Colorado Avalanche Center Nathan MacKinnon at All Star

Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is representing the team at the All Star weekend in Los Angeles.

Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon is the team’s representative for the 2017 NHL All Star team. This is a special All Star weekend because it comes during the 100-year anniversary of the NHL.

Sometimes players look on the weekend as something of a burden. However, when you look back at a player’s career, there’s always a catalog of how many All Star teams he was nominated to. In the grind of the season, sometimes players might not remember that it actually is an honor.

In any case, that’s not Nathan MacKinnon, who’s making his first All Star appearance. When he was nominated to the team, his response was the following:

"“I’m excited to be a part of the game itself and check it off the bucket list. It’s cool to be able to be at one and say that you participated in the All-Star Game.”"

MacKinnon knows it is, indeed, an honor.

He also acknowledged how much fun it is. He was already looking forward to playing with some of his off-season pals, such as Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby. He got his chance:

As the tweet notes, both MacKinnon and Crosby are from Cole Harbour, a small town in Nova Scotia.

The All Star events are taking place in Los Angeles, California, at the Kings’ home barn, the Staples Center. Because of its association with Hollywood, that’s the theme for this year’s events.

Teams and fans had a good time photoshopping their representatives’ faces into move posters. The Colorado Avalanche were no exception:

Here’s another:

The Avs really had some fun with this:

So much this:

It’s a down year for the Colorado Avalanche, which is on pace to have its worst record in team history and the most regulation losses since the expansion team Atlanta Thrashers. For that reason, some people don’t think the Avs should have had a representative at the ASG.

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I disagree. Every team has at least one good player, one player doing well even while the team itself is faltering. What’s more, the All Star festivities are largely for the fans. If my team weren’t represented at the game and skills competition, I wouldn’t watch it.

Indeed, I didn’t watch it. Two years ago defenseman Erik Johnson had to undergo surgery, thus forcing him to miss the All Star weekend. I didn’t watch a single highlight.

Anyway, MacKinnon already participated in the skill competition. He participated in four events:

• skills challenge relay
• four line challenge
• fastest skater
• hardest shot

The last competition was a last-minute addition. MacK had joked during a presser that he didn’t have a particularly hard shot. He came in at a respectable 92.3 and 89.9 miles per hour, though.

For the challenge relay, MacKinnon passed the puck to Chicago’s Duncan Keith, Minnesota’s Ryan Suter and St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko for one-timers. They won.

MacKinnon just barely missed making his shot from the goal line in the four line challenge. He allowed Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford to take the second shot, which could have been worth 20 points. Crawford missed, though.

The fastest skater competition was the most-anticipated for Colorado Avalanche fans. We all know how speedy our MacK is. He started out very strong, but he took a corner wide. He could never catch up. Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid won.

Here’s the highlight video:

Next: How the Avs Should Finish out the Season

The 3-on-3 All Star tournament takes place today at 1:30 MST. The tournaments features two 20-minute semifinal games. The first game will be the Central Division vs the Pacific Division. The second game is the Atlantic vs the Metropolitan. The winners from each game face off for a final match — winners split a $1 million pot.