NHL All-Star Game

Once again, the All Star game is in the bag for 2012, and what a game it was. Team Zdeno Chara in blue VS Team Daniel Alfredsson in red (white/red?). Still don't quite understand since the event was held in Ottawa, Alfredsson's home arena where he plays solidly for the Ottawa Senators, but hey, I probably missed something.
As always, the skills competition was an entertaining watch. This year featured several amusing scenes such as Patrick Kane donning a Superman cape and scoring, Corey Perry taking out a goalie ministick and scoring his goal and Carey Price Tebowing after stopping a goal. Of course there were several amazing scenes also, such as Zdeno Chara proving he's still the man to beat, breaking his previous record of a 105.9 mph slap shot by nearly a whole 3 seconds, going 108.8 mph this time. Team Alfredsson beat Team Chara in the end though with a 21-12 win in the skills competition.

But then we come down to the actual game. As the skaters came onto the ice one-by-one to line up with their teams, I was anxious to once again watch a hockey all-star game. The puck dropped and the game was on. for the first few minutes the game featured solid defence as each team was getting a feel for the game. However soon would follow a cluster of goals by both teams and the 1st period would end 3-3. Marian Gaborik ended up with two goals in the period and scored his 3rd in the 2nd period for a hatrick. This included taunting at the goalie he scored on the 1st two times - his teammate Henry Lundqvist.
As the second period got underway, it was all about one man - Daniel Alfredsson. He scored two goals and ScotiaBank Place came alive with the chants of "Alfie, Alfie!" All-in-all the 2nd period would close and the teams would once again be tied at 6-6. This had a feeling like another 9-8 game coming, however this was not the case. The 3rd period started and Team Chara scored a nice 6 goals, with Tim Thomas only allowing 3 and extending his winning All-Star games steak to four, and Team Chara blasted to a 12-9 victory over Team Alfredsson. Alfredsson was denied his hatrick by Tim Thomas, and Zdeno Chara scored the game winner with 7:40 remaining in the 3rd.

Of course, an ending note is one thing - Capitals Forward Alex Ovechkin was picked as an All-Star this year but opted out since he was suspended in the league for a hit on Penguins Defenseman Zbyněk Michalek. This was clearly a protest against his suspension since the All-Star game doesn't count as a regular season game and thus his suspension doesn't count for it. He was replaced by Pittsburgh Penguins Forward James Neal.

A view on the state of the NHL - unacceptable injuries

For any hockey fan, one of the biggest concerns this season would have to be injuries. Over the entire league there has been so many star players going out with injuries, and not only minor ones, concussions being one of the main contributors. One only has to look to the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers for proof - both Sidney Crosby who was out until December with a concussion, and Chris Pronger who went out with a concussion for the rest of this season. Giroux was also down for a period of time as well. We have to ask ourselves: are star players being targeted more simply because they're better than the rest?

I know this season that they have finally brought out an official system explaining why suspensions get made and clearly showing reasoning behind their decisions, but I feel this needed to be out much sooner. Why? Because today a lot of players don't have respect for one another. Sure, up front on tv in interviews they'll say nice things, but really most of them simply don't like the other guy, maybe even hate. This goes even further when players such as Crosby, Giroux, Ovechkin, Malkin, Stamkos, etc get all the attention and praise for their hockey skills, where-as typically the big D-man or power-foward gets left in the dust, unappreciated for his talents and skillset he brings to the team to make that big star a success. Long gone are the days of Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe (who yes I know didn't hesitate to drop the gloves), Maurice "Rocket" Richard, where other players would look at them and say "yes, he's great, he's the best, I want to be like him". Now-a-days a player is more likely to cheap shot them, trip them, elbow them in the back of the head, go in for the monster hit when a simple check would do.

Now I'm not saying this is league wide, it's confined to say 5-10% of players. But these few speak volumes over the ones who play the game as it's meant to be played. If you ask me, the solution to all this is simple - increase length of game-bans (Matt Cooke's 10 game ban last season should be considered an acceptable suspension for an offence that leaves another player injured for that long - or longer), and vastly increase player fines. Fines are a joke in the NHL when you consider how much the average player gets paid. It's pocket change. I know the league is willing to fine large (last year with the Islanders comes to mind - a $100k fine), and they should consider not making players immune to is. A $10,000 base fine would be sufficient to get most of the dirty players to stop and consider making that trip, that knee-to-knee, that check to the head.

These are just my thoughts on the subject, by no means should they all be considered fact as they are just my opinion - challenge them if you will. I'm going to leave it here as suddenly my inspiration for writing has dried up and when I try to force it out it generally winds up terrible. Until next time.

Welcome To My Blog.

Hi all. I am a 21 year old Australian male who has an interest in American sports, specifically the NFL (Football) and the NHL (Ice Hockey). I also follow other sports such as the MLB (baseball) and the NBA (Basketball), though not as much as I enjoy the NHL and NFL. What I plan on posting on this blog is my views on current news and events coming from these sports and providing my outlook on them, as a non-American.

A little history about my involvement with these sports. For a long time I had remained interested in their various sports, but coming from a family who had a 56k modem internet connection and no pay-TV up until 2008 I had little to no way of watching any of these sports, as Australian TV just rarely shows any of them. As I grew up I ended up becoming more involved in Australian sports such as the NRL and the V8 Supercars, however I found these sports dull and boring to watch half the time.

Upon meeting my current girlfriend, who is a Pittsburgh girl, her support for her teams got me interested into American sports again. I started watching live streams of Pittsburgh Steelers games with her, and bought a copy of Madden 09 to learn the game. Since then my interest and support for the Pittsburgh teams has grown and I've become as big as a supporter for them as any Pittsburgh native. From there it spread to the sport in general and I love discussing about all the teams in the sports to people who are also interested.

Upon urging from my girlfriend I have decided to start a blog to write down my thoughts and views on these sports. I'm hoping this venture will be a successful one, and I attract the viewership of as many as at least 5 people. Also any Australians, come here for news! I generally have a great idea of what I'm talking about.

I look forward to writing my first post. See you soon!