All Star Game Flops; Second Half Mercifully Begins

The NHL All-Star break is now over and mercifully so is the NHL All-Star game. It was the highest scoring all-star game and 22 goals scored plus the addition goal awarded for the shootout win for the East really could not have been any less entertaining. Even the skills competition was boring with the modification of the event to try to make it more exciting did the exact opposite. With that said, Tuesday night the de facto second half began and there were some pretty good games on tap. The best of Tuesday’s games was in Boston as the Bruins battled the Caps.

Washington and Boston are two of the best teams in the lead not only in team points but in talent level and that makes all of their match-ups particularly intriguing. Washington made Boston come from behind twice in the game before the game was won 3-2 in overtime by Boston on a blocked pass attempt that by chance went into the net behind Theodore. It was unfortunate because both netminders played an incredible third period making incredible shots to keep their respective teams in the game as the aforementioned talent that these two teams are loaded with. Both Theodore and Thomas showed Tuesday night that despite all that talent it is the goalies who need to be the best player on the ice more often than not if any hockey team wants to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

Some other notes worth mentioning before signing off:

Claude Lemieux made his return to Colorado with the San Jose Sharks. The 43 year old signed an AHL deal with San Jose before being called up to play with the NHL club last Tuesday.

The Buffalo Sabres scored 2 goals in the first 1:45 of the first period against Edmonton on route to crushing the Oilers 10-2.

The Detroit Red Wings started the second half of the season with a 3-2 OT loss to Columbus.