NHL veterans show they still have game

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- So much for the NHL's youth movement. Mark Messier, Joe Sakic and Gary Roberts transformed the league's showcase event from an All-Star game into an old-timers' game.
The hype going into the final All-Star game before labor talks threaten to shut down the sport later this year was about fast-developing standouts such as 19-year-old Rick Nash, the first teen All-Star since 1992, and 20-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk.
The kids were all right. The old men were even better.
Messier, 43, and Roberts, playing in his first All-Star game in 11 years at age 37, turned back the clock with a goal and an assist each Sunday to withstand Sakic's hat trick and lead the Eastern Conference past the Western Conference 6-4.
Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson, putting aside his team's simmering feud with Ontario rival Toronto to skate on a line with the Maple Leafs' Mats Sundin, also played a key role with two goals and an assist.
Messier sets mark
When it comes to All-Star games, longtime Rangers captain Messier plays more like a youngster. Messier's 14th assist set a record, and his 20 points are the third most in All-Star play.
"There's no question he deserved to be here," Rangers teammate Jaromir Jagr said of Messier, whose 15th All-Star selection was criticized for being more sentimental than reflective of his current skills.
There's no question the goalies belonged, too, in only the second All-Star game since 1986 with 10 or fewer goals.
On Saturday, commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL's general managers and a league-wide committee will look at ways to pump up the offense and improve the game. He had no idea the trend to defense would spread to the All-Star game, which featured an average of 16 goals since 1990.
Lower scoring
"We're never going to have the scoring we once did and today's game is proof of it," Messier said. "I think a 6-4 All-Star game with that many chances, you can take out every red line and blue line and you're never going to have the goal scoring that we had in the '80s."
Back then, the league's goals-per-game average peaked at slightly more than eight per game; it's since dwindled to five per game -- an alarming falloff Bettman worries has made the sport even less fan- and TV-friendly.
Messier credits the improved goaltending, evidenced by the single goal allowed Sunday by four of the six goalies: the East's Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo and the West's Marty Turco and Dwayne Roloson.
"It's the most improved position in the last 10 years," Messier said. "It's changed everything about the game, the way the game is played. It's changed the way we look at the game."
The only goalie who experienced a rough day was Nashville's Tomas Vokoun, who allowed consecutive East goals by Messier, Roberts and Alfredsson in a span of just over four minutes late in the second period that turned a 3-2 West lead into a 5-3 East lead.
Game's 14th hat trick
Despite being able to choose from a roster featuring a combined 305 goals, the West's only goal besides Sakic's three was by Phoenix's Shane Doan in the second period. Sakic's hat trick was the 14th in an All-Star game.
"The [defensive] effort was there, and that's what you like, as far as being a goalie," said Brodeur, who turned aside 10 of 11 shots. "The guys at least try to play some defense."
Defense and hitting in an All-Star game? Who would have thought it? During the first period, the East's Jeremy Roenick and the West's Keith Tkachuk took turns checking each other into the boards, just as if it were a regular season game.
"I thought it was high tempo, it was quick out there, but the goaltending was great," the West's Jarome Iginla said. "It could have been a really high-scoring game if they weren't so good."