NASHVILLE – Sunday finally saw the return of hockey to All-Star weekend with the new format of divisional competitors in a 3-on-3 format.
In the first game, Barry Trotz now of the Washington Capitals, returned to his old stomping grounds as the Atlantic Division edged the Metropolitan, 4-3.
“When you’ve lived in this community and you know the people, the type of people that live in this community, former players, coaches, the whole city … I’ve always felt the support in Nashville,” Trotz said.
Trotz coached in Nashville for 15 seasons.
“Last year, (coming back) was very emotional and awkward,” said Trotz, a two-time finalist for the Jack Adams Award during his time in Nashville. “This year, to come back and see how the Predators have come along as an organization from the first days in ’97 … we had a phone and a cord hanging from the roof, and that’s how we started. To see it now, it’s fantastic. Obviously I’ve had a history here. One of the things I know about Nashville, Tennessee is that they know how to put on events, major events, and they do it right.”
“The city is set up the right way; obviously they have a beautiful convention center, a beautiful rink. It has something that a lot of other cities can’t do. Obviously the entertainment portion of it, the music industry, the creative people that are here, the film industry, all that. You put that all together, I don’t think you’re going to be able to match this. For the city of Nashville, for the NHL, I think Nashville set the bar really, really high.”
For the scoresheet, the Metropolitans picked up goals from Kris Letang, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Evgeni Malkin.
The Atlantic had goals from Erik Karlsson, Jaromir Jagr, Aaron Ekblad, and P.K. Subban.
In the second game of the day, the Pacific outscored the Central, 9-6.
The game featured four Nashville Predators including Shea Weber, Roman Josi, James Neal and Pekka Rinne.
“It was great,” Weber said. “I think everyone that was here and experienced it throughout the NHL saw what a hockey city Nashville is. Definitely one of the best ones that I’ve been to so far.”
Unfortunately for Preds fans in Nashville their players skated only once as the Central went down to defeat.
“Very special,” Neal said. “Just the whole weekend, being here. Just everything surrounding this weekend and all of the hard work everybody put into it and just seeing how it turned out and being a part of it was awesome. Like we said, everybody being around the rink, it’s been a great weekend for hockey in Nashville, and I think everyone has seen that.”
Josi scored a goal for the Central in the loss.
“It was awesome,” Josi said. “It was a lot of fun. Like we all said before, playing in Nashville, it was great. The whole weekend was just a great experience, and I really enjoyed the game tonight too.”
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