January 21, 2008 NHL all-star game is right around the corner By Garth McLennan io 56" annual NHL all-star game will be played on January 27" of this year, in Atlanta, and like every year it will feature the league’s premier players. The best of the West will face the top in the East in a friendly contest. The starting lineups (three forwards, two defensemen one goalie) for each conference are nominated by the fans through an online poll while the coaching staffs of the two squads select the rest of the two teams. ' This year Detroit’s Mike Babcock coaches the West, while John Paddock of the Ottawa Senators heads up the East. Detroit and Ottawa are the two best teams in the NHL so far this season. The fans chose Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, both of Babcock’s Detroit Red Wings, and Jarome Iginla from the Calgary Flames as the starting Western forwards, Nicklas Lidstrom and Dion Phaneuf as the West’s opening defensemen, and our own Roberto Luongo to start in goal. Unfortunately, Luongo will not be participating in the all-star game. His wife is pregnant and he is using the all- star weekend, which the league shuts down for, to return to his home in Florida and spend some time with her. His wife is due in April and has been living in Florida during her pregnancy while Roberto has been playing in Vancouver. Babcock opted to take Chris Osgood, his starting goaltender in Detroit, in Luongo’s place. Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks and Manny Legace of the St. Louis Blues will join Osgood as the Western Conference’s goaltenders. However, Legace was recently injured in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks, so his status for the game is currently uncertain. On the Eastern side, fans elected Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators as the starting forwards, Andrei Markov of the Montreal Canadians and Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins as the top defensemen, and the New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur to start in goal. Just like the West, the East has had to alter their lineup slightly as well. Paddock picked Dany Heatley to play for the East, but due to Heatley’s injury, Marc Savard, the Boston Bruins’ top playmaking center, will replace him. Last year, the West beat the East 12-9 in Dallas on the strength of Rick Nash’s four point effort, while Daniel Briere, then of the Buffalo Sabres, had a five point game for the East and was named the games’ MVP, winning a brand new Car. Every year, the YoungStars game precedes the main event. The best first year players from around the league play against each other in a fun game with no face offs and in a three-on-three format. New Jersey’s Zach Parise was the YoungStars MVP last year. Vancouver’s Alex Edler will be competing in the YoungStars game while Henrik Sedin plays in the main all-star game. Jarome Iginla will captain the Western all-stars while Vincent Lecavalier will wear the ‘C’ for the Eastern conference. Where are they now? By Garth McLennan D. you ever wonder what happened to the NHL stars of just a few years ago? Like, whatever happened to Ed Belfour or Theo Fleury? Well, here you are, a guide to some of the players whose glory years have passed them by. Ed Belfour: Eddie ‘the eagle’ Belfour, 42, now tends goal in the second tier Swedish league for Leksands IF. Oddly, Belfour’s previous season with the Florida Panthers went fairly well. He went 27-17-10 with a not so great 2.77 GAA but a solid .902 SP. Considering that he was splitting time with Alex Auld, and playing for a dreadful Florida club, you’d think he would have been able to stay in the NHL. Belfour was impressive in his Swedish debut. He stopped 16 of 17 shots as Leksands defeated Sundsvall 4- 1. The former Vezina winner has said he is uncertain about an NHL return. Roman Turek: The 37-year old goaltender is now playing in the Czech Elite League for HC Ceske Budejovice. He is most famous for his stay with the Calgary Flames, but he also played for Dallas and St. Louis over a nine-year NHL career. Turek was considered Calgary’s best player and franchise goalie at a time when the Flames weren’t very good. However, his star fell with the team’s misfortune’s and rise of superstar Mikka Kiprusoff. Eric Lindros: The legendary power forward finally called it quits after last season, packing in a roller-coaster career that spanned 13 years and included an MVP award, a scoring championship and too many concussions to count. Lindros was forced to retire at 34 due to the cumulative effect of the numerous injuries he picked up over his career. Over his entire career, Lindros never played a complete season. Lindros had his glory years in Philadelphia with the Flyers before fading slightly with the New York Rangers, and then disaster trips with Toronto and Dallas. Always involved in the NHLPA during his playing days, Lindros has accepted the position as the union’s first ever ombudsman, handling complaints and issues the players have with the league and the union. troubled former The superstar has traveled the world since his departure from the NHL. In 2004-05, he played for the men’s senior league team, the Horse Lake Thunder, with other former NHLer’s, including Gino Odjick. The next year, Fleury, now 39, had a whirlwind season with the Belfast Giants in the British Elite League. He had a stellar debut, scoring a hat trick, adding four assists and fighting once for an incredible night. The Giants won the league championship that season, but now without several incidents from Fleury. On one occasion, after being mocked by an opposing fan, Fleury attempted to scale the boards to get at him and made death threats. He also had a number of unpleasant encounters with referees and vowed to never play in Britain again due to the sub-standard officiating. However, the year ended well as Fleury was named league MVP at the season’s conclusion. Nowadays, Fleury is back home and is, amazingly, trying to get a network to pick up his idea for a reality based television show about his turbulent life. 17