Pro Sports Blogging

The NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft brought a few laughs and very few surprises with Alfredsson stacking his team with compatriots and teammates and Chara doing much of the same. The Battle of Ontario was alive and well, with Team Chara opting for all of the Maple Leafs players available for this draft and the fans taking every single chance that they could get to boo the Leafs. On the ice, fans boo players every time that they touch the puck; in the draft, the fans boo players every time that they touch the mike, as Lupul barely got a chance to speak.

It was a fun, light-hearted event with players showing tremendous respect for each other. Pavel Datsyuk, the first overall pick, was viewed as incredibly deserving on both sides. Logan Couture was the last pick of the night, despite the fact that Jamie Benn is still recovering from surgery and is largely unknown as far as all stars go.

Of the few surprises on the night, it was a bit surprising to see Benn pull ahead of Couture, given that Couture had a great rookie season, has done tremendously with the San Jose Sharks and is locally known for his time in Ottawa as a 67. It couldn’t have worked out better for Alfie, though, picking up another local, and Couture took it well in stride, being awarded the Kessel mobile, the best twitter comment by far on last year’s infamous moment.

The second surprise of the night was Team Alfie picking Brian Elliott when goaltender Jimmy Howard was still available. Perhaps it’s a demonstration of the fact that Ottawa doesn’t harbour bad feelings towards Elliott and vice versa, despite his inability to reach his current all star potential with the team. Elliott’s addition to the team in the first place came as a surprise to Ottawa fans, but he’s had a breakout season with the St. Louis Blues and has managed to meet his potential on Hitchcock’s emerging team.

The draft’s funniest moment, no contest, goes to Marion Gaborik. After being selected by Team Chara and putting on his jersey, Alfie made the comment that he was hoping that Gaborik would still be available while Gaborik walked over to his side of the stage. For one moment, it seemed like Alfie was getting his wish and Gaborik was defecting from Team Chara. An honest mistake, but without a doubt, the funniest and most human moment of the Fantasy Draft.

Notable absentees on the night were the NHL’s two biggest stars Ovie and Crosby. Crosby’s on-going concussion issues have him sidelined and Ovechkin willingly sidelined himself from the game after receiving a 3 game suspension for a rough hit. While it’s understandable that Crosby was absent because he was seeing a specialist, Ovie’s choice to not attend the event seemed more like his way of punishing the league for punishing him. A little selfish for Ovie and very worrisome for Crosby, who at least was able to show up at last year’s event as the face of the game for the fans.

The absence of the Winnipeg Jets was disappointing as well. The Jets were the biggest off ice story of the year when they came back to the league and ignited an entire community of hockey lovers and while it’s no one’s fault that Dustin Byfuglien was injured and forced to decline the event, the NHL could have probably elected someone else in his stead to represent the team.

Finally, it was a topic of discussion last year and it’s probably a topic of discussion again this year: the format of the event. My memory of last year’s event didn’t include the level of shouting and heckling as this year’s. It was almost like attending a frat party. While this event is largely for the fans and meant to be a fun event, it was definitely distracting.

In Carolina, the players sat in the first couple of rows and the advantage of this format is that it was much more interactive. Plus, it was fun to hear them make little comments and have the staff fold away the chairs as their numbers got pared down. The back room wasn’t as fun or interactive.

All in all, this is a fun event for fans and players alike. It’s great to see the human side of the players and realize that they’re funny as well as talented. Now there’s nothing else to say but: Go Team Alfredsson!

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Written by Mika Oehling
Office worker and sports nerd. Cannot play a professional sport to save my life, but love to write. Prone to rants, raves, snarky humour and caustic commentary. My team's the Ottawa Senators. Author of Armchair Hockey, a work of humourous fiction released this year and available for sale online at Chapters and Amazon.