DUBLIN, Irleland – The astute betting man might put a few shillings on the North to win Sunday’s All-Star Game once he notices that that squad has much more experience at the weekend event. Nine Northern Conference players have been part of the event at least three times before and this is the seventh time for Tomas Hertl and Nathan MacKinnon. Cale Makar of Munich is the most experienced South player, as this is his fourth trip to the stars showcase.
But the more astute betting man will have taken notice that Southern Conference coach Debra Crew had dinner with Sepp Blatter, the league’s director of player safety and discipline, Friday at the swanky D’Olier Street Restaurant. We don’t know who paid for the meal (Crew obviously did) but the pair also kind of disappeared afterward. The more astute betting man might be tempted to make a large cash withdrawal from his bank before the event starts.
Here is a list that shows how many all-star games this year’s all-stars have been participated in:
SEVEN TIMES
- Tomas Hertl, London (NORTH)
- Nathan MacKinnon, Belfast (NORTH)
SIX TIMES
- Aaron Ekblad, Minsk (NORTH)
- Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dublin (NORTH)
- Ken Kuusk, Paris (NORTH)
FIVE TIMES
- William Nylander, Dublin (NORTH)
FOUR TIMES
- Chris Driedger, Paris (NORTH)
- Patrik Laine, Helsinki (NORTH)
- Cale Makar, Munich (SOUTH)
- Connor McDavid, Oslo (NORTH)
THREE TIMES
- Sebastian Aho, Bern (SOUTH)
- Filip Hronek, Berlin (SOUTH)
- Seth Jones, Liverpool (SOUTH)
- Charlie McAvoy, Zurich (SOUTH)
- Alex Nedeljkovic, Dublin (NORTH)
- Alexander Polunin, Zurich (SOUTH)
TWO TIMES
- Attila Adorjan, Minsk (NORTH)
- Mat Barzal, Lisbon (SOUTH)
- Alexei Bereglazov, Amsterdam (NORTH)
- Adam Fox, Gothenburg (NORTH)
- Nico Hischier, Bern (SOUTH)
- Bo Horvat, Minsk (NORTH)
- Jonathan Huberdeau, Zurich (SOUTH)
- Quinn Hughes, Zurich (SOUTH)
- Mitch Marner, Belfast (NORTH)
- Jacob Moverare, Oslo (NORTH)
- Sergei Mozyakin, Helsinki (NORTH)
- Elias Pettersson, Paris (NORTH)
- Ryan Pulock, Milan (SOUTH)
ONE TIME
- Anthony Beauvillier, Minsk (NORTH)
- Roope Laavainen, Belfast (NORTH)
- K’Andre Miller, Copenhagen (NORTH)
Brady Skjei, Stockholm (NORTH) - Calvin Thurkauf, Oslo (NORTH)
- Alex Debrincat, Oslo (NORTH)
- Kirill Kaprizov, Edinburgh (NORTH)
- Juuse Saros, Bern (SOUTH)
- Igor Shesterkin, Madrid (SOUTH)
- Spencer Knight, Bratislava (SOUTH)
- Mikhail Sergachev, Prague (SOUTH)
- Mikey Anderson, Zurich (SOUTH)
- Esa Lindell, Athens (SOUTH)
- Clayton Keller, Munich (SOUTH)
- Jake Debrusk, Bern (SOUTH)
- Jake Virtanen, Berlin (SOUTH)
- Dylan Sikura, Munich (SOUTH)
- Robert Thomas, Prague (SOUTH)
- Oliver Bjorkstrand, Munich (SOUTH)
- Kieran Brown, Zurich (SOUTH)
- Jake Guentzel, Kosice (SOUTH)
