Saturday night, Feb. 2

That was a great game. It was a lot closer obviously because of the empty net goals. I thought there was going to be a shootout when it was a tie game. That would have been great to see.

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'm not a big fan of the shootout idea for regular-season games, but it works in the All-Star game and has just been the tradition of the Olympics to have it. But there is nothing like sudden-death overtime. I still remember watching Game 7 of the 1994 playoffs, it was Vancouver against Calgary and Pavel Bure scored the game winner in overtime. It was so wild -- every little hit matters, everyone is checking and giving 100 percent. The shootout is still fun for an All-Star game, though.

I thought it was interesting the Eric Daze was named the MVP. He played a great game, and it's not too often you lose by three goals and win the MVP. I thought Markus Naslund played unbelievable. He had two goals, plus he had about four other chances that came close. I really thought it would have been him or Nikolai Khabibulin. But if there was anyone on the North American side who deserved it, it was definitely him.

Did you see Jeremy Roenick's check on Alexei Zhitnik? That was great. It's funny, you watch those guys out there -- Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr checking each other, not letting the other get anything. It was pretty fun to see a little bit of physical play.

It's been a great weekend. The highlight of my All-Star festivities was playing in the celebrity game. It was neat getting your own All-Star jersey with your name on the back. I'm probably going to frame mine and hang it up. We all got hockey bags as gifts with pucks, t-shirts, hats, coffee cups.

I'm heading down to San Diego tomorrow. Phil Nevin his having a little Super Bowl get-together like he does every year.

It's going to be a busy week. I'll probably head down to Florida next Sunday. Our first workout is Feb. 17. I'm really looking forward to it.