ESPN's experts break down the 51st NHL All-Star Game:
Barry Melrose |
Mario Lemieux was impressive with what he continues to be able to do and the standing ovation at the start of the game was special. What he did today jumps out at you, but Simon Gagne in his first All-Star Game and the youngest player in the game looked great, too.
I think one of the reasons it was a good game and a good skills competition was 14 first-year players. This is exciting for them and they were pumped. I think that helped the intensity of the game.
This should be a big deal for NHL players. It shouldn't be blasé and it shouldn't be a pain for these guys to come to the All-Star Game and when you have 14 first-year players it's not. They were charged to be here. You get too many old guys who have been here a lot and it's not as big a deal. I think it was good for some of the veterans to see how excited the young guys were.
I've been to every All-Star Game since 1994 and this was by far the best right from the start. The city, the SuperSkills, the Heroes, the festivities -- and then cap it off with the highest scoring All-Star Game ever. Denver should be proud and the NHL should be proud. It's been a great couple of days.
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Brian Engblom |
When you have players with this kind of skill and you don't really cover them or tie them up, they're going to do the type of things you saw today. Then it just becomes who is going to score more, who handles the puck better, how many beautiful plays can you make, who makes the nicest play and then take some shots at those poor goaltenders.
It's always fun to see the young kids. I thought Simon Gagne was outstanding. He has tremendous skill and made some beautiful plays. It's hard to believe he's only been in the league a year-and-a-half. He scores his first All-Star Game goal and it's assisted by Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux. Do you think he's ever going to forget that? You bet he won't.
That's the great thing about this. Mario was looking for the puck to give it back to the kid. The players know what it means to be involved in something like this.
I'm glad we had a lot of young, fresh faces here. I think it's great for the NHL, it's great for these players and it's great for the fans to see how many good, young, talented players there are in the league.
And it's amazing to see that great talent can play so well together. It was a pleasure to watch.
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Bill Clement |
To me it's the world's greatest display of skill. You take the physical element out of the game and all of the beautiful things hockey players do are able to manifest themselves -- including fantastic goaltending saves.
There were eight players in this game that were 25 years old or younger. Simon Gagne was the youngest and he was one of the best-kept secrets -- even to Mario Lemieux. I talked to Mario and Brett Hull and told them Gagne could play, and they were anxious to find out about him.
One of the other great things about this game was there were 14 first-timers. I played in two of these and your first time is great. One of the feel-good stories was Donald Audette. Here's a guy having a great year with a third-year team in Atlanta, but at 31, it's his first appearance in an All-Star Game. And Radek Bonk and Marian Hossa don't get a lot of pub, especially in the U.S., because they play in Ottawa. Evgeni Nabokov, who I still think has a chance to end up as the league's MVP, made some fantastic saves.
It's a friendly game where players understand that the nature of the beast changes, so guys like Scott Stevens and Ed Jovanovski aren't throwing their weight around. Ed had a great line yesterday when someone told him that a good hit early in the game would wake up the crowd and really get people into this game. He said, "Yes, but I want to be invited back."
Everybody knows it's going to be a showcase of skill more than anything, and that's what we saw. The only thing that was a surprise was the MVP had to go down to the final couple of minutes before it was decided. Without that hat trick goal, Billy Guerin might have won it but there were a lot of other people in the running too.
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ALSO SEE
Melrose: How to watch the All-Star Game
2001 NHL All-Star Game coverage
AUDIO VIDEO
 Mario Lemieux takes a pass from Scott Stevens and stuffs the puck into the back of the net.
avi: 1205 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Bill Guerin sneaks in his third goal of the game, clinching the MVP award.
avi: 1097 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Bill Guerin rifles a shot in front of the net for a World All-Stars' goal.
avi: 1759 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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