All Star Game

January 24-25th is NHL All Star weekend. You can see amazing skills competitions as well as the league's top players compete in what is typically a high scoring affair.

Last year brought about the "Trick Shot" competition. Many tricks were seen, including Ovechkin bouncing the puck on his stick while skating towards goal and then doing a 360 degree spin and attempting to bat the puck in out of mid air...pretty cool.

But not as cool as what I witnessed one day by none other than the most creative player in all of C League, Adam Lowell. During one game, he played on a line that was trying to kill off a penalty. It was a 5 on 3 and he was defending his zone when a puck was shot at him. He stopped the puck with his stick and proceeded to skate down the ice toward the goalie. Rather than just dumping the puck to kill some time, he decided to skate it. The first attacker approached and Adam slid forward on his belly between the player's legs while still controlling the puck. The second attacker came at him and Adam decided to not only do a 360 move around the opposition, he did another unnecessary 360 around the same player just to rub it in. Next, 2 defenders came at him at the same time. Just as they were about to sandwich him, he leaped into the air doing the splits and with about a 60" vertical, cleared the 2 players and watched as they collided into each other. With one player left between him and the goalie, Adam headed for the right side boards. As the attacker followed, Adam jumped sideways onto the glass and began running perpendicular to the ice like Neo from the Matrix. After approx. 15 feet of this running, he was behind the defender and alone with the goalie. He put the breaks on, dropped his stick, removed the goalies mask, pinched the goalies nose and told him "I got your nose, I got your nose." Dazed and confused, the goalie stood still as Adam put his helmet back on, and then using the butt end of his stick, lifted it top shelf backhand which caused the water bottle to explode into 100 pieces and shower the entire crowd behind the goal.

So as you watch the All Star game, just know that you'll never see anything that remarkable on television.