After a one-year absence, All-Star Weekend is back for the NHL.
Originally, of course, the plan was for the league's best players to convene in Vegas, then charter straight to Beijing immediately afterward. The Olympics have started, but the men's hockey tournament doesn't begin until Feb. 9.
Instead, All-Star has become a stand-alone event, with Thatcher Demko representing the Vancouver Canucks.
With the NHL's scheduling challenges triggering their decision not to go to Beijing, I felt like even more people than usual were questioning why the All-Star event is even happening. Last week, I chatted with a couple of NHL execs, including creative mastermind Steve Mayer, about why the event is so important for the league, its sponsors, its new U.S. broadcast partner in ESPN — and even the players, who get a chance to gather and hang out in a relatively relaxed atmosphere after two years with so many restrictions on their socialization.
Here's my story:
Holding the event in Vegas also offers a powerful platform on a couple of levels.
First off, the NHL is getting great visibility in a location that attracts tourists from all over the world — and is filled with iconic landmarks that will make great television backdrops. That's why we'll be seeing a blackjack-themed event that's literally *on* the Vegas strip during Friday's Skills Competition, as well as an event that's set in the Bellagio Hotel fountain. Also, expect the Vegas game presentation team to knock it out of the park, both for Skills and for Saturday's 3-on-3 game.
Secondly — the NFL is also holding Pro Bowl in Vegas, on Sunday. And that's also a broadcast property owned by Disney/ABC/ESPN. That's an incredible cross-promotion opportunity for the NHL.
In an alternate universe, can you imagine the hand-wringing that would be going on right now if NHL players were going to the Olympics? With Nathan MacKinnon and Adam Fox injured, and Alex Ovechkin in Covid protocol?? Ottawa's Drake Batherson is a rare example of a player who was born in the U.S. but has played internationally for Canada, winning gold at World Juniors in 2018. He would have been a long-shot for Canada's Olympic team, for sure, but he is also missing this weekend due to injury, after that nasty collision that got goaltender Aaron Dell suspended a couple of weeks back.
The Skills Competition goes Friday, with coverage starting at 4 p.m. PT on Sportsnet and the event starting at 4:30. Demko will be taking part in the 'Save Streak' event, against Jack Campbell, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Freddy Andersen, Tristan Jarry, Cam Talbot, Juuse Saros and John Gibson.
Saturday's All-Star Game goes at noon PT. It will once again be the 3-on-3 competition that we've seen for the past few years, with $1 million on the line for the winning team. Demko will be sharing the net with John Gibson on behalf of the Pacific Division. There should be plenty of firepower up front: the Pacific has exactly one defenseman on its roster!
Jonathan Marchessault was a late addition, joining Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo from the host team. And while Trevor Zegras will be participating in Skills, he wasn't named to the All-Star team itself.
Here's the full list of skaters, and their number of all-star appearances.
• F Leon Draisaitl, EDM (3rd)
• F Jordan Eberle, SEA (2nd)
• F Johnny Gaudreau, CGY (6th)
• F Adrian Kempe, LAK (1st)
• F Jonathan Marchessault, VGK (1st)
• F Connor McDavid, EDM (5th) (fan-voted captain)
• F Timo Meier, SJS (1st)
• F Mark Stone, VGK (1st)
• F Troy Terry, ANA (1st)
• D Alex Pietrangelo, VGK (3rd)
On the ice, the Abbotsford Canucks toil on this weekend — kicking off the month of February with six home games in 10 days.
They opened that homestand with a 7-3 loss to the Stockton Heat on Thursday night. Sheldon Rempal, Will Lockwood and Yushiroh Hirano had the goals for Abbotsford, and Spencer Martin gave up five goals on 27 shots for his first regulation loss of the year at the AHL level.
Get that man back to the NHL!!
The Heat and Canucks will do battle again on Friday at 7 p.m. PT, and the game is available to watch for free on AHL TV. That'll bring Abbotsford to the halfway point of its 68-game inaugural season.
Heading into Friday's game, the Canucks sit sixth in the AHL's nine-team Pacific Division, with a record of 15-14-3-1 for 34 points in 33 games and a points percentage of .515 — just a hair better than their big brothers in Vancouver, who are at exactly .500.
Abbotsford's leading scorers are the Sheldons, of course — Rempal, with 15 goals and 30 points; Dries with 16 goals and 29 points.
Nic Petan leads in points per game, with 24 points in 22 games. Daniela Klimovich is the top-scoring rookie, with 10 points in 29 games, but Jack Rathbone has a higher points-per game average, with eight points in just 13 games. Cameron Schilling is still the club's top-scoring defenseman, with 13 points. But he left the team after 19 games and is now playing in Germany. Madison Bowey sits second with 11 points in 29 games.
On the penalty front, rugged Vincent Arseneau leads the way with 48 PIMs in 29 games. He's followed by defenseman Devante Stephens (38 PIMs) and forward Carson Focht (36 PIMs).
Jett Woo continues to fly a bit under the radar; he spent some time on the injured list, and now has seven points and eight penalty minutes in 20 games played. As another higher-profile prospect, Will Lockwood also missed some time, but has been a bit more impactful. He has 13 points and 26 penalty minutes in 25 games played.
As for the big club — if you missed it, Canucks president Jim Rutherford had a chat with NHL.com writer Mike Zeisberger this week.
Click here to read that.
For all the trade-rumour talk that has swirled about the Canucks over the last month, the story opens with Rutherford's declaration that the club's first priority will be to try to make a push for the playoffs.
"This group of players worked hard to get back in the race," Rutherford said. "They deserve a lot of credit for showing a lot of character with what we're dealing with, a lot of key players having dealt with [COVID-19] and things like that. And so we want to see where this team goes."
Talking about his roster and the trade deadline, Rutherford is pretty non-commital, mostly just saying he'll keep his options open like any other team.
And while this final quote, again, is supportive of the players who are here right now, he does leav just enough room for readers to read between the lines, and speculate on what he might have up his sleeve.
"We have some work to do to become better and become a contender," he said. "But there are a lot of good players here, some that got off to a slow start, some that didn't. A few of the players missed camp for various reasons, and when you miss training camp, it's hard to catch up. There are some real character players here and you've seen it as we've kind of battled through what we've been battling through the last few weeks. I give our players a lot of credit for coming into work and giving it everything they have in practice and everything they have in the games. And we can't ask for anything more than that."
Wednesday's game results were about as bad as they could get for the Canucks, in terms of their potential playoff path. Edmonton, Calgary and Los Angeles all won, as did Minnesota and even Seattle.
So, at the break, six points now separate the 12th-place Canucks from the eighth-place Flames in the Western Conference, with Calgary back in the form they were showing earlier in the season, riding a three-game winning streak, and with four games in hand.
The top three teams in the Pacific aren't far ahead of the Flames, who have 52 points. Vegas is leading, with 57, then L.A. and Anaheim are right behind with 55 — but have both played more games than the Canucks, or any other teams in the Conference.
When the Canucks get back to work after the break, they'll have a pretty friendly schedule — seven games in three weeks, with just one on the road (in San Jose). And three of those games are against non-playoff teams, although Arizona, the Islanders and Seattle have also shown, especially lately, that they can win on any given night.
If the Canucks players want to keep Rutherford's faith, they're going to have to continue to earn points in virtually every game they play, especially as their rivals are making up their games in hand.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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