All Star Breakage:

Not much Flower news this weekend (Yawn city) and while I'm not a huge fan of the actual All Star Game, the skills competition is always interesting to watch. Evgeni Malkin won the accuracy competition with an impressive 4-4 in the first round and 3-4 in the shoot-off. Dany Heatley went 2-4 in the SO, and Geno, much to his surprise, won. With typical modesty (or it's a cunning way to get out of long answers in English) he attributed his victory to 'luck, all luck', and when asked afterwords if he still thought he wasn't any good, he said with his big Jethro grin, "I think I'm not good." Well Geno, there are a lot of people around here that would disagree with you..... loudly, and forcefully, and sometimes drunkenly, so just accept it. You're good.... very good.

Lazy Blogger Update: The 5 days of rest were just what the doctor ordered (I mean that literally) El Sid, may or may not play Wed. against the Raggers, but Mad Maximus and Super Dupuis are back to 'line-up' status. And Brooksie is getting ever closer, being listed as 'day to day' for his 'undisclosed' no real word on Scuds, he didn't practice today because of some undisclosed (naturally) illness. But he was healthy enough for the last game, and I haven't heard anything about any other 'undisclosed' to worry about so, hopefully, this will be some sort of plague he can get over quickly and then back in the line up. (mercenary, aren't I?)

Alex O'retchkin and Evgeni Malkin have put some of the rumors to rest about their 'feud'. During the break-away competition Geno helped Ovie with his props during his 'Canadian flag on the ugly hat with the sunglasses and two sticks' attempt. 'Retchkin signed and tossed the hat up into the stands while waiting for the call in vote to come back that gave him the win. I'm starting to think that ol-Retchkin is a bit smarter than I previously thought. It could be that he knows that Geno will be confused when T'eed up on by a friend, and that confusion will throw Geno off his game. If that's the case, I think Geno needs to crack Ovie one during the game, and get him to back off. Or, he could just let Godard or Cookie do it for him and ignore the Retchkin.

The one other interesting thing about the Skills Part of the weekend was when Tim Thomas let team-mate Marc Savard score during the Elimination Shoot-Out that ended the day. Savard and eventual winner Shane Doan were the last two left and Thomas 'fluffed' a save attempt in a blatant helper for the fellow Bruin. Savard was miked up for the whole thing and it was vaguely entertaining.

Former Penguin Alexei Kovalev scored the game winner during the All Star Game shoot-out with Alex Ovechkin scoring the clincher right behind him. Eastern Conference wins (does it really matter?) 12-11. Kovy won the car as the MVP of the game (I sense some home-town pressure on the judges). So, although the overtime portion was a bit like an actual hockey game, another Yawn-fest is over for yet another year.... now on to the real hockey portion for our viewing pleasure.