105.9 - The hardest shot on ever during the NHL All-Star Skills competition, which was recorded by Zdeno Chara during last year's event.

Chara has also won four consecutive hardest shot competitions, so he would be going for number five overall should he designated himself as a shooter. Currently, Big Z is three behind Al MacInnis (7) for the most all-time hardest shot victories.

So Tyler Seguin just tweeted "The hug from z was more special. apparently im going to be tweeting in the skills comp #tsn. Get ready fellow tweetalies. #allstarweekend"

Oh excellent. I love the All Star game. It's good for the fans, the media tries to take everything way too seriously (remember the "analysis" of the draft last year?, and it's time for the players to get a good break in mid-season. In a word, awesome.

After the jump, let's take a closer look at the hilarity of last night's draft...

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Seriously though, the poor guy can't go last two years in a row, can he?

I've never met a fake event with more hype that nobody cares about surrounding it in recent memory. Will Chara draft a Canuck? Will Thomas snub the Canadian PM (they're in Ottawa, after all)? Will the Senators get their due and go last collectively?

Anyway, the draft starts at 8. NBCSN has a pre-show at 7:30. You can watch them both or not watch anything at all, but you should definitely join in the conversation.

Even as late as Sunday evening, when Scott Hartnell was finishing off a natural hat trick, and Tim Thomas was allowing 5 goals to a team that he usually dominates (that was missing 2 key forwards), the idea of trading Tim Thomas would have been unthinkable.

The American-born goalie who turned in a dominant performance to end Boston's cup drought. The underdog story for the ages, whose toughness seemed to fit right in with the Bruins physical style of play.

As of Sunday evening, for public relations reasons, a Tim Thomas trade this coming offseason when his NMC expires on July 1, 2012 would have been extremely difficult.

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On February 22, 1934 the Bruins retired their first number in franchise history. The Bruins honored defenceman Lionel Hitchman by retiring his number 3 sweater. Hitchman wasn't known for his offensive skills especially during an era where defenceman rarely put up big numbers. During a majority of his career he did however played along side legend Eddie Shore creating arguable the most dynamic pair of blue-liners during their time. Hitchman's number 3 was the second number retired by the NHL, second only to Toronto's Ace Bailey's number 6.

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Today's the day - the most overhyped, ridiculous popularity contest in the NHL gets underway with the NHL All-Star Draft. I can't embed this video, but here's hoping the Canadian TV show This Hour Has 22 Minutes gets a hold of some all-stars again this year. Hilarious. Any time Zdeno Chara gets to talk about eating babies, you know he's got to be having a good day.

After the links, Montreal won a game in ridiculous fashion last night; Grantland talks Zdeno Chara; and who will be in Phil Kessel's shoes this year?

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