Timonen's thoughts on All Star Game

Kimmo Timonen shares his thoughts about his latest All Star Game experience. He tells the story on how he got a hint beforehand from Zdeno Chara about likely getting picked early in the fantasy draft.

"A week before the All Star break we played against Boston. At some point in that game, Chara and I went to talk with the ref about some penalty. It was then when Chara told me that if he got to choose the alternate captains, he would've chosen me. So from that I kinda knew that I might get picked early in the draft."

"But this was the kind of event that it wouldn't have really bothered me if I had been picked last. Even without knowing about the car and the charity bonus."

Timonen has experienced the Eastern Conference versus Western Conference format as well and thinks the current fantasy draft format might be the better one.

"Maybe this is the better system. The fans were there in the draft, so we could interact with them that way. Of course the crowd yelled at certain players, but that's okay. Everybody liked it and all the players were in good mood."

Earlier this season Timonen thought it might be better to just rest instead of going to the All Star Game, but ended up going anyway.

"Now that I think of it, the last game we had before the break was on Tuesday and we didn't have to be back on the ice until Saturday, so we got three and a half days of rest."

"But of course it's hockey nonetheless. Sometimes it would be nice to get a break, not just from the games, but to get your thoughts away from hockey as well. It can't happen at the All Star Game, though it was a lot of fun. There are always two sides to the story."

This report was based off of a Finnish-language story in the publication Veikkaaja.