Marc Savard's Efforts Edged the East Over The West In NHL's 2008 All Star Game

This is what hockey should be like more often. Hockey games are more exciting for me when the scoring is high and the action comes right down to the wire.

Marc Savard made Atlanta feel like home all over again.

With hockey luminaries such as Sidney Crosby sitting home, Savard stepped up. The Boston Bruins forward scored the winning goal with 20.9 seconds left Sunday night to lift the Eastern Conference to an 8-7 win over the Western Conference.

Real early it looked as though it would be a night for the West when Rick Nash scored the first of his three goals a record-quick 12 seconds into the game. But the East took charge with five straight, including two by Alex Ovechkin -- Crosby's rival for top player in the NHL.

"We came out a bit slow and they took it to us," Nash said.

In the end, after the West erased a 5-1 deficit to go ahead 7-6, Savard -- a former star for the host Atlanta Thrashers -- brought the local fans out of their seats to cheer for him again.

Leading up, there was much talk about who wouldn't be at the All-Star game. Crosby, the defending NHL MVP and scoring champion pulled out due to a sprained ankle, and starting goalies Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo both withdrew for personal reasons.

That left it wide open for others to grab the attention. Of the 42 players, 15 made their All-Star debuts.

Ovechkin made an early bid, followed by Nash, and even goalie Evgeni Nabokov. In the end it was Savard, known way more for passing the puck than shooting it. The play-making forward, second in the NHL in assists, buried the puck behind first-timer Manny Legace just when it seemed overtime was inevitable.

Carolina's Eric Staal got the East even at 7 with 7:25 left by scoring his second of the night, then helped set up Savard for the winner. His three points were enough to skate off with the MVP award.

"I'll take it," Staal said.

Nash nearly became the fifth straight All-Star MVP winner from the losing side, instead ceding the award to Staal -- whose brother Marc took part in the YoungStars game on Saturday night.

Savard spent parts of three seasons in Atlanta before leaving for Boston as a free agent before last season. The crowd was rooting for current Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk to win it, but happily settled for a former favorite.

Ryan Getzlaf cut the West's deficit to 5-4 41 seconds into the third, and Nash completed his hat trick 1:15 later to tie it.

Marian Hossa of the Thrashers -- for now -- made it 6-5 at 4:08 as the East scored for the first time since the opening period. Hossa was cheered by these fans, but he could be a former Thrasher soon if he can't reach a new deal with Atlanta before next month's trade deadline.

Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf tied it again and Marian Gaborik gave the West its only lead at 7-6 with 9:03 left.

It sure didn't look as though it would be an Eastern Conference day when Nash set an All-Star game record with the first goal of the 15th All-Star hat trick.

You can forgive New York Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro for that one as he was answering a television interviewer's question about the hip injury he sustained the night before in the skills competition as Nash raced his way.

The hip was fine, the attention span was a bit lax.

No worries. In this game of few whistles and fewer checks, the All-Stars skated freely and creatively. That didn't help Kovalchuk, who was stopped twice in the final 1:03 of the second period by San Jose's Nabokov.

Kovalchuk was parked in the slot and fired a one-timer that was labeled for the top right corner when Nabokov snatched it with a stabbing glove as he fell to the seat of his pants. Kovalchuk dropped to his back -- snow angel style -- in exasperation.

He tapped the goalie on the helmet when he got up, then set his aim on him again. Sent in on a breakaway with a long lead pass, Kovalchuk streaked toward the net as the final seconds of the period ticked off.

Kovalchuk let go a low shot that Nabokov met with a double stack of his pads. The puck slid safely away, Kovalchuk threw his stick to the ice and the Russian forward gave it a kick as he quickly headed to the tunnel.

"He's quick for a small guy," Kovalchuk said with a smile.

It might not have been so bad if not for the two stops Chris Osgood made on him in the first.

Staal answered Nash's early haymaker with one of his own 1:20 into the game to tie it at 1 and set the East's offense in motion.

Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov gave the East a 2-1 lead before Ovechkin and Buffalo defenseman Brian Campbell scored 1:35 apart to push the advantage to three goals.

Ovechkin's second, off a perfect feed from Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis, was scored from right in front of the crease into an empty net to make it 5-1 with 2:11 remaining in the first.

Hard-hitting Phaneuf let Ovechkin stay there without hassle, and five-time Norris Trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom gave him a halfhearted tug from behind with his stick.

The second period belonged to the West and the goalies.

Nabokov stopped all eight shots he faced, while Florida's Tomas Vokoun made 18 saves in 20 attempts as the East's lead was cut to 5-3.

Hockey Will Be Without Sidney Crosby For At Least A Month

For more than two periods, the Pittsburgh Penguins witnessed what life without star Sidney Crosby is like....disastrous.

Sidney Crosby, tied for the NHL scoring lead with 63 points, is out indefinitely after sustaining a high ankle sprain in the Penguins' 3-0 loss to the Lightning on Friday. Teammate Marc-Andre Fleury, who has the same injury, has been out since December.

Crosby badly sprained an ankle while ramming into the boards in the first period, and the Andre Roy-led Tampa Bay Lightning took advantage of his absence for a 3-0 victory over the Penguins on Friday night.

Crosby was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, an injury to the large ligament that connects the two biggest bones in the lower leg, the tibia and fibula. The injury is more serious than the traditional twisted ankle and can sideline an athlete for a month or more.

This is obviously a huge loss. There is no team that can deal with losing the best player in the league. That's the equivalent of Tom Brady not playing in the AFC Championship or Alex Rodriguez injured for three months. Crosby is the heart and leader of the Penguins.

"To see a guy like that go down and not come back, it's tough," Penguins forward Colby Armstrong said. "Guys are going to have to take it upon themselves as a team to fill in. But I don't know if you can fill a spot like that."

To show you how bad the Penguins are without Crosby, just look at this stat. Until now, Crosby had missed only four games to injury during his three-season NHL career. The Penguins' record without him is......0-2-2. In other words, they can't win or attempt to win well without him.

The First United States Outdoor NHL Game Was A Success

In creative attempts to keep NHL fans watching while simultaneously drawing in new fans, the NHL decided to try something new and different. The NHL decided to have the Buffalo Sabres and Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, host a game outdoors against the all-star Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. This was a huge success and fans seemed to have had a fantastic experience.

"This is Buffalo," crowed Dan Barrett, of nearby Fort Erie, Ontario, while making his way through the parking lot as a light snow fell.

"Pass 'em around boys," someone was overheard saying, while distributing a handful of Jell-O shots.

There were tents and tuques (winter hats, as they're known in Canada), grills, gloves and Christmas cookies. There were Sabres flags flying from cars and vans. One group of fans gathered in a converted school bus and watched TV while being warmed by a propane heater.

Rather than Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas jerseys, fans wore those of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek.

Fans dressed in layers, began filtering into the 74,000-seat stadium once gates opened at 11 a.m., had it packed well before the opening faceoff, and sang along as the pregame band played the Neil Diamond classic, "Sweet Caroline."

And a very big cheer went up as both teams, led out by a bagpiper, came out of the end-zone tunnel and made their way to the rink for the pregame skate.

The crowd, announced at 71,217, stayed until the end, and included several young men who went shirtless for most of the game. Fans in the lower bowl stood throughout, and the cheers were most loud when the game went to a shootout.

"This is awesome!" said Michelle Adams as she settled into her seat in section 330, some 15 rows from the top of the top of the stadium. "This is so cool!"

Actually, it was relatively mild for Buffalo with temperatures at about 30 and, more important, little wind coming off nearby Lake Erie.

"They couldn't have picked a better town to have it in," added Elizabeth Brooks, who came prepared, with 18 pairs of hand-warmers stuffed into the pockets of her winter coat.

Not that she needed them.

"We know cold," Brooks said. "This isn't cold."

Penguins fans were enjoying themselves, too.

"I wouldn't miss it for anything," said Alex Greif, who made the three-hour drive from Pittsburgh earlier in the day.

Greif and his brother Karl purchased their tickets on e-Bay about two months ago. They spent $170 each on tickets that had a face value of $29, and sat eight rows from the top.

The view turned out to be very good, because they had a clear look at the entire ice sheet below. Fans sitting in the lower bowl had their sight lines partially obstructed by the boards.

"Everybody told us we wouldn't be able to see because we were so high, but I think it's wonderful," Alex Grief said.

Not that anything -- the view or their ticket price -- mattered.

"I couldn't care less," Alex Greif said about how much they paid for tickets. "It was worth it."

What about the game itself? Well, some snow for a setting, a shootout and Sid the Kid's winning goal added up to a perfect hockey day outside. The Penguins captain somehow saw space between Ryan Miller's pads as he shuffled through driving snow and gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 shootout win over the Buffalo Sabres at the outdoor Winter Classic in front of an NHL-record 71,217 fans on Tuesday.

Is this the solution to make hockey more aware to the masses? By having games outside in huge stadiums? Well, I don't know. NBA games are indoors and they have no problem attracting fans. However, this idea for the NHL proved to work and they should definitely set these events up more often. Anytime you can get tailgaters to party and hang out before events, you know you're putting on an a show worth attracting people.