Streit's Night a Good One in Montreal

If you excuse an embarrassing fall during the Skills Competition, you could say Mark Streit's All-Star experience was a rousing success.

Streit ran into one of the signs shortly after Tim Thomas stopped his shot attempt in the Elimination Shootout, but laughed it off, and then had a strong showing Sunday night in the All-Star Game- he led the Eastern Conference team in ice time throughout regulation, had two assists and a shot on goal, as well as two blocked shots and three takeaways. Not too shabby, Mark!

If you haven't already, shoot by Chris Botta's blog and read Streit's reactions to the weekend:

http://www.islanderspointblank.com/2009/01/postcard-from-montrealmark-streit-checks-in-from-all-star-weekend/

http://www.islanderspointblank.com/2009/01/postcard-2-from-montreal-mark-streitpost-superskills-plus-send-all-star-qs-to-mark-here/

http://www.islanderspointblank.com/2009/01/final-postcard-from-montrealall-star-defenseman-mark-streit-heads-back-to-li/

Overall, the Skills Competition remains my favorite part of the weekend. It gives fans a chance to see the players in a more relaxed atmosphere, where they just have fun with the game (and become very creative- see Alexander Ovechkin's Canadian-tourist look during the Breakaway Challenge). The All-Star Game itself does this too, but the lull in the third period kept me uninterested until the last five minutes. Plus, the players themselves show more of their personality, which is always fun, especially if they're like Alex the Great. And of course, you can't count out the amazing tradition that Montreal was able to reflect upon, on their 100th year in the league. (100 years, can you believe it?)

The Islanders don't have a game until Thursday in Atlanta, which means you all have plenty of time to do other stuff- and I have time to finish my poetry project for AP English (good god, another paper? haha). Signing off with a little anecdote... my coach caught up to me yesterday and told me that he was sitting next to Kyle Okposo on the plane flight back from Minneapolis. Isn't that awesome, considering he's one of my favorite players?! If only he'd had the heart to ask for an autograph. Ah, well, there's always the future (no pun intended).

LET'S GO ISLANDERS!