It's been awesome. I didn't really know what to expect coming into the All-Star Game, but everything from the way the NHL Players' Association, the NHL and San Jose Sharks put on this event, it's been awesome. We had a blast every single day. The fan support has been great. It's cool to get to meet a lot of these guys. You go battle against these guys on a nightly basis and it's cool to see that the guys are able to hit the off switch and hang out for a couple days, so it's been a lot of fun.
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The 3-on-3 format was fun. I would say it's got to be more fun for the fans to watch that than 5-on-5. It opens up more scoring chances, a lot of great saves, and so I think it was a lot of fun. It seemed like the fans were enjoying it.
Having Nathan MacKinnon behind the bench was great. Honestly, we kept wondering why the Winnipeg Jets guys got to play so much. They didn't show up and play today. Though, I guess Blake Wheeler had a goal. But Mikko Rantanen was requesting more ice time.
I'm just joking. It was awesome to have him. We had a great time. It was cool for Nate to take part and at least be on the bench. We would have loved to have him on the ice. He would have been a big part of our team, but it was good to have him on there. He looked good as a coach, drinking coffee and just kind of playing the whole part.
We've got to make sure our showing at the All-Star Game does tilt our momentum our way for the rest of the season. Everybody that's on vacations right now getting some rest and recovery, it'll be important for us as a team to hit the ground running. So I'm glad everybody's having some downtime right now. Hopefully recharge the batteries and then come back hungry.
Everybody knows what's expected by the time we get back. We're going to have to get back on the right side of things.
