If you are a hockey fan living in Ottawa, the past four days must have been magical for you.  The NHL’s best players convened in Ottawa for the 2012 NHL All-Star game.  From the drafting of the teams on Thursday to the media and family fun stuff on Friday to the skills competition on Saturday, and finally culminating with the actual all-star game on Sunday, fans in Ottawa got to wear their teams color proudly over the past couple of days.

With Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in attendance, Team Chara beat Team Alfredsson 12-9 in the game with New York Rangers forward Marion Gaborik earning player of the game honors with his hat-trick.  Looking at the crowd throughout the game it look like everyone was enjoying watching Alfredsson and a number of his countrymen from Sweden on his team as they continued to even up the score only to fall short by a field goal.

The fans were treated to some fun on Saturday as Zdeno Chara retained his title of hardest shot with a 108.8 MPH shot as seen here:

For me as a hockey fan, watching Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos during the elimination shootout was a lot of fun.  This kid has some sick moves…. check out his spinorama on is second shootout goal.

All in all, even without Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Ryan Nugent Hopkins, the 2012 NHL All-Star game was entertaining for the fans.

Next years game is slated for Columbus.  With a pending work stoppage, Columbus is an interesting choice as a prolonged work stoppage usually means that the all-star game gets cancelled.  We will have to wait and see.  Regardless, Ottawa did a fine job in hosting this years event.  Now it is time for the stretch run.  Look for some great hockey to be played in the last two months of the season.