AHL All-Star Weekend

[Devil Dan 56]

Hello, all.

I'm currently in Worcester for the AHL All-Star weekend. Last night was the skills competition. They do it kinda like the NHL used to... fastest skater, puck control relay, hardest shot, 3-on-none, and breakways. Frazee looked great on the 3-on-nones, giving up nothing, but a little weak on the breakaways. And he signed my hat. Also, he looks kinda like the guy from Clerks 2 who talks to Elias about the Lord of the Rings movies.

Corey Schneider looked incredible. He gave up one goal TOTAL, and had some big stops.

Jared Ross on the Phantoms won fastest skater. Worcester players Ryan Vesce and Derek Joslin went head-to-head on the puck control relay, with Vesce winning.

Mike Santorelli of the Milwaukee Admirals went 4-for-4 on the accuracy shooting.

Joslin won hardest shot with a 98.6 mph on his first shot. Haha, he flubbed on his second one, and he had something like 46.8 mph.

Mike Brodeur is playing for Team Canada. Kind of weird to see another Brodeur.

I took videos of Frazee and Schneider which I will post tomorrow.

Tonight is the All-Star game itself.

[Birch]

Sounds like fun! This was on TV last night. I didn't realize it and went out. Got home in time to see the 3rd period of the game.

[Devil Dan 56]

Just to update for people who didn't watch... Frazee got the 'W'. He started the 3rd period. Planet USA was down 8-5, but came back strong to win 14-11. Frazee looked great, had some big saves. I was bummed that he was on the far end, but I got to see 9 goals right in front of me in the 3rd, so it was kind of cool.

I'll try to upload video of the skills competition and some pics tonight if anyone is interested. Corey Schneider and Mike Brodeur were alse impressive goalies in the game.

[J0llyR0ger]

Also, he looks kinda like the guy from Clerks 2 who talks to Elias about the Lord of the Rings movies.

Kinda off topic but you know how Kevin Smith likes to put stuff about the Devils in his films, do you think that name was something he thought of?

Anyways back on topic, I watched some of the Game and some Skills stuff, Frazee looked really good in the 3 on none. The game was pretty intense, lots of fun to watch.

[Shtikl]

Sounds like fun! This was on TV last night. I didn't realize it and went out. Got home in time to see the 3rd period of the game.

Well, coincidentally, that was the one that mattered most, because Frazee was in net. Could you hear him begging his team-mates to keep scoring, after they tied it up? He became the goalie of record. So it's really thanks to his teammates' 9-goal scoring burst in front of him that he was the lucky winning goalie. They could have thrown in the towel so many times that game, but they kept coming back.

It's certainly not a goalie-friendly format. In fact, although the game is easier on everybody else, the goalies have to work much harder than during a regular season game just to keep from letting in 7 or more goals a period! In a wide-open, no-check game like that, the only thing that limits the scoring is how well the guys receive those trick passes. If they'd had a couple more days to play together and get the timing down, the scores would have started to look more like what you see in an NBA game, no matter who was in net.

I thought the 1st period of the game was rather dull. Neither team really wanted to skate for a win. PlanetUSA especially looked like they all spent too much time partying and were just glad to be not falling asleep on their skates. I don't recall when things changed, or why, but at some point in the 2nd, the game started to get a little more serious. Team Canada started breaking up passes, then somebody started pinning. By the 3rd, they were actually battling for the puck along the boards, and I was half expecting to see some real body checks.

I also thought Frazee did reasonably well in the game itself. He certainly didn't panic when the forwards came crashing in 3-on-1 and played monkey-in-the-middle with him. He fought for every shot. I think he made all the possible saves and maybe one of his glove catches was a steal. Had he been able to block the third goal, from his back with his skates waving in the air, that would have been amazing . But Locke had so many different ways he could have put that puck home, plus all the time in the world to make up his mind, because the cones -- er, "defensemen" were just sort of standing there watching, not putting the shoulder or hip to work breaking up the feeding frenzy. Thankfully, that was the last unstoppable chance they got.

Maybe someday AHLLive will put up a highlight reel.

In the meantime, here are some general links about the event -- nothing from the Lowell paper, of course.

Frazee gets win as PlanetUSA claims 14-11 victory in 2009 AHL All-Star game (Lowell Devils, 01/26)

AHL All-Star Classic 2009 section -- including previous years' final scores...

AHL All-Star Game Sheet - Text Box Score (Frazee played 3rd period)

All-Star Skills Scorecard - Rapid Fire Relay - Pass and Score - Breakaway Relay (just Frazee's events)

PlanetUSA prevails on record-setting night (AHL, 01/26)

SLIDESHOW: American Hockey League All-Star Classic (Worcester Telegram, 01/27) -- oops, their link is broken

A very classy Classic, Notes, Shining Stars, Mighty Mites Rule the Ice, and Fatter Batter (Worcester Telegram, 01/27) -- Devil Dawg played goalie, too!

All-Star action draws fans (Worcester Telegram, 01/26)

Schneider leads PlanetUSA to Skills victory (AHL, 01/25)

All-Star Frazee steps into starting role in Lowell (NHL, 01/26)

Except for Lowell , all the AHL cities' newspapers had at least a brief story about 2009 AHL All-Star game, and most of them interviewed their local players, so there's a whole lot of other stories out there. Just not as much specifically about Frazee.

Edited January 27, 2009 by Shtikl

[Devil Dan 56]

Kinda off topic but you know how Kevin Smith likes to put stuff about the Devils in his films, do you think that name was something he thought of?

Anyways back on topic, I watched some of the Game and some Skills stuff, Frazee looked really good in the 3 on none. The game was pretty intense, lots of fun to watch.

Yeah, Kevin Smith named Elias after Patrick Elias, who Smith says is his favorite player. I read that somewhere, I forget where. Maybe it was on IMDB? Or 'An Evening With Kevin Smith'?