Given that there were two Ottawa Senators-system players combined in the NHL and AHL All-Star Games (Dany Heatley and Mattias Karlsson, respectively), it should be pretty easy to give you a run-down of their play so far in the combined All-Star Weekend for the two leagues.
First off is the Ottawa Senators representative, Heatley. He was in two events in the SuperSkills event, Accuracy Shooting and the Elimination Shoot-Out. Although he was about as successful in the Elimination Shoot-Out as he is in regular-season shootouts (that is to say, not very), he did much better in the Accuracy Shooting event: He went 4-for-4 on the first series of shots, good enough to bring him into overtime against Evgeni Malkin (who Tim Thomas still claims didn't hit all four targets in the first round), but Malkin won it in the end.
As for the actual All-Star Game, Heatley was on a line with Marc Savard and Alex Ovechkin--pretty good pedigree. (I thought that Savard would end up with about 40 assists playing with those two shooters, but he only got three on the night.) Heatley had one of the Eastern Conference's 11 goals on the night, and no assists. Nothing like his first-ever All-Star Game, but Heater still has 6G, 3A, 9P in three all-star games--and, more than likely, more to come.
Down in Worcester, MA, the AHL All-Star Game had its Skills Competition today, and will have the actual All-Star Game tomorrow. Karlsson also played in two events, the Hardest Shot and Breakaway Relay competitions. Again, not much luck on the breakaway, but Karlsson did have the hardest shot on the PlanetUSA Squad at 94.5MPH, but two players from Canadian squad had harder ones (Cody Franson of the Milwaukee Admirals at 95.4MPH and Derek Joslin of the Worcester Sharks at 98.6MPH) so he lost the event. Still, the PlanetUSA squad won the Skills Competition (should I be happy about that?) and awaits the All-Star Game tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. (which Canadians can watch on TSN and Americans on... well... various networks).
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