First off, I would like to clear up any confusion. Previously in some BBS postings, people have mentioned that lacrosse is Canada's national sport. Both hockey and lacrosse are Canada's national sports. Hockey seems to be more popular but more and more athletes are joining lacrosse teams each year. Basketball is not Canada's national sport, although it is said that a doctor named Dr. James Naismith of Canada did invent the game of basketball in New England, USA.
Next, I would like to congratulate all the team members of team Canada and their families on achieving the gold medal at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Pardubice, Czech Republic (not Check Republic.) They played their hearts out and a special congratulations to Matt Halischuk who scored the game winner in overtime. Good efforts were shown throughout the tournament by all teams. The silver medal winner was team Sweden and the bronze medal winner was team Russia who beat team USA 4-2 on Saturday.
I know two weeks ago I ended my article saying that the next week's article would be about the all star game. I completely forgot about the tournament so I wrote about that since that was the current event. This week will be about the all star game though.
The all star game is an annual NHL event between the players who you the fans vote in. This year's game is in Atlanta, Georgia of the USA on January 27 at six pm Eastern time. It can be seen on CBC, RDS, NASN and heard on the NHL radio on NHL.com.
There is a Western Conference team and Eastern Conference team. Each team has two goalies, six defense and twelve forwards. The game is part of the all star weekend which includes a rookie challenge and super skills challenge. The super skills challenge is an event where players compete for hardest shot, fastest time skating around an ice rink (of regulation size) and similar type obstacles.
The head coaches are determined by the standings as of January 4, 2008. The head coach from the top team in each conference is awarded the privilege of coaching the game. The assistant coaches are the next top two teams' head coach.
The starting line ups were announced on this past Tuesday but I will already have submitted this article so I can not report them to you. I can however, tell you the leading vote getters. For the Western conference, Nicklas Lidstrom, a defensive player for the Detroit Red Wings is atop the leader boards with over 100,000 votes more than runner up team mate, forward Henrik Zetterberg. Pavel Datsyuk, also of Detroit, Zetterberg and Jarome Iginla, the captain of the Calgary Flames are the top forwards. Lidstrom and Flames player Dion Phaneuf are the top defensive players. Canadian Roberto Luongo is the leader in goalie vote totals.
For the Eastern conference, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins is the obvious vote leader followed by Montreal Canadian defensive player, Danny Markov. The top three forwards are Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators. The leading defensive players are Markov and Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins. Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils looks to have the goalie position taken care of because he has a 100,000+ point lead over the next leading contender.
NHL All Star game 2007 will be an exciting, must see event. If anyone has an extra ticket be sure to tell me :D. If regular games seem boring to you this one won't. It is up-tempo, high-flying action and it is available to almost anyone who has access to a television. Be sure to watch it.
Below are some good hockey channels, books and magazines to try out to fulfill your hockey understanding.
- The Hockey News (magazine)
- The NHL Network (television channel available in Canada and the USA)
- NHL.com (internet website)
- Tsn.ca (internet website)
- TSN (television channel)
- Any non-fiction Paul Romanchuk books (book)
Tune in next week for a surprise!
-Baxierox-
