NHL All-Star Weekend Three Stars: Leafs' Matthews, Penguins' Crosby and Buble Stood Out

Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews, Team Hughes celebrity captain Michael Buble and Penguins great Sidney Crosby had very positive showings at NHL All-Star Weekend.

Welcome to a special edition of THN.com’s three stars of the week. Normally, we rank the top three NHL players from the past seven days in this column, but today, we’re handing out stars based on their showing at the NHL all-star game break. Simple, yet with a twist. Let’s get to it:

The Pittsburgh captain and NHL icon once again was a terrific ambassador for the sport at the all-star events, bringing his typically warm and welcoming energy to Toronto for a couple of days. 

He did get criticized in some corners for not appearing at the team draft portion of the all-star calendar, but he won’t get any from us. When you consider how much of his life Crosby hands over to the public – living forever in the public eye, never having a day off from being one of the greatest players ever to play the game – missing one event doesn’t do any real damage to his reputation because he had a different set of plans than other players. And when he did show up to All-Star Weekend, Crosby was his usual open self, talking about potentially playing in the next Winter Olympics for Canada, support for a PWHL franchise in Pittsburgh, hockey culture and more. He loves the game with his whole heart, and it shows.

Crosby earned his spot at the All-Star Game this year, posting 27 goals and 50 points in 46 games as a 36-year-old. He really should be in every All-Star Game for the rest of his career, simply because he’s the closest thing to a hockey god we have. And nobody is classier and more aware of their place in the sport than Crosby is. He’s still the biggest part of the puzzle in the Penguins’ blueprint for success, and he’s as charitable with his time and money as they come. Cheers to him for his relentlessly positive attitude.

We knew Buble was a terrific entertainer before all-star events, but his virtuoso performance at the all-star press conference will live in hockey history as an all-time-great celebrity moment. 

The Vancouver singer and actor had all kinds of goodwill banked before he spoke openly and hilariously about his activities leading up to the All-Star Game, and his love for hockey couldn’t have been clearer. Buble has amazing comic timing, a humbleness that adds to his overall likeability, and a keen awareness of what it means to be a celeb.

The NHL often brings in famous people from other fields for big-tent events, but the efforts can fall flat if the spotlighted person doesn’t fully buy in. That wasn’t the case with Buble, and he’s definitely earned an invitation to the next big NHL event. Hosting the next annual awards ceremony would be right up his alley. Make it happen, NHL.

Matthews was the king holding court in Toronto for the rest of the NHL. As always, he handled the responsibility with grace and humility, whether it was working with Fanatics to surprise Make-a-Wish children or being on the ice and taking the All-Star Game about as seriously as any player could. He won the MVP honor after he generated two goals and two assists in two games. 

The home crowd at Scotiabank Arena roared in appreciation for Matthews and the three other Maple Leafs stars who participated in the All-Star Game, and as he’s accustomed to do, Matthews rose to the occasion.

There’s always some debate out there about whether Toronto is a hockey town or a Maple Leafs town, but after All-Star Weekend, there’s no debate that Toronto is an Auston Matthews town. People in the city appreciate him as the greatest Leaf of the Modern Era, if not any era. And he showed a maturity and willingness to bear responsibility for making the all-star process an enjoyable one. 

On a weekend when stars were everywhere in Ontario’s capital city, Matthews’ star shined brightest.