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Quick Strikes: Do you want to see Jon Cooper floss?

Of course you do, but first, boggle at Kendall Coyne Schofield making history at the NHL All-Star Game.

I’ll get to Jon Cooper flossing in a moment (and the reason why Baby Shark is permanently stuck in my head), but first, let me discuss how the NHL All-Star Game made history last night. Here’s the story.

Nathan MacKinnon hurt his foot, so although he came to San Jose to hang out and enjoy the All-Star Game, he couldn’t compete in the Skills Competition. Instead, he invited someone to take his place: Kendall Coyne Schofield, a player for the USWNT and the Minnesota Whitecaps. She agreed to take his place, and became the very first woman to compete at the NHL All-Star Game.

She good.

She was also STOKED, as I bet we’d all be if we were about to make history.

She did a great job and every single player stood up to cheer her on!

She didn’t win: everyone lost to Connor McDavid, as you do (when will he be unseated?). McDavid won for the third year in a row. But she also wasn’t last.

Kendall Coyne Schofield beats Coyotes’ Clayton Keller in Fastest Skater event [Second City Hockey]

Coyne-Schofield clocked in at 14.346 seconds for seventh place, which topped one NHL player — Arizona Coyotes’ Clayton Keller (14.526 seconds). Her time was slightly slower than her 14.226 seconds time during Thursday’s testing.

“But wait,” you say. “This has nothing to do with TBL.”

Or does it?

The Headline

Worth clicking just for this: Jon Cooper, showing off his moves. Not bad, not bad.

The (All-Star) Game

Random bits of news always come out of this extremely random event, so I’ve excerpted a bit of it here. The beat writers are probably off drinking, so it’s mostly in tweet form.

First, THE SOUTH WILL GET A WINTER CLASSIC! Sadly it’s not Tampa Bay, but at least it’s two Southern teams. The funniest comment in response was, “Somewhere the Blackhawks are filing a complaint.”

The Colorado Avalanche and LA Kings get a Stadium Series game, which means that zero Original Six teams are playing in these this year. Thank you, League, we needed something fresh.

I was not lying about extremely random stuff coming out of this weekend. Last night, Andrei Vasilevskiy did extremely well at the Goalie Challenge, making eight consecutive saves for second place behind Henrik Lundqvist. But earlier, he talked about his other skill: making lattes.

Extremely random:

Seriously:

Gritty

It’s Gritty’s world and we just try to get out of his way. I was going to post every single gif but RMNB did it instead, and oh man.

‘It me’: Gritty is the best part of All-Star Weekend and it’s not even close [Russian Machine Never Break]

Let’s be honest. Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers’ orange, furry, dead-behind-the-eyes mascot, has already stolen the show at the All-Star Game and it hasn’t even happened yet. Sorry, Auston Matthews. No one cares about your sock-less wardrobe on the red carpet.

In wrestling terminology, Gritty has given any player or mascot who has taken a photo with him the rub. The brotherly-loving furball has 217k Twitter followers, more than almost every NHL All-Star.

The one of Gritty as the Fiji Aquafina Water Girl thing made me die.

Also: Hi Thunderbug!

The Prospects

Raw Charge wrote three great pieces about the Crunch yesterday.

Crunch overcome penalties on way to 6-1 victory over Thunderbirds [Justin]

The game featured two teams that are fast, can move the puck well, and can be deadly off of transition play. For most of the first half of the game, the two teams seemed very weary of each other’s counter-attacking speed. It was like watching a boxing match where neither fighter wants to throw a punch lest they get hit in return.

Connor Ingram set to return for the Syracuse Crunch [Justin]

After missing 13 games due to a left leg injury, Connor Ingram was cleared to return to game action. That gives the Crunch their top goaltending duo as they navigate their way through the second half of the season. It also means that Eddie Pasquale will now be able to watch the occasional game from the sidelines. The veteran played all but four periods of the the thirteen games, starting twelve in a row.

The Syracuse Crunch goes to Hogwarts [Alex]

Finally, courage is another aspect of those sorted into Gryffindor. This category alone is why I sorted Bournival into this house. I can’t imagine going through the trials that he has, first with concussions, then with his ACL injury that he needed surgery for this past summer, and now with an assumed shoulder injury that has sidelined him once again. It takes so much courage to face these challenges and keep fighting, and I look forward to Bournival’s return once more.

Do you agree with how she sorted the houses? I kind of like my fellow Slytherins!

God, there’s more of this All-Star Weekend tomorrow, and I’m already exhausted.

So did you watch it? What did you think?

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