First-timers savoring experience at NHL All-Star Game

TAMPA -- When Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski was young he watched the NHL All-Star Game, year after year after year. He had to be there in front of the television. He had to watch.
"Start to finish," Werenski said.
Every skills competition. Every All-Star Game.

Now, for the first time, he's the all-star. Werenski was added to the team Friday to replace teammate Seth Jones, who can't play because of illness. Werenski will be the one who kids are watching, dreaming on, idolizing -- and he'll be experiencing it all for the first time in his career.
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Werenski is not alone. The 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game features 15 first-time participants, from rookies such as Vancouver Canucks forward Brock Boeser to 10-year veterans like New York Islanders forward Josh Bailey, to those in between such as Florida Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov.
In addition to Boeser, Bailey, Barkov, and Werenski, the All-Star Game newcomers are Buffalo Sabres forward Jack Eichel, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, New Jersey Devils forward Brian Boyle, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Noah Hanifin, St. Louis Blues forward Brayden Schenn and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, Winnipeg Jets forward Blake Wheeler and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, Dallas Stars defenseman John Klingberg, and Anaheim Ducks forward Rickard Rakell.
Werenski wasn't the only one dreaming. Boeser said he also watched the game as a kid and followed the NHL stars. Now it's a pinch-me moment. He's here, in Tampa, gearing up for the 2018 GEICO NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVA Sports), anticipating the game itself on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
"I think I'm realizing it more and more as I start to see all these stars here," Boeser said.

He's now one of them. He's an all-star, even though he hardly expected this might happen at the start of this season. He's still nervous, still watching his teammates, still unsure how exactly to play in an All-Star Game, how to act.
Boeser started the season hoping only to make the team. He wasn't thinking about playing in the All-Star Game or winning the Calder Trophy. He still sounds like he can't believe any of it.
But for others, getting here has been a long wait. Wheeler is in his 10th season in the NHL and has scored at least 74 points in each of the last two. He thought he might get the call sooner.
"When it didn't happen in years past, there was a little bit of bitterness, seeing you could be here," Wheeler said. "I think I got over that the last few years. It's maybe a little bit of immaturity in years past. You want to be a part of that and you feel like you maybe could be here, got slighted."
So, yes, it matters. They care.
"I think no matter what the guys say or how long you play, it's nice to be acknowledged for the work you put in," Wheeler said. "It's not what you play for, but if you get acknowledged it definitely feels good to be a part of this group."
That was the message throughout. That it feels good to be included, to be lauded. It's also important to enjoy the opportunity.
Pietrangelo was seated alongside teammate and fellow first-timer Schenn at Media Day on Saturday, and said how special it was to be there, together.

"You try and soak it in as much as you can because you never know if you're going to get the opportunity [again]," said Pietrangelo, who became captain of the Blues before he was selected to participate in an All-Star Game.
The first-timers, though, are hardly homogenous. They range from Boeser, a 20-year-old who's in his first full NHL season, to Boyle, 33, who made his NHL debut on Feb. 2, 2008.
Still, most of them are young. Most are next-generation players who'll have many more chances to take part in All-Star Games in their future. It signals something about the NHL, where it is now and where it's going -- especially in the fact that a number of the League's young stars (Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau, Nathan MacKinnon) have been All-Stars before.
"It tells you how young the League's getting and the turnover, where the 35-plus year-olds used to be able to play in the League with regularity," said Lightning and Atlantic Division coach Jon Cooper, another All-Star Game first-timer. "Now that's a hard thing to do unless you're named Jaromir Jagr.
"Probably what you're seeing today is the explosion of the young talent and the speed of the game. I don't know how much younger it's going to get, but you're probably at the peak of it right now."