NHL All-Star Game draft shows players are fans, too

All-Star Games are supposed to be for the fans. Instead, they usually just remind fans that pros play for pay, not cheers - or, at least, that teams built on cheers are slow and injury-prone and laugh off mistakes.
Every Big 4 league has taken a crack at correcting this problem - MLB by melodramatically giving the game postseason implications (winning league gets World Series home-field advantage), the NFL by trying to trick us into thinking it's part of the postseason (played between the semifinals and final), and the NBA by increasing the focus on the dunk contest (the only hope is that this year's will feature a showdown between Steve Nash and Jameer Nelson with repeated Billy Hoyle-esque clangs).
On Friday, the NHL got it right, fittingly by showing us that players are fans too. Brendan Shanahan and Rob Blake, who were selected to a combined 15 All-Star Games, came up with the idea of the players holding an All-Star fantasy draft, with a captain and two assistants on each side picking their teams from a group of preselected All-Stars. The event felt contrived and awkward at times, but it also involved compelling story lines and a peek at what players really think of each other. It might even have created a bit of camaraderie for Sunday's game.
Here's how it went, with occasional blow-by-blow analysis:
The captains
Team Lidstrom: At 40, Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom is a top contender to win his seventh Norris Trophy in 10 years. He was the obvious pick for captain. His assistants: Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis, on pace for his fifth straight 80-point season, and Chicago's Patrick Kane, a token American and the scorer of the Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2010.
Team Staal: The second captain probably would have been Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, but he is out with a concussion, so Eric Staal was the perfect second choice: The game's being played in Raleigh, N.C., and he's the captain of the hometown Hurricanes. His assistants: Washington's Mike Green, the league's highest-scoring defenseman the past two seasons, and Vancouver's Ryan Kesler, a token American and the odds-on favorite to score the Cup-winning goal in 2011.
The draft
1 (Staal). Cam Ward, Carolina: Total homer pick by Staal, who gets the hometown goalie.
2 (Lidstrom). Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay: Has he become the league's third superstar forward? On pace for 61 goals and 108 points as a 20-year-old, it appears his colleagues think so.
3S. Alex Ovechkin, Washington: The big rumor is that he's saving himself for the playoffs. After a sixth-place finish at the Olympics and a first-round upset in the playoffs last year, it would make sense. If it's true, and he is holding back his three-point-per-game form, watch out.
4L. Duncan Keith, Chicago.
5S. Daniel Sedin; 6L. Henrik Sedin, Vancouver: Toronto general manager Brian Burke is legendary for pulling off a four-team caper in 1999, when he was the Canucks' GM, to land the No. 2 and No. 3 picks, which became the Sedin twins, in an otherwise weak draft. Now we finally get to see what happens when they play on opposite sides.
7S. Zdeno Chara, Boston: He could've been the first pick. Chara's the one guy in the league teams have to game-plan around. You just can't force it inside when he's clogging the middle.
8L. Shea Weber, Nashville; 9S. Rick Nash, Columbus.
10L. Tim Thomas, Boston; 11S. Henrik Lundqvist, N.Y. Rangers: Respectively, the best goalie in the game today and the best over the past five years.
12L. Danny Briere, Philadelphia: He's on pace for 43 goals, which would top his previous career high by 11.
13S. Marc Staal, N.Y. Rangers: Eric's younger brother was picked moments after saying he was disappointed he didn't go No. 1 overall.
14L. Dustin Byfuglien, Atlanta: "Big Buff" leads all defensemen with 16 goals, and his chemistry with defensive partner Tobias Enstrom (also named to the All-Star Game, but out with a broken finger) has helped turn the Thrashers into a playoff contender. He needs a stay-at-home partner, because he cheats up more than any other defenseman.
15S. Patrick Sharp, Chicago; 16L. Jonathan Toews, Chicago.
17S. Dan Boyle, Sharks: He's the only Shark in the field, and undoubtedly some San Jose fans would have liked to see the overworked puck-mover call in sick.
18L. Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh; 19S. Carey Price, Montreal; 20L. Jonas Hiller, Anaheim: A run on goalies spurred by a rule that teams had to take three each by this point.
21S. Jeff Skinner, Carolina: Staal completes his monopoly on the hometown talent. He also has his brother and Sharp, his neighbor growing up.
22L. Brad Richards, Dallas: An elite playmaker, and St. Louis immediately announces that he'll be lining up with his former teammate.
23S. Kris Letang, Pittsburgh; 24L. Keith Yandle, Phoenix: Each team gets a 40-point defenseman.
25S. Claude Giroux, Philadelphia: Why are the Flyers so good? Because Giroux is a no-questions-asked All-Star, and he might be their fourth-best forward. Giroux, Briere, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter all have between 44 and 47 points.
26L. Brent Burns, Minnesota.
27S. Erik Karlsson, Ottawa: One of the league's best young defensemen, and probably the only player Ottawa wouldn't trade for spare change.
28L. Martin Havlat, Minnesota.
29S. Corey Perry, Anaheim: Many wrote off the Ducks when linemate Ryan Getzlaf went down with sinus fractures. Led by Perry and Hiller, they have gone 9-3-0 without their captain.
30L. Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles; 31S. Patrick Elias, New Jersey.
32L. Matt Duchene, Colorado: One of the league's best young players, it's hard not to be reeled in by his enthusiasm for Peter Forsberg's comeback attempt. Duchene, who at 20 is 17 years younger than Forsberg, told reporters that he and Forsberg had good chemistry at a Tuesday practice and that, "I'd like to get him in the lineup as soon as possible."
33S. David Backes, St. Louis: One of the league's top hitters, he vowed to get whichever captain didn't pick him but admitted that he hasn't yet been able to catch Lidstrom unprepared. Good matchup to watch.
34L. Loui Eriksson, Dallas; 35S. Paul Stastny, Colorado.
36L. Phil Kessel, Toronto: At 23, he's on pace for his third straight 30-goal season, and second straight season (out of two in Toronto) as the player most abused by his own team's fans. Fittingly, he's the last pick.
Our prediction: Team Lidstrom, 8-4. Staal spent too much time accumulating friends/family, while Lidstrom was putting together a serious team.