Friday night, Feb. 1

We ended up going to the House of Blues on Thursday night, but it gets bad reviews -- they wouldn't let me in. So this is what I decided I'm going to do. Since the party there was thrown by Roots -- I'm a little disappointed because they're a big Canadian backer -- and being a Canadian guy, I'm going to throw a big party next year at the All-Star break and nobody from Roots or the House of Blues is going to be allowed in. That'll teach them.

Ryan Dempster knows a little bit about baseball and hockey. A native of Gibsons, British Columbia, the Florida Marlins right-hander was the seventh Canadian pitcher elected to the All-Star Game when he was named to 2000 National League squad. He's working out in L.A. until pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 17. Until then, he'll be sharing his NHL All-Star experiences with ESPN.com and ESPN Radio (Thu. and Fri. on AllNight, 2 a.m.-6 a.m. ET).

I took a day off from training for a change. My friends are in town, so we did a little shopping and sight seeing. I showed them the Playboy mansion, Aaron Spelling's house, I was playing tour guide.

I'm a big fan of the SuperSkills competition, have I mentioned that? I love the Breakaway Relay, it's so cool. I was really impressed tonight during the three-on-none and they weren't scoring -- I mean, you've got three All-Stars bearing down on a goalie. I know they're All-Star goalies, but still.

I'm glad Sergei Fedorov won the Hardest Shot. Last year, he was edged out by Fredrik Modin. He's got a wicked slap shot, which is probably one of the reasons he played well when they moved him back to defense.

You could tell those guys were having a great time -- there's big-time bragging rights on the line for that stuff.

The YoungStars game was great. I went to Atlanta Thrashers training camp and watched Ilya Kovalchuk. Every time he came down the ice, he scored. If he missed, he'd grab the rebound. And I'm thinking, this kid lives for scoring goals, and he goes and scores six tonight. It was fun watching those guys play, the four-on-four format was fun.

What's on tap this evening? Is this a G-rated program? IMG is having a party, so we're stopping by there.