The NHL All-Star game has come and gone and an event that isn’t always loved by fans had a lot of positive moments this year. Not everything was a huge win but there were so many great memories from the weekend, the hits far outweigh the misses.
While we’ll admit we didn’t love the shooting stars skills competition, here are a few of the best:
Laila Anderson Introduces Blues All-Stars
St. Louis nailed getting fans, legends and important icons involved in the festivities, but no moment gave fans the feels like when inspirational Blues fan Laila Anderson who introduced the All Stars for the hometown St. Louis Blues.
Not only was this an extremely nice gesture but Anderson nailed the intros, announcing the players with energy and vigor better than a lot of professionals could have done.
This might have been the moment of the weekend, certainly the non-hockey moment.
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Oilers and Flames Working Together
Despite all the buzz going into the game, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames didn’t just get along fine during the All-Star Game, they actually played together on a regular shift and found consistent chemistry. It was enough to drive Oilers fans crazy on social media, especially when Draisaitl potted a nice goal on an even nicer pass from Tkachuk and then was seen laughing about it.
Draistaitl later said he was just joking when his viral comments on leaving the ice made the rounds. Maybe he was and maybe he was just trying to calm the waters and be a good teammate in an environment where being bitter would have looked back. On Saturday, Draisaitl called things lighthearted. On the 29th, we’ll see if that feeling turns to anger and ferocity.
The Tkachuk Show
The weekend was one thing, but the focus on the Tkachuk family another. This really was a marketing play to promote the family, Keith, Matthew and Brady and the NHL and St. Louis went all on it.
The players talked about the match-ups between the two brothers after the game, the finals came down to those two brothers and they often overshadowed the other storylines and some fans will love it while others hate it.
Related: Pacific All-Stars Coach Tocchet Answers If He’ll Play Draisaitl and Tkachuk Together
Green Day Won’t Be Back
Someone is going to get a slap on the hands after the performance by Green Day during the game. While the NHL or Sportsnet must have known there would be a few f’bombs during the American Idiot song and promptly edited them out without much issue, I don’t think anyone was prepared when lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong tried to get the crowd pumped up by telling them to “Go fuc-ing crazy!” and put your “fuc-ing’ hands up!” Clearly, there wasn’t a seven second delay to mute his language.
** Warning: Video contains foul language
Sportsnet staff tweeted about it after the performance but you could tell everyone was a little but like ‘uh… now what? on television and none of the news reviews of the event referred to the band at all’. Needless to say, they won’t be back.
The crazy part is, no one saw this coming?
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Tomas Hertl Robbed of MVP
David Pastrnak was good. Tomas Hertl was unbelievable. Thus, the fact that Pastrnak was awarded the NHL All-Star Game MVP was a bit of a snub to Hertl, who was on the winning team and arguably the best player on any team.
Even Pastrnak said in a post-game presser, “I’m not sure who votes so if it was the fans, I appreciate the love, but the winner should have come from the winning team.”
Hertl had a number of unbelievable goals and stood out among the many stars who potted highlight reel markers.
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