BY DEREK CARSON – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
Hello hockey fans! On Thursday, the NHL All-Star festivities officially kicked off with a parade of all the NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup, down the Rideau Canal. Yours truly took the day off work so I could go see all that there was to see and experience the NHL All-Star weekend in my hometown (I’m a dedicated blogger).
This is how my All-Star day went:
I managed to rope one of my buddies into going with me (Julien) so I wouldn’t be a sad lonely blogger, which was awesome.
On my way to the Canal to see the parade and meet Julien, I swear none other than Sportsnet’s own Ian Mendes came up right beside me as we waited at the corner for the light to change.
I had my Sportsnet knapsack on so I was hoping Ian would notice and ask me for my autograph, but no such luck. We stood there, two Sportsnet reps side-by-each, with nary a word exchanged. Oh well. (I actually regret not saying hi to him, but I’m shy.)
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The light turned green and off we went. I, on my way to the Canal to see the trophy parade while Ian went into the hotel where I found out later the All-Star players were staying and he was doing interviews.
I arrived at the Canal just in time. The trophies were just getting to the finish line of the parade and I had my camera ready. There was a mass of people! The crowd was really well-behaved though and made way for the trophies and the Stanley Cup without too much prodding.
Fan fill up on the Rideau Canal.
The Stanley Cup makes its way along the Canal.
Fans and media swarm the NHL trophies.
After the Canal photo-op, the trophies made their way into the Ottawa Convention Centre to officially kick off the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fair! Julien and I followed the crowd inside, tickets in hand, ready to get our All-Star groove on.
The lineup wasn’t that bad, but we were smart. There are two floors to this thing, so while everyone crowded into the first floor of booths and games, we went up to the third floor like champs and got pretty much first dibs on everything.
The entrance to the All-Star Fan Fair.
There was a hardest shot game, where you shoot an actual puck at an actual net with a radar gun. Julien registered a 95 mph slapshot just narrowly beating my own 90 mph shot. (Ok, so maybe I’m lying about our scores a little bit.)
Just a shade under 90 mph.
We also got to have our picture taken with the Stanley Cup, which was sweet. Phil Pritchard, the famous Stanley Cup handler was kind enough to pose with us (I’m on the left, Julien’s on the right).
Fan Fuel’s Derek Carson (L) with Julien and Phil Pritchard.
After touring around both floors and seeing the other attractions like the contests, the product reps handing out free goodies, and a special theatre set up to show the history of the All-Star game, we headed over to the autograph tables where Erik Karlsson and Milan Michalek were signing autographs for the fans.
I actually missed my chance to get Karlsson to sign my stuff, but I did manage to get a picture of him signing autographs for other people.
Erik Karlsson signing autographs for fans.
I mentioned before that I was sporting my Sportsnet knapsack, but what I didn’t mention was that inside it I was carrying my Spartacat stuffed animal. So to cap the day off, we waited in Michalek’s autograph line and the Ottawa Senators’ All-Star was kind enough to sign my doll!
Fan Fuel’s Derek Carson with Milan Michalek.
So that was my day at the Fan Fair. It was well worth the day off! Any Ottawans who are thinking of checking it out should do so.
Hope you liked the blog and hope you liked the pics!
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