The drought is over…
In my many years of living near the semi/sometimes-glorious city of Atlanta, many of the greatest sporting events have been hosted by the city.
There were World Series games in ‘91, ‘92, ‘95, ‘96, & ‘99, but we were never able to get tickets. I missed out when my home city hosted the Superbowl in ‘94.
In 1996, I was able to attend a single women’s field hockey event when the Olympics were held in the city and the surrounding areas. Luckily, I got to watch the good ol’ U.S.A., and they were victorious over some country that probably only fielded a team for the free vacation and food for a week or five.
Then I missed out in 2000 when Sammy Sosa hit mammoth home runs during the home run derby in Turner Field when the city hosted the MLB All-Star Game, and missed out in ‘03 when Kevin Garnett outdueled MJ at Philips Arena in the only double OT game in the NBA’s All-Star history, and then I missed out when the ridiculous looking ‘Joke’im Noah and the best that is Al Horford dominated the paint and led Florida to a national championship when the Final Four was in Atlanta last year.
So this year with the NHL All-Star Game and festivities being held in my city, I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity since I am now back in Georgia and was able to scrounge up a dollar or two.
After being able to take part in both the Dodge SuperSkills on Saturday night and the actual game on Sunday night, I must recommend anyone who has an opportunity to take part in a star-studded event such as the ones Atlanta has hosted should definitely scrape together the money to do so.
On Saturday, I traveled down into the heart of the city early. In the CNN Center (which is adjacent to Philips Arena), Upper Deck & McFarlane Toys hosted a card and collectibles trade show with autograph signings by some NHL Alumni, a couple of the YoungStars, and Todd McFarlane (the creator of the comic book Spawn & designer of the McFarlane SportsPicks Toys: check out how detailed).
After grabbing some items and meeting McFarlane, I headed outside to the players entrance of the arena, where the NHL and Dodge had set up a red carpet and lots of other cool stuff including gaming stations. The red carpet arrivals of the players ended up being my favorite thing of the entire weekend. Those who were right on top of the carpet were able to get autographs from almost all of the stars. Being about four people back, I was more content with snapping off some pictures.
It was easy to see why the fan favorites are indeed the fan favorites. Rick DiPietro was one of the nicest guys as he signed and chatted with throes of fans. Alexander Ovechkin and Jerome Iginla joked with fans as they signed away for little kids and big grown-ups who were like little kids as well. The hometown Thrashers (Marian Hossa and Ilya Kovalchuk) got the biggest roars from the crowd as they would all weekend and the most requests for autographs. Hossa got ushered away for interviews, but Kovalchuk had to be pulled away from the fans. He was still not even half-way when some of the first Western Conference stars began catching up with him on the carpet despite their bus arriving 15-20 minutes later.
Oh yea…Zdeno Chara is HUGE.
After the red carpet arrivals, everyone headed inside, where all 4 or 5 team gear stores Philips Arena has were packed to the brim as fans searched for just the right All-Star apparel. There were literally waiting lines to get into the stores, and rightfully so as there was some very good looking merchandise.
As far as the SuperSkills and All-Star Game, NHL.com has full recaps (SuperSkills & All-Star Game) so I’ll just give my tidbits about what I saw:
SUPERSKILLS
- The new obstacle course event wasn’t that interesting, except for the goalie shots.
- The fastest skate needs to go back to being a full lap instead of the quick sprint that took place.
- Tomas Kaberle is Accurate (4 of 4, 3 of 4, and absolutely shattered the sudden death target).
- Manny Legace seemed like he stopped everything all weekend until the actual game.
- Chris Osgood seemed like he didn’t stop anything until the game…and then he still didn’t stop anything.
- The new YoungStars game was a lot of fun…definite improvement for the SuperSkills, but I don’t know why they couldn’t get a couple young goalies to participate instead of having Osgood get scored on even more.
- I’d hate to get hit by a Chara slapshot…103.1 mph, second hardest shot in the event’s history!
- Ovechkin is creative, but not good at baseball. Of course, I’m still impressed by everything he did, and that’s not even taking into effect that I think everything done while skating on ice is impressive.
ALL-STAR GAME
- The Hives obstructed my view of the All-Stars all standing at center ice after the introductions…so therefore, I now hate The Hives.
- 12 seconds happens really fast! I hadn’t even put away my camera from taking a pic of the opening faceoff.
- I knew it was going to be exciting all night when it was already 1-1 before two minutes had elapsed.
- I thought Ovechkin was going to easily get a hat trick after getting two in the first period.
- Evgeni Nabokov was too good.
- 51 shots by the West and they still lost = equals good goaltending IMO
- The tribute to Willie O’ree should have been bigger.
- Ne-Yo’s performance during the second intermission was well done. It’s hard not to like a drumline performance and surprising that there wasn’t one slip on the ice.
- I was disappointed Kolvy didn’t score, but Nabokov just made two incredible saves. There was excitement buzzing in the building every time he was on the ice.
- It was good to see former Thrasher Marc Savard score the game winner although I would have liked to see another former Thrasher, Dany Heatley be able to participate.
- Speaking of those unable to participate…it really would have been fun to see Sid the Kid, especially after he scored two in the same building just a couple of weeks ago.
Well, those are my thoughts and rumblings. The events were done well. The Thrashers and the NHL did a great job displaying a great product. I’m glad I was able to participate…and finally the drought is over.
Shotgun Spratling
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