A New Record Broken

East 8, West 7
Scoresheet - Wash Post - AJC

Better late then never. After going through a couple of days in pain and finally getting my fillings replace today, I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the All Star game. So here are a few thoughts on the game.

The opening was actually pretty cool. The Hives started the festivities and played through the introductions. It was a classy move to put Ilya Kovalchuk on the starting line up, and Chris Osgood and Rick DiPietro both took goaltending starting honors. Nearly 20 minutes later we were ready to drop the puck.

Alex Ovechkin played a stand out first period, and the announcers were a bit fawning over him. Which is better than hearing Sid "the Kid" Crosby every other second. Ovie didn't fail to perform netting two goals and becoming the first Capital to three goals. Mike Gartner held that record with a mere 2 goals in four All Star appearances. Ovie was able to break it in two All Star appearances. He shared a line with Jason Spezza and Martin St. Louis.

The game started like every All Star game, a bit tentative and a little slow. But it didn't take long for the game to jump up a notch when the West made a comeback. In the second period Evgeni Nabokov stone cold stopped fellow countryman Ilya Kovalchuk not once but twice, keeping the Atlanta All Star from scoring in front of the home crowd.

In the third period the action started to get furious as the speed had picked up and the action came to a dramatic ending. The West eradicated a 4 goal lead by the East and took the lead in the third. Then Marc Savard capped a furious series of goal scoring chances with a game winning goal for the East.

Eric Staal took MVP honors. Rather stole them, Rick Nash who scored a hattrick and helped the West come back was I thought a shoe in for MVP, or at the very least former Thrasher Marc Savard with his last minute goal. But it was Staal who had two goals and an assist. It seemed to me that Nash was robbed.

Overall the game started slow, but ended great. The game was a perfect showcase for the NHL. Now it's time to move on and the Caps have a team to catch in Carolina and they can do that with a win in Montreal Tuesday night. The Caps are a point behind and can leap frog a good number of teams to end up in third. There is a lot of season left though.