NHL All Star week, boring... young stars game was fun though

So last night I spent some quality time in front of my television with the good old NHL All Star Week festivities.

Ok, so the real reason I was watching is that Little Mosque on the Prairie was preempted by the festivities in Dallas.

To be fair I was actually interested in watching the young stars game, I don't often get the chance to take a look at guys like Radulov, Kopitar etc.. The first few minutes of the game were exciting, especially as Kari Lehtonen and Peter Budaj got warmed up and started making some brilliant defensive plays. Well someone had to, not a single player on the ice was making any sort of defensive effort except for the goalies.

If you didn't watch the game then the easiest way to illustrate how poorly the game was being played is to look at the actions of rising star Evgeni Malkin. At one point the puck was being cycled around the Eastern conference zone for what seemed like five minutes... where was Malkin? Standing at center ice waiting for a breakout pass. I would guess that the hockey gods took note of the goal suck, Malkin did not record a single point in the East's 9-8 win over the Western Conference.

Moving along from players that sucked ass last night, let's take a look at who was impressive.

Ryan Whitney of Pittsburgh showed me why I need to pick him back up off of the waiver wire as soon as possible by picking up a goal in the game and looking very good all game long.

Phil Kessel took my advice and went balls to the wall in picking up a hat trick in the game. Unfortunately for him that was not good enough for MVP honours as Zach Parise potted two goals and added 4 assists to grab that honour. Hmmm... is he worth a pick-up in your league?

I'm not sure if his current production is good enough to take a flyer on, but the feel good story here makes it hard not to consider him.

Another player that caught my eye was Matt Carle of San Jose, wasn't he demoted to the minors back in December? Yet there he was at the Young Guns game looking good and snagging two goals in a close finish. Offensive defensemen are hard to find, I would seriousely consider finding room for him on your roster. It is likely that he was dropped in your league during his stint in the minors so take a quick peak at the waiver wire and see if he is available. He is likely the d-man with the most offensive potential unsigned in many leagues out there.

Now that poses a problem for me... both Whitney and Carle are available in my league... who do I choose? And more importantly, who do I drop?

This would be so much easier if that damn lazy GM would just accept my last trade offer for Heatley, then I'd have some dead weight on my roster to let me make some speculative moves.

And yes Colin, I do know that you will probably read this (in fact you are probably the only one who will!).