NHL All-Stars, fans get warm welcome in sunny Florida
'It feels like a vacation right now,' players say before Skills, Game get going
"I think they're not too far from here," the forward said. "I think they're in the Bahamas."
Ha.
While the rest of the NHL is on vacation, the players participating in the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend aren't exactly roughing it in South Florida.
At All-Star Game Media Day on Thursday, they sat in the shade on a terrace overlooking Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. It was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. The waves lapped onto the sand.
The Bahamas?
"Maybe a boat ride there," Robertson said as he gazed toward the horizon. "But I mean, it can't be much different than here, right?"
Well, yes and no.
Here we have the 2023 Truly Hard Seltzer NHL All-Star Beach Festival, turning Fort Lauderdale Beach Park into a hockey paradise Thursday through Saturday.
RELATED: [2023 NHL All-Star Game coverage]
We have the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Friday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and the 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game there on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"It feels like vacation right now," Montreal Canadiens forward Nick Suzuki said.
Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk had a pair of sunglasses perched on his forehead as he spoke to reporters.
"I think when it's in Florida, people get a little more excited to come down," he said. "It's been a great experience so far."
Whenever the NHL holds an event, it tries to capture the spirit of wherever it is.
The event could not be more Florida.
The Beach Festival is exactly that -- a festival on the beach. Right on the sand, the NHL created a scene that would be indoors in some places or on a parking lot in others.
Fans took pictures with the Stanley Cup in shorts, swimsuits and flip-flops with the ocean as the backdrop. Kids played street hockey, air hockey and bubble hockey while cruise ships and freighters sailed by. They fired hockey pucks in spots where they otherwise might throw frisbees.
"It was cool," Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen said shortly after walking through the Beach Festival. "There were a lot of people there, and it was really, really fun. It's probably going to be even more pumped tomorrow and Saturday when things get rolling here."
The Skills competition will include two outdoor events you won't see anywhere else: the Chipotle NHL Pitch 'n Puck, in which four players play a hybrid of golf and hockey, and the Enterprise NHL Splash Shot, in which four pairs of players fire pucks at targets trying to drop opponents into dunk tanks.
The All-Star Game will feature adidas Reverse Retro uniforms featuring colors that evoke South Florida: Biscayne blue and Flamingo pink.
Making it here means different things to different players.
Take Robertson. This is the 23-year-old's first All-Star Weekend. He said it hadn't hit him yet and probably won't hit him until he's in uniform with the likes of Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin.
"It'll definitely be kind of an eye-opening moment," Robertson said. "All these players I watched growing up are on the ice with me."
Take Erik Karlsson. The San Jose Sharks defenseman has played in the NHL All-Star Game six times. But he hasn't done it since 2019, and now the 32-year-old is a father with two young children. His daughter, Harlow, is 3. His son, Stellan, turned 1 on Thursday.
"I think it's going to be really fun for me this year, especially since I have my own kids now," Karlsson said. "At least one of them I can bring down for a little bit, and she'll enjoy being around the locker room and seeing the guys.
"It's fun to be back after a little bit of [an absence], so I'm going to enjoy this weekend. I'll probably be a little bit more receptive to my surroundings and everything around it and enjoy it a little bit differently than the first couple years."
Bottom line: You can go on vacation any time. How many times do you get to participate in NHL All-Star Weekend, especially in a place where it feels like you are on vacation anyway?
"This is something that as a kid I grew up watching and really wanted to be a part of, and now to be able to be here and enjoy it with my family, it's something special to us," said Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner, who is participating in All-Star Weekend for the second time.
"It's something that … I think this memory's going to last a lot longer than probably being on a beach for seven days. You can still get your enjoyment in on that beach after this. You get these memories that last a lifetime with the ones you love."
