Week Wrap-up: From All-Star Performances to a Scary Moment in Philly

The NHL (and AHL) All-Star weekend officially kicked off yesterday with a bang, when the NHL stars showcased their talents in the annual SuperSkills competition on the eve of the All-Star Game, held in Montréal, Québec.

The first competition was for the Fastest Skater, featuring Eastern Conference representatives Jay Bouwmeester, Jeff Carter, and Zach Parise, and Western representatives Brian Campbell, and for the first time, YoungStars game representatives Mason Raymond and Andrew Cogliano. In the end, youth prevailed and Andrew Cogliano of the Oilers won the Fastest Skater competition with a time of 14.31 seconds in a full revolution of the ice. WEST: 1 EAST: 0

Second came the highly anticipated Breakaway Challenge, featuring some of the most creative players in the game to each showcase their insane moves for 1 minute a piece, in which the fans were able to text in the winner. Rounding out the competition was Alex Ovechkin, Martin St. Louis (replacing Sid Crosby), Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, and home-town hero Ryan Getzlaf. Although Getzlaf and St. Louis probably had the most creative moves up their sleeves, Ovechkin won the crowd over with his use of props. WEST: 1 EAST: 1



The third competition was the Youngstars game, featuring a (3) 6 minute period game that pinned the league's best Rookies against the Sophomores, in a tilt that saw the Rookies coming out on top, featuring Toronto blue-liner and Saskatoon native Luke Schenn.

Fourth came the shooting accuracy competition, something that Ray Bourqe perfected in his career. After many shooters, a tie resulted between Ottawa's Dany Heatley and Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, who each knocked out 4 targets in 4 shots. The tie-break was a nailbiter, which Malkin's 3/4 slightly edged Heatley's 2/4. WEST: 1 EAST: 2

The next competition was also highly anticipated, mostly because of two particular shooters. Sheldon Souray of the Oilers, and Zdeno Chara of the Bruins. Recently, reports from the Oilers' skills competition surfaced that Souray had broken the 106 mph mark on a shot, but in the end, Chara shot for over 105 mph, breaking the previous All-Star record held by Al Iafrate.
WEST: 1 EAST: 3

The final competition of the night was an Old-school style "Elimination" Shootout, that featured all 36 players, shooting on goaltenders Tim Thomas, J.S. Giguere, Niklas Backstrom, and Henrik Lundqvist until their was one winner. Boston's Marc Savard put up a good fight until the end, but Phoenix's captain Shane Doan took the competition, giving the West one more point, but ultimately a loss to the East by a score of 3-2 in the skills competition. I guess we'll have to wait until the results of the big game today.

Overall, all-star weekend has featured some of the best talent that the league has to offer, and that includes the 3 Saskatchewan representatives, made up of YoungStar Luke Schenn, San Jose captain Patrick Marleau, and Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf.

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A scary moment in the AHL the other night has resulted in more discussions about fighting in hockey. Regina, SK. native Garret Klotz, of the Philadelphia Flyers AHL affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms, engaged in a fight with Kevin Westgarth of the Manchester Monarchs. After a lengthy tilt, Klotz went down near the Monarchs' bench from 3 very strong shots to the head, and suffered both facial lacerations, and started convulsing. We would provide a clip for you to watch to get an idea, but I just saw this clip on SportsCentre, and trust me, it is quite graphic and a very sad image to watch.

Fortunately, Klotz has recently been released from a Pennsylvania hospital and is in good condition to make an expected full-recovery. Just another incident in hockey to raise question as to what place fighting has in our sport. Very unfortunate, but we are all glad that this tough Sask kid will be back on the ice in no time.


Enjoy the All-Star game,


PP

Saskatchewan Players Doing Well, Getting the Credit they Deserve

Ryan Getzlaf and Luke Schenn both have articles on NHL.com that shower glowing praise upon them. Getzlaf, for cracking the starting line-up for the 2009 All-Star Game in Montreal, and Schenn as the "Young Star Spotlight" feature. Both players have been having strong seasons, and it's nice to see this kind of recognition for them. Check out the articles and keep rooting for our hometown boys.

More evidence to suggest that Saskatchewan content is the only thing the Toronto Maple leafs have going for them

A three-person interview with two Maple leafs stars, and the one we like to call "our own" Jeremy Williams. Williams answers questions and makes jokes like a regular Justin Timberlake (if you watched the ESPYs, you know that's an enormous compliment), while the other two jackasses stumble along like Krog and Onk from the stone age. Here it is:

Brilliant.

And the winners are....

A very eventful December has passed in the NHL, and what better way to end of 2008 than with a great month of hockey. The PrairiePuck's prestiguous monthly awards for the month of December are:

TOP FORWARD

Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Penguins

After being snubbed by the panel for the past 2 months of awards, the Top Forward in the NHL for the month of December goes to Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins. Sitting atop the league in points with 59 points, Malkin has been a consistent star for Pittsburgh for the entire season to-date. Without a doubt he is already packing his bags for a trip to Montréal for the All-Star game later on this month. A 5 goal, 15 assist performance in 13 games gives Malkin the nod as the Top Forward of the past month. The Runner up for this award goes to Alexander Ovechkin, the winner in November, who posted 12 goals and 7 assists during the month.

TOP DEFENSEMAN

Dan Boyle - San Jose Sharks

The top defenseman award is always a tough one to hand out, as it is based on a wide collection of criteria. For the past month, we have not seen a clear-cut winner in the offense department similar to last month with Rob Blake's 13 point performance. The award for December will, however remain in the San Jose organization, and will be handed to Sharks' D-man Dan Boyle. Dan Boyle is among the lead-leaders in ice-time this season, and is currently the league's top-scoring defenseman with 11 goals and 19 assists for 30 points. December was a consistent month for Boyle, as he tallied 3 goals, and 6 assists for 9 points, and has helped out his team to remain atop the League standings with a 28-4-5 record closing in on the halfway point of the season.

TOP GOALTENDER

Scott Clemmensen - New Jersey Devils

It is odd to think that a New Jersey goaltender OTHER than Martin Brodeur would ever generate discussion about a performance award. But Brodeur is still sidelined with an elbow injury, and the once "left for dead" Devils have silenced any critics, with Scott Clemmensen taking the reigns in goal. In the month of December, Clemmensen posted an unbelievable 9-1-2 record with a .933 save percentage, and a 1.9 GAA, which has helped to propel his team up the standings in the Atlantic division, keeping pace with The Rangers, Penguins, and Flyers. Maybe Marty should take his swee time in his recovery, because the once thought "irreplaceable" goaltender is not exactly in high demand at the moment. Runner-up for the award: Miikka Kiprusoff of Calgary with an 8-2-2 record in December.

TOP ROOKIE

Steve Mason - Columbus Blue Jackets

Mason was actually the runner-up in the award for the Goaltender of December, but with a better team record, it had to go to Clemmensen. Even so, the numbers that Mason has put up even give him recognition for MVP of December. Mason, who has emerged as the starting goaltender for the Blue Jackets has posted a 7-5-0 record in December, posting an unheard of .947 save percentage and 1.42 GAA, and not to mention 3 straight shutouts to-date. Mason, as a rookie now is the league leader in Save percentage with .938, GAA with 1.69, and has tied Roberto Luongo for the league lead in shutouts with 5. And again, Mason is a ROOKIE. Already with a rookie of the month award in the franchise with Derrick Brassard (who went down with a season ending injury), the Blue Jackets show a lot of promise in their young players, and we could be seeing the Calder trophy handed to a goaltender this year.

WENDEL CLARK AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT FROM A SASK BORN PLAYER

Scott Hartnell - Philadelphia Flyers

December was a generous month for Scotty, notching 2 hat tricks in the span of 9 days to bring his career tally to 5, and providing some much needed support for the PrairiePuck's choice for MVP of December (You'll find out soon). In 14 games, Hartnell went above the favourites Patrick Marleau and Ryan Getzlaf with 8 goals and 7 assists for 15 points, to help his team with an impressive string of wins, keeping pace with the Atlantic division leading New York Rangers. It was a unanimous decision to grant Scott Hartnell the Wendel Clark award for the month of December.

AND DECEMBER'S MVP AS CHOSEN BY THE PRAIRIEPUCK:

Jeff Carter - Philadelphia Flyers

Jeff Carter is an odd player in the league, and we mean this in the best possible way. His scoring ability is definitely now known in the league, as he leads the league with 27 goals so far this season, and is on pace for 50. His modest, but effective speed makes his 11 goals and 10 assists the no-brainer decision for December's MVP, as chosen by the PrairiePuck.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of the World Junior tournament, with Canada in semi-final action on the weekend.

PP