Monday, January 28, 2008

All Star Safari

Now that the haze of the All-Star Weekend is beginning to clear, I feel I should congratulate Atlanta and Phillips Arena on putting on a fine show and being an overall excellent host. I think the Thrashers fans represented their city fairly well, and hopefully this will make it clear to hockey fans all over North America that there are SOME hockey lovers in this city.

The highlight of the game last night was the interplay between Ilya Kovalchuk and Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks. Wicked shots and wicked saves. They're two of my favorite players, and it was fun to watch Nabokov drive Kovalchuk nearly insane.
The real highlight of the weekend, though, was seeing the the mascots from all the different teams. Harvey the Hound of the Calgary Flames, Sharkie of the San Jose Sharks, Howler of the Phoenix Coyotes, Fin the Whale from Vancouver, Carlton the Polar Bear from the Toronto Maple Leafs: thank you! You put on a marvelous show and made my weekend.
Speaking of putting on a show, I think it's beyond all doubt now that the Russian players have the most showmanship, theatricality, and flair. Ovechkin, Kovalchuk, and Nabokov seemed to be having the most fun and trying out their most exaggerated and dashing moves. Thank you, comrades, thank you.

All in all a fun and alcoholic weekend. Now it's back to business for Blueland. We're playing a Crosby-less Penguins on Wednesday, and I fully expect Kovalchuk to score 80 goals.


1 comment:

Big Shooter said...

Yes, God Bless the mascots. God Bless them all. Including Louie, the St. Louis Blues Bear. Class act. I saw him push a small child out of the way of a moving bus on Luckie St. after the game. Sadly, Louie was struck by the bus and his injury claimed his life.

RIP big guy... we will never forget you.