One star stood out from the crowd with his arrogant behavior at the NHL all-star event, writes hockey journalist Sami Hoffrén.
of the NHL The regular season is a long and tough 82-game stretch for the players. Sometimes it's good to breathe oxygen.
The past week was a well-deserved rest break for the players, when the NHL celebrated the traditional star event over the weekend.
This time, the hulabaloo, harnessed as the NHL's money-making machine, was organized in the heart of the puck universe in Toronto. 45 players were seen at the event. There were only Finns involved Sebastian Aho.
Sebastian Aho (right) and Elias Lindholm (left) posed with pop star Justin Bieber in the center circle before Saturday's mini-tournament.
The other players in the series were allowed to spend time on the Caribbean beaches or in other vacation destinations of their choice.
You can have many opinions about the star weekend, but this event was quite well built and organized.
In recent years, the NHL's all-star event has been a stuffy, boring chore that needed a quick update. Working files had been made for Toronto.
Nine after a year's break, the star teams were assembled under the leadership of the captains in the booking ceremony, which was a good change.
The idea is good. Only the execution was lame. The reservation event left an unfinished taste.
The TV broadcast dragged along awkwardly slowly and the players, who had stiffened up, drew lots with the celebrity captains for their selections. A singer who served as one of the celebrity captains Michael Bublé was spinning on the stage in his own words.
Michael Bublé (center) was in a jovial mood at the star-studded event's booking event.
Nathan MacKinnon – one of the captains – revealed after the booking event that the players didn't even know in advance where the event would be held. MacKinnon thought that the drafting would take place in a studio environment, and not in front of an almost packed audience in the Arena.
This time, the skills competition was organized in such a way that 12 players were selected in advance for the skaba, who competed for the million dollar winning pot with a playoff-like scheme. The concept worked.
Less surprisingly, the million pot was claimed by Edmonton's megastar Connor McDavidwho was also involved in designing the renewed pinball tracks.
In the past, the skills competition day was the most boring part of the star weekend, but the skills competition starred by few and selected players had more of a do-it-yourself mood. The players even had to pulse. This reform will continue.
I'm kidding the most embarrassing episode of the event weekend was seen on Friday.
The NHL star-studded event is not the most serious thing in the world, but the players should have enough professional pride that no one comes to the stage knowingly to embarrass themselves and fool around at the expense of the paying public.
Nikita Kucherov clearly disagreed. The Tampa Bay Lightning superstar was the most embarrassing revelation of the star-studded event.
Kucherov, 30, is one of the best hockey players in the world and currently leads the NHL in points, but in Friday's skills competition he looked like a spoiled brat from a rich family who was forcibly dragged to aunt's sixties.
Kucherov's “don't care” attitude may have been cool bullshit in his own opinion. Gosh! Venäläistähti's actions were arrogant, arrogant pranks. The audience's booing concert was fully deserved.
Crazy diva behavior from a star making $9.5 million a season.
If he didn't catch it once, a grown man could have opened his mouth and given his place to another player. There would certainly have been enough entrepreneurs willing to offer a better show.
However, you have to give Kutšerov points for the fact that he carried his “villain” role to the end. In Saturday's mini-tournament, he didn't fall into excessive fooling around, but even tried to play like everyone else.
When Kucherov prepared for his attempt in the opening game's winning shootout, the crowd started the familiar boos in that direction. Kucherov incited the audience even more by waving his hand in the direction of the audience. There you go!
As a whole Saturday's mini-tournament was familiar. The 3-on-3 scrimmage matches remotely resemble ice hockey, but didn't the fans get something for their money?
Connor McDavid participated in the seventh NHL all-star event of his career over the weekend.
From time to time the tempo in the games got surprisingly high and the players at least half-seriously tried to play for the win. The final of the tournament was even moderately entertaining, with a million dollar winning check on the table.
The crowning of a successful weekend was the victory of the mini-tournament by Toronto's golden bat by Auston Matthews skippered the bunch that beat McDavid's team in the final.
The team captained by Auston Matthews won the mini-tournament.
Fortunately, next year, instead of a star-studded event, hockey fans will be offered competitive
hockey in the long-awaited best-versus-best national team tournament. It was about time.
The star event is on the docks when four countries, Finland, Canada, the United States and Sweden, collide in a four-nation tournament in Montreal and Boston.
A lot can be expected from this event. At the same time, we will see where the top of the world really goes and what kind of hockey succeeds in the top tournament.
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