then there was Shea Weber.
- Next year there won’t be an All-Star Game because of the Olympics but looking at the Canadiens player on that team, we may very well see most of them back to play together in Vancouver, just add Crosby and Brodeur and we’re set for another Gold medal run.
- Carey Price may have ended up with the lowest goals against but Tim Thomas was by far the most spectacular one, especially in overtime. The only reason there was a need for a shootout plays for Boston. Man I’m gonna hate myself in the morning for saying that.
- What is it with Montreal and shootout? When I heard that the overtime would be a 5 minute 4 on 4 period followed by a shootout, I would have NEVER expected to see it go scoreless for 5 minutes. Not in an All-Star game. Actually if I was a betting man, I would have put money on it finishing within the first minute. In the same vein, I wouldn’t expect a powerplay to be stopped for a full two minutes either.
- Gainey said he would like to upgrade his defensive corps and the fans would like to see him get a top four defensemen by the early look of our poll. “Tomas Kaberle passes to Kovalev who is all alone. He shoot and scores.” I could get used to hearing that.