Jagr team vs Yashin team

KHL All Star Game 2011 took place in Saint-Petersburg. As usual, teams were divided under Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Yashin’s names. The show started with skills competitions, which was quite fun. Here’s the full list of winners according to the KHL official website.

Yashin 4-3 Jagr

Superskills competition

TEAM YASHIN 4
TEAM JAGR     3

Fastest skater
Team Yashin: Lauris Darzins, Leo Komarov, Maxim Afinogenov – 13.96 sec.
Team Jagr: Lukas Kaspar, Roman Cervenka, Evgeny Kuznetsov
1-0

Longest shot
Team Yashin: Denis Grebeshkov, Sandis Ozolins, Jozef Vasicek
Team Jagr: Janne Niskala, Konstantin Korneyev, Martin Skoula
1-1

Puck control relay
Team Yashin: Sergei Mozyakin, Maxim Sushinsky, Jozef Vasicek, Alexander Guskov, Matthias Weinhandl
Team Jagr: Lukas Kaspar, Patrick Thoresen, Alexei Morozov, Janne Niskala, Alexander Radulov
2-1

Shooting accuracy
Team Yashin: Sandis Ozolins, Chris Simon – 5 shots on 4 targets, Alexei Yashin
Team Jagr: Kevin Dallman, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr
3-1

Hardest shot
Team Yashin: Maxim Solovyev, Alexander Guskov, Karel Rachunek
Team Jagr: Konstantin Korneyev, Ilya Nikulin, Denis Kulyash – 177.58 km/h
3-2

Shootout
Team Yashin: Sergei Mozyakin, Maxim Sushinsky and Matthias Weinhandl vs. Stefan Liv
Team Jagr: Roman Cervenka, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Radulov vs. Dominik Hasek
3-3

Fastest skater team relay
Team Yashin: Konstantin Barulin, Denis Grebeshkov, Peter Podhradsky, Leo Komarov, Lauris Darzins, Maxim Afinogenov
Team Jagr: Mikhail Biryukov, Konstantin Korneyev, Kevin Dallman, Petri Kontiola, Lukas Kaspar, Alexei Morozov
4-3

The most awesome moment to my opinion was Evgeny Kuznetsov shootout with Hasek. BTW, Evgeny asks everyone to call him “Kuzya” :)

KHL All Star Game 2011 Evgeny Kuznetsov Breakaway Challenge Winner

KHL All Star Game 2011 Shots competition

KHL All Star Game 2011 Hardest Shot 110.3 mph Denis Kulyash

The game itself was rather fun, too. It ended with a new record 18:16, and Jagr once again beat Yashin. Here’re the highlights.

KHL All Star Game 2011 highlights

Does anyone else remember the good ol’ days of the All-Star weekend when it was eagerly awaited?  In an attempt to make the game better with more parity and greater fan appeal, the game is tweaked each year.  Yet it seemingly only appears to continue to lose its luster. With that in mind, I have some of my own suggestions.

  - Let the players choose the participants.  Who knows the talent better than those who play against these guys?  GMs picking the roster?   Seriously, guys.  It’s gone downhill since they switched the selection process.  Yes, I know why it was done, but it probably wasn’t the best solution.

 - Allow competitors into the skills competition that may not make the All-Star team.  We know there are exceptional skaters, stick handlers and shooters that don’t always make the squad.  Let’s see more talent represented there.  That might woo audiences a bit more.

-  Speaking of wooing audiences, can we get rid of the lame breakaway goal competition?  It was a big flop, in my opinion.  Trying (largely unsuccessful) trick shots on non-NHL goalies did nothing for me.  Of course, Alexander Ovechkin did bring some character to the game with his silly props and use of long-time enemy Evgeny Malkin to assist him (although I found the actual story behind the “make-up” of these two much more interesting.)  However, call me old fashioned but I preferred the class that fellow Russian Alexei Kovalev displayed in the All-Star game the next day, taking the game seriously, giving it his all and showing the fans what a fantastic stick-handler he is.  So, let’s bring back skill competitions where real skills are highlighted.

 - Finally, as we move back towards more intra-conference play, let’s resurrect the North America vs. The Word format.  East-West has little intrigue to most people, but pitting the two different playing styles against each other gets Don Cherry and others ranting about the non-North American players and at least resurrects a real rivalry.

So what do you say guys?  You have two years to think about it.

… not just one of my favorite songs by Joe Satriani. No, no.

Actually, I came across some interesting candid shots taken at the All Star festivities by someone from Home Ice (XM Radio 204), including a nice shot of Ilya Kovalchuk (in a lovely, surprisingly conservative Mr. Rogers-style sweater) and some of Milan Hejduk (since we goddesses are Thrashers and Avalanche fans first). They also have several nice shots of former Atlanta Thrashers Marc Savard and Dany Heatley.

Last year this time, I was in Atlanta at the 2008 All Star Weekend. How quickly time does pass!

I’d go on about the great No Detroit Red Wings on the All Star Team controversy, but why? None of them even wanted to go to the game, so is it really worth the effort? Probably not.