NHL All-Star Weekend 2012: Team Alfredsson Takes Skills Competition, Team Chara Takes Game

NHL All-Star Weekend 2012 in Ottawa has come and gone without a ton of fan fare, as it does every year. The weekend has greatly improved over the last two years, thanks to the NHL’s brilliant change in format, but it’s still not an event with the sizzle and the excitement of the Winter Classic or even the NHL Draft.

If we want to watch true competition between the best players in the world, we’ll tune into the Olympics. The All-Star Game isn’t much of a hockey game, and the NHL needs to get away from even the smallest notion of that idea.

For more on the 2012 NHL All-Star Game, keep an eye on this StoryStream.

The 2012 NHL All-Star Game was an exciting, close game deep into the third period. Then Team Chara did at game’s end what it did at the game’s beginning, scoring goals in quick succession to score a 12-9 triumph over Team Alfredsson in Ottawa.

Hossa and Iginla finished with three points on the day, scoring a goal each and assisting on two others. Marian Gaborik, who had a hat trick in the first two periods, wound up with four points, good enough for the 2012 NHL All-Star Game MVP award.

On the other hand, Daniel Alfredsson’s team’s roster should be the crowd’s favorite. Team Alfredsson has four Senators — Alfredsson, Erik Karlsson, Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek — and a former Senator, Brian Elliott, as one of its three options between the pipes. Add in the red jerseys the roster will don, and it’s a lock that Team Alfredsson is getting the lion’s share of the love in Ottawa come Sunday.

For more on the 2012 NHL All-Star Draft and the 2012 NHL All-Star Game, keep an eye on this StoryStream.

You can find everything you need to know on the 2012 NHL All-Star Weekend in our StoryStream.

The skills challenge relay, a new event added for 2012, featured 16 players from each team and highlights a range of skills such as passing, puck control, accuracy, and one-timers.

Shea Weber led off for Team Alfredsson with one-timers from the blue line. Kris Letang followed with one timers from the top of the circle, burying three of four attempts. Steven Stamkos finished off the one timer portion, struggling to find the back of the net three times from the bad angle. Henrik Sedin was incredible on the passing accuracy portion, quickly finding the back of the mini-nets after Kane was mercy-ruled during the same part of the relay for Team Chara. Sedin’s passing was a highlight of the relay.

The accuracy shooting competition is measured by how quickly a player can break four targets in each corner of the net. The player takes a pass from behind the net and then rifles it at the corners, as the pressure builds with each miss.

Marian Hossa also had one of the more impressive times, busting all four targets in under 18 seconds. Hossa controlled the passes from Phil Kessel and Ryan Suter, and then took his time before ripping his shots.

Corey Perry was the first to score a goal, after taking the puck down the ice on his stick, and spinning it around as if he were playing lacrosse. Perry dropped it in front of the crease and flipped a backhand past Elliott. Perry then scored on his final attempt with a mini-goalie stick, which he took out from under his sweater while approaching the net.

Patrick Kane stole the show with his second attempt, as teammate Marian Hossa brought out a Superman cape and Clark Kent glasses. Kane went down to the ice, mimicking Superman flying through the air and beat Elliott with his stick extended across the crease. In his third attempt, Kane tricked Elliott with an exploding puck (h/t/ @BubbaProg)

The first event of the 2012 NHL Skills Competition in Ottawa is in the books. For tonight, rookie Carl Hagelin is the fastest skater among the NHL’s best.

The hometown hero Erik Karlsson, a defenseman, blew by veteran Marian Hossa in the final race of the first round. Karlsson took a big lead on the turns to give the Ottawa crowd a thrill.

With apologies to the unique NHL All-Star Draft event that was held on Thursday night, one of the most exciting events of the NHL’s All-Star Weekend is the annual skills competition on Saturday night.

The actual skills competition will be shown live on the NBC Sports Network in the United States and CBC in Canada beginning at 7pm ET, but the NHL Network and CBC will have pregame shows.

It’ll be the first time the Blue Jackets have hosted All-Star Weekend, but it’s not their first time hosting a premier NHL event. Nationwide Arena was the site of the 2007 NHL Draft, and commissioner Gary Bettman praised that event as evidence to why Columbus will be a strong host for the All-Star Weekend.

“We’re looking forward to bringing our All-Star celebration to Columbus,” Bettman said. “The Blue Jackets did a great job of hosting the NHL Draft in 2007, and I have no doubt they will raise the bar even higher when they welcome our All-Star celebration next January.”

NHL All-Star captains Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara selected the two squads on Thursday night. On Friday, the two captains determined who would participate in each of the skills competitions on Saturday night.

Event 1 - Fastest Skater

The format for selection of teams for the NHL All-Star team changed in the 2010-11 season, in an attempt to bring the fantasy sports aesthetic into the annual hockey event. Prior to last season, teams for the All-Star Game were divided based on the Conference of the All-Star player’s team, as is customary in all other All-Star games for the rest of the major North American sports. Now, however, captains and alternates are voted on by the All-Star selections themselves, after which there is a roster draft by the two captains.

According to Stevelepore of Puck the Media, the ratings were down 35% from last year in the United States. Although 1.6 million viewers watched the draft, only 408,000 of those viewers were watching on NBC in the US. This number is down from 624,000 in 2011, although this may have something to do with the fact that last year’s draft took place on a Friday.

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Get more info on the teams and check out video of the captains making their selections at NHL.com. For full coverage of the 2012 NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa, check in with our StoryStream.

The festivities for the 2012 NHL All-Star Weekend officially began on Thursday but the 2012 All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. might be the most entertaining part of the entire weekend, save for the game itself.

In the Skills Challenge Relay, four separate relays consist of the following: one timers, passing, puck control relay, stick handling, and shooting accuracy. The team that finishes in the fastest time is the winner. Team Staal took this one last year.

But then, somebody took it quite a bit too far.

Pretty awful. Belak, of course, was the long time Toronto Maple Leaf player who passed away in August at the far-too-young age of 35. This is what they call taking things too far. Hopefully somebody in the crowd pointed this guy out, and that he’ll get what’s coming to him for making such a disturbing comment.

Team Chara will try to win the Skills Competition on Saturday evening and the All-Star Game on Sunday, but they certainly won’t have the Scotiabank Place crowd behind them as they make the attempt. Here’s a look at the full Team Chara roster:

TEAM CHARA

TEAM ALFREDSSON

Here are the full results of Thursday’s draft:

19. Jimmy Howard, G, Detroit Red Wings (Chara)

Oh, but he did win a pretty ugly car as a consolation prize: a 2013 Honda Crosstour.

Spezza was picked fourth overall with Team Alfredsson’s second pick.

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