The All-Star rosters have been announced and for the fourth year in a row, Calgary Flames All-Star Johnny Gaudreau has made it again.
This is Johnny Gaudreau‘s fourth NHL season. And this is his fourth time making it to the All-Star Game. That’s quite a feat. The Calgary Flames leading scorer this season will be heading to Tampa Bay for the 63rd NHL All-Star Game. It’ll be on Sunday, Jan. 28th with some skills competition happening during the weekend.
Four trips to the all-star game in his four NHL seasons for Johnny Gaudreau. Pretty amazing accomplishment if you think about it. Not your ordinary fourth rounder.
— Darren Haynes (@DarrenWHaynes) January 10, 2018
More Gaudreau on the #NHLAllStar weekend: “I always fly my family out to whatever city I’m in. You don’t get to see your family too much during the season, especially being in Calgary. To have them be part of the weekend is so cool.”
— Kristen Anderson (@KdotAnderson) January 10, 2018
We all remember what happened at Gaudreau’s first All-Star skills competition in 2015…
Something that’s somewhat disappointing is Mike Smith not making ASG this year. Last year, he scored the five-hole goal from the other end of the ice during the skill competition and that could have been fun to see again.
Via NHL.com:
"“It was pretty cool,” Smith said. “The look on (Vancouver All-Star) Bo Horvat’s face when I looked over at him was pretty priceless. I’m sure mine was, too, to see it go in. But it was something I’ll remember for a long time. My family was here to witness it, too, so they can believe me … I didn’t really have a strategy, I was focused on just hitting the board, but it kind of curled in at the last second. I couldn’t believe it, to be honest, I was just as shocked as everyone else was. It was pretty flukey, but we’ll take it.”"
That wasn’t the first time he’s scored a goal. In 2013, he scored an empty-net goal against the Detroit Red Wings with 0.1 seconds left in the game. That one would be an official goalie goal! He became just the 11th goalie in NHL history to ever record an NHL goal.
But I mean… he did play for the Arizona Coyotes last year, so that’s understandable why he made it last year. Now with Johnny Gaudreau AND an extra team in the Pacific Division, it’s hard to fit everyone you want. But what’s somewhat surprising is Marc-Andre Fleury making it after he’s been injured for a majority of the season. I guess he’s healthy now, but I’m biased and would have liked to have seen Smith there.
Let’s also try and get Kris Versteeg out there to do all the commentary for the game.
VerBeauty. https://t.co/Q2VMviksXH
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) January 8, 2018
Next: Can Dillon Dube make the lineup next year?
Best commentator in the game, that’s for sure. Also, who’s going to look after Johnny while he’s there!? He needs parental guidance. Maybe this year will finally be the year that the NHL allows him to light his stick on fire.