Something to Be Said for Game Before Game

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling this NHL All-Star week.

OK, how many of you were even aware the NHL’s best were in town this week?

Apparently none of my friends, judging by the number of times I’ve had the following conversation this week:

“You going to the Super Bowl?”

“No. I’m covering the NHL All-Star game.”

“Oh. Yeah. Right. That.”

Well, the week already has featured everything you could want in an event like this: superstars, nostalgia and drama.

And they haven’t even played the main game yet.

To tell you the truth, the game isn’t even my favorite part. It’s the SuperSkills Competition.

(Or, as Tim Hardaway would call it, the “SuperSkeeeeels Competition.”)

As for the All-Star game itself, I’d put the NHL third on my list of the pro sports gala events. My favorite is the NBA, because you’re very likely to see what you want to see (i.e. a Kobe Bryant dunk or Allen Iverson crossover).

Second is baseball, because when you do see what you want, it’s memorable. The problem with the NHL All-Star game and the Pro Bowl is that these are sports that market hitting and violence, and in these games there’s none. The NFL gets additional points subtracted because the players care more about hanging out in Hawaii than playing the game itself.

On Friday the NHL SuperSkills competition provided plenty of excitement, as it usually does. It’s the perfect showcase for the best in the world at what they do, with competition mixed in.

The anchor leg of the three-man puck control relay put Teemu Selanne vs. Joe Sakic. Sakic had a one-zone head start on Selanne, but Selanne caught up as he zigzagged through the pylons and barely nipped Sakic at the finish line.

You had Sergei Fedorov firing the puck into the net at 101.5 mph.

You had goaltender Dominik Hasek turning away Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya and Brendan Shanahan on a three-on-none.

There was Jarome Iginla, his legs shaking from his first time being on the ice with the same stars and participating in the same competition that he used to watch as a youngster, drilling four targets in six tries in the shooting accuracy competition. The guys feeding him pucks: Lemieux and Kariya.

“You can’t beat that, can you?” an excited Iginla said.

It all came down to the final event, mano a mano, with Hasek skating out to challenge shooters, flipping, flopping and doing everything to stop breakaways by Rob Blake, Chris Chelios, Mark Parrish, Joe Thornton and Sakic. He gave up only one goal to the sublime Lemieux, but his performance was enough to preserve an overall 12-11 victory for the World team over the North Americans.

Stars all around. Including Wayne Gretzky.

Gretzky still has juice. He also has more responsibilities than ever, doubling as the managing partner of the Phoenix Coyotes and executive director of the Canadian Olympic team.

He met with reporters Friday evening to talk Olympic shop and it was a standing-room-only affair.

To the Canadian media, it was the equivalent of a Donald Rumsfield security briefing.

They wanted to know about Team Canada’s third goalie, about the line combinations, about Lemieux’s ability to play in back-to-back games. Gretzky’s handling this whole executive thing very well. He’s smooth, yet informative. In his new capacity he remains a perfect ambassador for his sport.

Staples Center might be Shaq’s Shack, but Gretzky at least gets a share of it for making the Kings worthy of a new building. The Kings wouldn’t mean a thing in this town if Gretzky didn’t arrive in 1988. The best news of the week was the announcement that his No. 99 will be retired and hang in the building.

He’s more concerned about selling the Coyotes to the desert dwellers now, but the sight of this town turning out for this week’s hockey festivities puts a smile on his face.

“It’s a great sports city,” he said of Los Angeles. “If you’re going to have a chance [for hockey] to succeed, you have to have a great sports city--and this is.”

He liked the fact that the L.A. fans would get an up-close look at the best players in the world this week. He liked the NHL FANtasy setup and even took his kids there on Thursday.

(You want to talk fantasy? Try walking into the Kings’ locker room and seeing names such as Lemieux, Roenick and Iginla over the stalls. Only on All-Star weekend.)

Hey, the Stanley Cup’s in town. Go down and see it now or take your chances that the Kings will get ahold of it sometime before you’re buried. I have to admit, that thing has a magic pull to me. I had to touch it when I was in the New York Rangers’ victorious locker room in 1994. And I coughed up the three bucks to take my picture with it at the FANtasy on Thursday.

The best part of the FANtasy at the Convention Center was the 1980 Olympic hockey team reunion Friday afternoon. Seeing them gathered together, you could tell they have a special lifetime bond.

I don’t think a single sporting event will ever make so many Americans feel so good as that team’s gold-medal achievement.

Maybe it’s too much to expect sports to provide an uplifting national moment. It’s possible, but it can’t happen that easily.

Entertainment and distraction? Sports can fill those roles no problem. So far, the NHL’s All-Star week is up to the task.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at: [email protected].