NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Claude Giroux’s bad luck in the NHL All-Star Game continued on Sunday.
The Flyers' captain fell to 0-4 in the showcase event after the Metropolitan Division’s 4-3 semifinal loss to the Atlantic Division in the new three-on-three format at Bridgestone Arena.
Giroux was also on the losing team in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Despite the loss, Giroux enjoyed the new format with so much open ice (see highlights).
“It was more competitive than in the five-on-five All-Star Game, I think,” Giroux said. “Guys were moving the puck around and having fun. It was pretty fun to play.”
The Atlantic Division rallied from three one-goal deficits before Montreal’s P.K. Subban scored the winning goal with 4:38 left.
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Giroux, 28, played right wing on a line with New York Islanders center John Tavares and New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
“They move the puck pretty well,” Giroux said. “Every player on that ice is pretty fun to watch, anyway. Yeah, it was really fun to play with those two.”
Giroux, Tavares and McDonagh took the opening faceoff for Metro coach Barry Trotz of Washington.
“I was pretty honored to get the start there, for sure, especially with a couple of [Trotz’s] Washington guys there,” McDonagh said. “He called the three captains to start so that was pretty special to start that game.”
Tavares is the Metro and Islanders captain and McDonagh wears the “C” for the Rangers.
“It was fun to kind of be on the same side with those guys because you face them a lot throughout the season,” McDonagh said of Giroux and Tavares. “Two pretty incredible players that I have a lot of respect for, for what they mean for their teams and what they’re doing for the league.”
The Captain Line didn’t score, but they had a few good opportunities.
“We had a lot of offensive zone time, I thought,” McDonagh said. “We generated a couple of good looks there, but it was fun, for sure, to see them and play alongside them for once.”
Detroit forward Dylan Larkin, a 19-year-old rookie, recorded three assists and was on the ice for all four of the Atlantic’s goals.
It’s been quite a weekend for Larkin, who broke a 20-year-old record when he won the fastest skater contest in Saturday’s skills competition.
Larkin assisted on Jaromir Jagr’s breakaway goal that tied the score at 2-2 at 9:22 as the game’s youngest player hooked up with the oldest.
Jagr, 43, played in his 10th All-star Game, by far the most of anyone playing in the 61st showcase.
“He looks great out there and it was actually fun to talk to him a little bit this weekend,” Giroux said of his former linemate. “He’s a great guy and he’s obviously a legend.”
The switch to three-on-three was demanding for the skaters.
“I broke a better sweat than last year, but the puck is moving up and down and our guys are obviously really creative,” Giroux said. “I thought it was going to be a higher-scoring game, but it was still pretty good. Obviously, with three lines you try to roll it a little bit, but it wasn’t too bad.”
Scott unlikely MVP
With the sellout crowd of 17,000-plus chanting “MVP,” Montreal enforcer John Scott was named MVP after the Pacific Division edged the Atlantic, 1-0, in the championship for a $1 million prize.
Scott scored two goals, including one on his first shift, in a 9-6 semifinal win over the Central.
“It’s probably one of the better weekends of my life, I’m not going to lie,” Scott said. “Definitely up there.”
Fans voted the 6-foot-8 journeyman into the game, but initially he said someone from the league tried to talk him out of playing in the game.
The Pacific Division captain was traded from Arizona to Montreal and sent to the minors in Newfoundland.
“I never in a million years would have believed that I was in an All-Star Game and the fans get behind me like that,” Scott said. “To score two goals in the game — you can’t put it into words, you can’t write this stuff. It’s unbelievable how it happened.”
Subban was happy for him.
“He’s probably on cloud 1,000,” Subban said.
Scott checked Chicago’s Patrick Kane in the semifinals and Kane pretended to drop the gloves with him.
“He came right after me after he scored and said, ‘Let’s go,’” Scott said. “We’ve wrestled around in the past.”
His message for young players who don’t have the talent of a Kane or a Tyler Seguin?
“Just work on what you have,” Scott said. “I was given a few tools: my size and my strength and worked on those. I’ve been cut many times, I’ve been sent down. Don’t try to be a Kane or a Seguin if you’re a grinder or a fighter or a checker. Just go with it and things will work out.”