2011 NHL All-Star Game

Added on Jan 31, 2011 by J Merrill in

NHL

The 2011 NHL All-Star Game took place Sunday night at the RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was team Lidstrom that came out on top over Team Staal 11-10. The fans started the festivities early in the day where they gathered to tailgate, and barbeque. Once inside the arena, the chants of “Lets Go Staal” were almost non-stop. Carolina proved to be a great place to hold the All-Star Game, and the fans gathered to celebrate their favorite sport.

Hometown favorite Eric Staal said the whole experience was unbelievable, and almost picture perfect. He said “It was incredible. I thought the atmosphere, especially the start, was awesome. Fans were excited. The weather was unbelievable. The fans were tailgating. It was awesome, a lot of fun. It was just a good time.” He concluded “We felt the energy, the buildup coming into this weekend. The fans have been excited, and then they delivered. It was awesome. Pretty good night for Nicklas Lidstrom. It’s fun to get to know him a little bit more , and just doing this whole experience for the first time with him. He played a great game as you can tell by the stats.”

Lidstrom said a lot of the same thing, and he really appreciated how excited and responsive the Carolina Fans were. He said “You could tell getting off the bus yesterday before the skills competition that there are a lot of fans here. Pulling in before the game there were a lot of fans out there tailgating and getting ready for the game. It seemed like the crowd was really into the game. The whole game they were loud and cheering for goals. I think they helped to create this atmosphere. I really enjoyed my weekend.” As far as the game it self, the soft spoken Lidstrom said “It’s a matter of being on the ice at the right moments, I guess. They won the skills on Saturday, so I think we kind of came out even.”

Patrick Sharp skated off the ice with the MVP Trophy, as he had a hand in three of Team Staal’s first five goals. He set up Paul Stastny to make it 2-0 less than 3 minutes in, then assisted on Claude Giroux’s early goal to help Staal’s team go up 4-0 with less than 6 minutes in. Sharp would have had assists on three consecutive goals, but a scoring change took away his assist on Patrik Elias’ goal and awarded it to Mike Green. Sharp said jokingly “They won the game. I got the trophy. So I guess everybody’s happy.” He continued “I’m just glad I can bring the trophy home, and I know that my dad and my brother will be fighting over the car. So we’ll see who wins that.” As far as the game itself went, Sharp said “It’s a game where there’s lots of offense. There’s some pretty plays, lots of nice goals on both sides, and I’m honored to win the trophy.”

Lidstrom said Sharp has always been a stand out player, and it was why they wanted him. He said “He’s got a knack for finding the back of the net. He’s got a quick release, we saw that on one or two of the goals he scored where he one-times the puck real quick. It’s not a big windup. We know from playing against him so many times he’s a very skilled player.”