Burnside: Quips, quotes and notes from All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas

Scott Burnside
Scott Burnside
Feb 7, 2022, 13:23 EST
Burnside: Quips, quotes and notes from All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS – And so we bid adieu to Sin City and All Star Weekend 2022.

In many ways the event – a more than pleasant reminder of what might be when we are finally and truly past the pandemic that has taken so much from so many over the past two years – marks a line in the sand.

League testing protocols will be relaxed starting this week. Some teams who had more games postponed because of COVID-19 (and in a couple of cases extreme weather) will find their schedules will become more than a little arduous. But there is definitely a feeling of the urgency ramping up for teams post-All Star.

Here are some notes and ruminations from All-Star Weekend as we head into the second half of the season:

Bednar on Kadri’s Hart candidacy

When Daily Faceoff conducted our Midseason Awards balloting, only Frank Seravalli had Colorado’s Nazem Kadri at No. 1 on his Hart Trophy ballot. I had the skilled, gritty center in the third spot. We had a chance to ask head coach Jared Bednar about Kadri.

What was surprising to us was that Bednar said there wasn’t really anything new about how they were using Kadri, who hit the All Star break tied for third in the league with 60 points.

“For the most part I would say we’re using him the same as we have in years past. Because of how well he’s playing he’s just getting used more in all those same situations,” Bednar said.

The Avs lost Joonas Donskoi to Seattle in the expansion draft and Brandon Saad signed in St. Louis in the offseason. And the team has struggled to stay healthy and out of the COVID-19 protocol web. Against that backdrop, Kadri has emerged as one of the team’s most important players as opposed to a complementary figure.

“It’s the consistency in Naz’s game that’s really propelled him into the top handful of the players in the league this year for me,” Bednar said.

The Avs coach said Kadri’s skill set seems to be most prominently displayed when he’s playing with an edge to his game.

“Naz is a very skilled player with great vision to pass the puck. He can score in tight. He’s got great hands around the net. He’s really good in the bumper spot on the power play. Highly skilled guy and his skill really shows up when he plays with a certain amount of grit and the tenaciousness in his game,” the coach said.

When he exhibits that kind of assertiveness he gets the puck more and he has been extremely efficient in producing when he has the puck in the offensive zone.

“And I believe that’s because of the competitiveness in his game this year,” Bednar said.

Kadri is averaging 19:13 a night in ice time, up 2:45 a night over last season and Bednar has even started using him on the penalty kill after making some adjustments to the team’s penalty killing setup.

“He has a real good understanding of what other teams are trying to do on the power play and he’s in-tune with what he’s got to do to stop it,” Bednar said.

All of which makes Kadri one of the most interesting players to watch this offseason as he is in the final year of a deal paying him $4.5 million annually. Suffice it to say a monster raise is in store for him, as our Chris Gear calculated out in a story last week.

How close is Jack Eichel?

One player who wasn’t at All Star Weekend but who was very much on the minds of Vegas Golden Knights fans – and players and coaches for that matter – was Jack Eichel.

Eichel returned to full contact at Monday’s practice for the first time since a neck injury more than a year ago led to disc replacement surgery three months ago. The debate over treatment for the injury was a key factor in Eichel being traded out of Buffalo the team that drafted him second overall in 2015. But now the 25-year-old has been in Vegas skating with the team for a couple of weeks and head coach Pete DeBoer said the anticipation is growing to see what kind of impact Eichel will make on a team already considered a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

There were a couple of practices during the last week “where he’s been the best player on the ice,” DeBoer said.

“So I’d say he’s progressing pretty well. We haven’t started contact yet so that’s the next step and that’s a big step obviously. Everything changes once we get into full contact. But from a sheer practice and skill point of view he’s elite, elite and every day we’re out with them I think our group gets more excited.”

Hard to imagine, but assuming all goes well with Eichel’s recovery, he will play in his first Stanley Cup playoff game this season and he’ll do so not being the captain and ‘the’ guy as would have been the case in Buffalo, but as a part of a star-studded team.

“He doesn’t have the pressure of having to carry a team,” DeBoer said. “I talked to him the other day. I mean he’s never played an NHL playoff game yet. And I know that’s exciting for him and that’s a whole different level of hockey when you get to that time of year. I’m excited for him because I think he’s going to excel in that type of game. And I know he’s excited about the opportunity to play playoff hockey.”

Giroux’s MVP Weekend

Want to thank Zack Hill of the Philadelphia Flyers, one of the deans of NHL PR staff, for a picture he shared of All Star MVP Claude Giroux and his 2 ½ year old son Gavin in the locker room after Saturday’s final game. The room was mostly if not completely deserted and it was just the two Giroux boys hanging out.

Giroux talked about how important it was to share this weekend with his son and for us it’s one of the great parts of this event is seeing guys like Giroux, Joe Pavelski, Steven Stamkos who broke off a media chat so his boy could see the Zamboni make its rounds at T-Mobile Arena, and Alex Pietrangelo getting to share the ice and the memories with their youngsters.

The weekend had to be especially meaningful for Giroux, who is in his contract year with the Flyers and GM Chuck Fletcher has made it clear he will try and accommodate Giroux if he wants to be moved to a contender as the March 21 deadline approaches.

The 34-year-old has 35 points and is one behind team leader Cam Atkinson at the break. Even though his $8.275 million cap hit is a potential roadblock to a trade, Giroux’s ability to play the wing or center and his experience will make him attractive to teams like Colorado, Minnesota and the New York Rangers among others looking to make a big add at the deadline. Not that Giroux was much on entertaining speculative trade talk this week although he did acknowledge the issue on his mind “maybe a little bit.”

“A lot of time left,” the seven-time All Star added. “It’s all I have for you right now. A lot of hockey left. I know for playoffs for us it’s going to be a longshot. We know that. but I’ve seen crazier things so for us it’s keep getting better as a team and keep wracking up the wins as we get bodies back healthy.”

With a young family adding to the dynamic, I would think it’s about 50-50 if Giroux is on the move.

Vegas: A family friendly All-Star destination

Speaking of family connections at All-Star seeing many of the players’ sharing time with their youngsters brought back memories for Brady Tkachuk who, along with brother Matthew, grew up in the NHL milieu thanks to his All-Star dad, Keith.

“I remember the ’09 (All Star Weekend) pretty good in Montreal,” Brady Tkachuk said. “The one memory that stands out from that is when Ovie had the Canadian bucket hat and the two sticks going on the breakaway. I remember that was pretty cool.

“And seeing the guys’ kids buzzing around it brings back good memories because that was Matthew and I growing up and just getting pictures with everybody and probably creating such a mess. It was definitely a lot of great memories that we had.”

Tkachuk’s parents were in Vegas and we suggested maybe the NHL needs to create a new father-son event at future All-Star events.

Tkachuk was not as enthusiastic about the idea.

“Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe at the tables or something,” the Ottawa Senators’ captain said. “Maybe down the road.”

‘Boring’ East playoff slog begins

We asked a couple of Eastern Conference all stars about the have and have nots in the Eastern Conference where it seems virtually assured that the top eight as it stands now are almost certainly going to represent the Eastern Conference in the playoffs come late April.

“I think the top eight teams in the east are very, very good,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “I think you kind of seen the transition the past couple of years. It was always the West had some pretty dominant teams. Now you look at Florida, Carolina, ourselves, Toronto, Boston, the Rangers, the list goes on it feels like this year in terms of teams that have a chance to win it.

“I think for us that’s the challenge is obviously not trying to get too far ahead and start looking at the playoffs. I think the challenge for us is we get to play these teams a lot too, and there’s so many good teams in the east so let’s get up and see where we are in terms of playing those teams.”

Pittsburgh netminder Tristan Jarry acknowledged that the players are constantly aware of the standings and the nightly movement up or down for their own team and the teams around them.

“You’re definitely watching the standings. I know all the players we check after every game. We’re checking scores and see who wins and who loses and it obviously helps us when a team losing in our division and we end up winning,” Jarry said. “I think you’re just trying to get in the highest seed that you can. I think that gives you a good advantage to get home ice and having home ice is a huge advantage just being able to start at home where you’re comfortable.”

For the record, Jarry and the red-hot Penguins open the post-All Star schedule on a 6-1-3 run and are just two points out of first in the Metropolitan Division.

All-Star Validation

Jarry was one of a handful of players at All Star whose selection might qualify as a kind of redemption or at least validation of their elite play after some difficult times. Toronto netminder Jack Campbell might fall into that category.

His predecessor in Toronto, Frederik Andersen, now enjoying a Vezina Trophy-worthy season in Carolina, is another. Kadri might be another. But certainly Jarry, who struggled mightily in the first round of the playoffs last spring was able to appreciate the perhaps unexpected arc of going from that forgettable performance against the New York Islanders to the All Star Game.

“I think that was something that I wanted to get over as quick as possible. And I had a lot of people helping me, I had a lot of people pushing me to be better,” Jarry said. “So I think that was something that really made me want to put in a good summer and come back and be better this year. I think that the team’s done a great job and they’ve been playing great and I think that’s what put me here.”

Not that he’s satisfied.

“I never want to be satisfied,” said Jarry who is 23-8-6 with a 2.21 GAA and .923 save percentage. “I think that’s something I always want more and I always want to be better and I think that’s just how I go about my day I don’t think I’ve really changed my mindset too since last couple of years but I think just being able to push myself a little bit more and being better every day.”

Makar Magic

Lots of discussion about the marvelous season Colorado defenseman Cale Makar is having and where he might end up at the end of the day with his point and goal totals. He began the week with 18 goals, five more than the next highest-scoring defenseman, Roman Josi of Nashville.

Makar’s entire game has Josi’s attention.

“Well I think just how dynamic he is and the way he plays. I think he’s one of those guys who can beat you one on one and just the way he moves on the blue line,” Josi said of Makar. “Yeah, his whole game is very dynamic and he’s very hard to defend.”

Josi will be very much in the Norris Trophy discussion again as the surprising Nashville Predators have a good grip on a playoff spot hitting the second half. And he reflected on how he has suddenly become one of the veterans at an event like All Star.

“It is weird. Like you said. I think I’m probably one of the older guys here now. Time flies,” said Josi, 31.

“I have so many great memories from these All Star games because you play against all those guys but you don’t really know them as a person. You might say hi but that’s about it and here you actually get to spend some time you sit together in the locker room. You get to talk about some other stuff from hockey, some personal stuff so it’s cool to meet all those guys and build some friendships for sure.”

Stamkos: Don’t sleep on Hedman for Norris

Back to Stamkos for a moment. He, too, was asked about all the young guns on the blue line including Makar and defending Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox, who would have been at All Star were it not for injury. Stamkos chose the moment to remind folks that there’s a pretty good defenseman in Tampa (who was also in Vegas for All Star) named Victor Hedman.

Stamkos suggested Hedman can hang with those flashier, younger guys, “but he also is one of those best defending defensemen in the game. And that’s rare. When you have a guy that can be over a point a game as a defenseman and still be the best defenseman defending on the ice so that’s what separates him from a lot of these other defensemen in my mind.”

“Certainly in our mind in Tampa where we think he’s the best overall defenseman in the game. Again, I see him all the time in practice it doesn’t surprise me what he does on the ice. For someone to have that size and be able to skate and cover ground like he does is pretty remarkable,” Stamkos added. He recalled a game earlier in the season when the Lightning were forced to go with four defensemen in Los Angeles.

“He said he couldn’t sleep because he was so excited because he knew he was going to play 35 minutes,” Stamkos said with a laugh. “That just goes to show you right there how his mindset is. He wants to be on the ice all the time.”

Gibson savoring Ducks’ playoff chase

For the last couple of seasons in Anaheim, it’s been a bit of a grind for the Ducks. And their fans frankly. This season, though, they hit the break tied for second in the Pacific Division with nearby rival the Los Angeles Kings. The Western Conference has a lot of moving parts for the playoffs, but with young stars Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry, both of whom were in Vegas this weekend, there is certainly more optimism than in recent years which is something we asked netminder John Gibson about.

“It’s fun playing meaningful games. By the midway point last year we were kind of already out of it and just playing just to try and ruin somebody else’s year or just playing,” Gibson said.

“Maybe when I was early in the league and we made the playoffs every year I took it a little bit for granted, I was spoiled,” Gibson, 28, said. “And then kind of had the harsh reality of how it is being a bottom team and not making the playoffs and I think it’s one of those things that you don’t want to take anything for granted.”

Gibson hasn’t played a postseason game since 2018 and he will be a key part of keeping this young Ducks team on track during the second half.

“I think just trying to take it segment by segment,” Gibson said was the key. “We know what our end goal is. We want to make the playoffs but we know we have a lot of work to do to get there. We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good spot now but we know there’s still a long way to go.”

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