First off I have to say, what the heck was up with that rendition of Oh Canada? Blech, bring back Roseanne Barr for crying out loud!
The Game: High scoring, you bet (I believe that was the 3rd highest scoring all-star game ever). You know, I’ve listened to a lot of people malign the all-star game as useless fluff and a waste of time. I don’t know about any of you, but I look forward to the game and thought that this year’s game was pretty intense and well played. How about that 1st period check thrown by Sheldon Souray when he lost his stick…ya, that’s about it for hitting though. Hey, who was that guy wearing Yanic Perreault’s uniform? I mean that guy was a great offensive player; any Hab fan knows that could not have been Yanic! Pretty good all-star game though, in my book. Everyone played hard and it looked like the boys all had fun.
The goalies: Man I felt sorry for those guys. With no hitting the skilled players just had too much time to victimize the poor keepers. Luongo & Miller handled the first period well allowing 3 goals each, Luongo got bumped a couple of times and had his mask removed by an errant stick. Who would have seen that coming in an all-star game? In the 2nd, Broduer made some nice saves, including the save of the game, but was a victim of some pretty good goals allowing 6 while Kipper made some good saves while allowing 3. On to the 3rd, hometown hero Marty Turco made some great saves while allowing 3 and my boy Christobal Huet allowed the fewest goals at 2 but he had the fewest shots, still, the Christowall was up. My choice for best goalie of the game is Marty Turco, even though it looked like he pulled a Gerry Cheevers on Souray’s goal “We had a 3 goal lead, he could have killed me…so I got out of the way”.
The Telecast: I noticed some different camera angles and some really bad camera work, not something I’m used to seeing on CBC or even TSN/RDS. I’m guessing Versus is fairly new to hockey coverage…I thought it showed, especially in the 1st period. The rail cam, hmm, I didn’t like it. While it provided those neat different angles, it offered a limited view and made it feel more like a video game. CBC’s intermission coverage was good and pretty much as expected. No matter how much my fellow Habs fans want to bash the CBC and call them Hockey Night In Toronto, I still believe these guys to be the gold standard in hockey telecasts.
Ron McLean: I’ve always liked this guy, but when I see how he makes Gary Bettman squirm, I believe I love him. Ron asks tough questions, the ones many of us would ask, backs them up with hard data and out and out pisses Bettman off. Good work Ronnie. The only thing I didn’t care for with Ron’s very well thought out division alignment…you’d never have the chance to see 2 Canadian teams in the Stanley Cup finals. When Don Cherry retires, I really look forward to Ron working with my favorite goalie, Kelly Hrudey. Those two have great chemistry, almost as good as Ron & Grapes.
Cassie Campbell: She’s proving to be a nice addition to the Hockey Night In Canada team, I really like her style, her hockey knowledge is as good as anyone on HNIC and she improves every time I see her.
The new uniforms: Well, the sweaters would be nice if just one team wore them (I saw the new Habs jersey in a store yesterday and really liked it) but come on, all 30 teams in virtually identical sweaters is just so unimaginative, guys. The combo of sweater, pants and socks being the same colour (especially the dark ones the West wore) gave it a real Rollerball look to me.
Best part of the game for me: I got to see Chrisobal Huet, Sheldon Souray & Sidney Crosby on the ice in the same uniform at the same time. Was this a Habs fan dream glimpse in to the future???
