San Jose Sharks host incredible 2019 NHL All-Star Weekend

The San Jose Sharks hosted the 2019 NHL All-Star Game this past weekend, providing the league and its fans with a fantastic three days of festivities.

The 2019 NHL All-Star weekend is officially over and all of the NHL’s brightest stars have left the city of San Jose to go back to their respective cities. The buzz has gone from anticipation to a fading memory.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend every All-Star Event and it was a great overall weekend for not only the fans but also the players. The fun began with the Fan Fair on Thursday, then the Skills competition on Friday, and ending with the All-Star Game on Saturday. The city of San Jose was painted all different colors for all NHL teams and each team was represented well over the weekend.

The NHL Fan Fair was an event that took one’s breath away from the moment they laid eyes on the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. There were banners hanging everywhere and pucks all over with the different NHL All-Stars.

Once one entered the convention center, the All-Star logo and colors were everywhere. Up the stairs and into the huge room which was turned into hockey heaven, the NHL made sure that one felt like one was truly a part of it. As one walked through an inflatable Shark head, like the one the San Jose Sharks skate out of every home game, one was welcomed by an NHL staff person who was in front of a huge NHL logo.

Everywhere I looked there was some sort of shooting activity; one could take an accuracy challenge, hardest shot, and the dangle challenge. At the Bridgestone booth they had two different live goalies you could try and score on. There were kids zones where they could play against other kids in a mini-size rink. Also for the young kids or the kids at heart, the NHL mascots were walking around, signing autographs and taking pictures. No matter what you wanted to do, there was something everyone, including a virtual reality hockey game.

The Sharks made it special for the hometown crowd, as they had the actual Shark head from SAP Center there so fans could take a picture under.

The other object that got the most attention was the greatest trophy in sports, Lord Stanley’s Cup. The Cup was out on full display for everyone to see, but if you wanted a picture with it, it was over a two-hour wait. Around the entrance to the line for the Stanley Cup, they had every trophy that players and teams could win out on display with a description of what the trophy was for.

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Not only were there picture opportunities inside, but outside at Cesar Chavez Plaza, they had another NHL Logo and a sign that said #NHLAllStar in the hometown teal. All around downtown, there were pucks with the NHL All-Stars on them for people to take pictures.

On Friday, the NHL’s brightest stars, battled it out at SAP Center in the NHL Skills Competition. In front of a sold out arena, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Erik Karlsson each participated in different events. Unfortunately, none of them won but history was made when team U.S.A women’s hockey team member Kendall Coyne Schofield skated in the fastest skater competition against NHL players. She was not able to win the competition but it was a moment nobody will be forgetting anytime soon.

The highlights of the night were when Connor McDavid was able to win the “fastest skater” competition for the third straight year, and when Henrik Lundqvist won the “save streak” contest over the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy with a total of 12 saves.

On Saturday night, it was the NHL All-Stars who were shining bright, except John Gibson. Every other All-Star did better and it was obvious why the Anaheim Ducks were on a 12-game losing streak recently.

Before the games started, the NHL and the Sharks put on a spectacular pre-game show for the fans in attendance but it was when the three San Jose players were announced that the crowd absolutely erupted. The only time the place got louder was when SAP Center broke out into boos and the “Ducks Suck” chant as Gibson let in seven goals on nine shots. The hometown Pacific Division did not last long;  they were eliminated in their first and only game. The game essentially ended when Gibson started in between the pipes.

The Metropolitan division ended up winning it all behind the third most hated man at the SAP Center, Sidney Crosby. Of course, the most hated man was John Tavares, who spurned the Sharks last off season in favor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as he got heavily booed every time he was announced or even touched the puck.

It was a weekend that NHL fans will never forget, especially Sharks fans here in San Jose. A big congratulations to all the All-Stars this weekend, to the city of San Jose and to the NHL who made this a truly remarkable weekend.