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The NHL 2018 All-Star game was here in Tampa this weekend (the last time was back in 1999, before I lived in Florida) so I had to take this opportunity to experience All-Star weekend first-hand! I got tickets to both days: the Skills Competition on Saturday, and the All-Star Game on Sunday. This weekend was also the Gasparilla pirate festival so the Bay area was quite the happening place. If you also count that the NFL Pro Bowl was over in Orlando, Florida was quite the epicenter of professional sports on Sunday.

My hometown Tampa Bay Lightning had four All-Stars on the Atlantic Division roster (Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Brayden Point (standing in for the injured Victor Hedman)) so of course the crowd was loud for them. But former Bolt (from the Stanley Cup winning team in 2003) Brian Boyle was also in the house and got rousing cheers as well. At lot of the NHL mascots were in attendance as well, so it was funny to see them wandering around and interacting with the crowd.

The Skills Competition was fun to watch in person, seeing all the different players from around the league on the ice at once, hanging out, having fun, and showing off some serious skills. While none of the Lightning All-Stars won their events (Brayden Point came the closest, placing second in the Fastest Skater) it was enjoyable overall. My daughter’s favorite part was Marc-Andre Fleury’s music selection of “Let it Go” during the Save Streak competition (which he ended up winning).

Sunday was rainy, so it was a little miserable waiting in line outside to get through security and into the area (and also after the game walking back to the car), but watching the All-Star Game in person was a memorable experience. The Atlantic Division All-Stars crushed the Metropolitan Division 7-4 (which included a Kucherov hat trick!) to move onto the final round against the Pacific Division All-Stars. Kid Rock performed two songs during the second intermission, “American Rock n’ Roll” and “Bawitdaba.” After the concert (if you call two songs a “concert”) a technical glitch prevented the lighting rig from being pulled back into the rafters. This caused a delay while one of the tech crew used a ladder to climb onto, and up, the scaffolding to connect a power cable. Unfortunately, the Pacific All-Stars dominated the hometown Atlantic favorites in the final game and ended up winning the $1 million prize with a score of 5-2.

The Lightning came into the All-Star break in first place in the Atlantic Division … now let’s keep that going during the second half of the season. Go Bolts!