From meeting and skating with several of the game’s best players to taking in the sights and sounds of Las Vegas over three days, San Jose Sharks winger Timo Meier said his experience at the NHL All-Star Game this weekend was something he’ll never forget.
It was just a bit shorter than he hoped.
Meier’s participation in the All-Star Game’s 3-on-3 tournament didn’t last long as he and the Pacific Division lost 6-4 to the Metropolitan Division in the first semifinal of the event Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Meier, in his first all-star game, scored at the 2:27 mark of the first 10-minute half and assisted on Jordan Eberle’s goal at the 4:27 mark of the second half that tied the game 3-3. But the Metropolitan team responded with three consecutive goals to advance to the final, where they beat the Central team 5-3.
The players on the winning team split a $1 million bonus. Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers was named the tournament’s MVP.
Meier, 25, showed he belonged on the same stage with several of the NHL’s best after he had 47 points in 41 games in the first half of the season.
“I’ll cherish this moment forever,” Meier said.
After a few more days of downtime, Meier and the Sharks will reconvene for practices near the end of next week as they get ready for the unofficial second half of the season.
They have their work cut out for them if they want to end a two-year postseason drought.
The Sharks went 3-4-3 in their final 10 games before the break and need to string some victories together if they want to catch some teams ahead of them in the Western Conference standings.
The Sharks (22-20-4) entered the break in sixth place in the Pacific Division with 48 points, seven points back of Anaheim for third place, and four points back of Calgary for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The top three teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs.
Six of the seven games San Jose plays this month are at home, starting with games vs. the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 14, the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 17 and the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 20.
“We know we’ve got to start getting some wins together, but I’m positive,” Meier said. “It’s really important that guys reset, take some energy out of this break and once you come back, we’re going to be fresh to get some wins.”
Meier and Tomas Hertl have combined for 43 goals so far and may have to continue to produce at a high pace to keep the Sharks’ hopes alive, particularly in the short term.
The Sharks only have 16 games left before the NHL’s trade deadline on March 21 and Hertl, a pending unrestricted free agent, could be on the move if he and San Jose can’t come to terms on a new deal.
“I’m going to be looking forward to the challenge,” Meier said. “I want to raise my game in the second half to make sure that I can have success with the team.”
The Pacific Division team had won the 3-on-3 tournament and the $1 million prize three times since the format for the event was first introduced at the 2016 All-Star Game in Nashville.
The Pacific team won in 2016 with Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski. Then-former Sharks winger John Scott was named the event’s Most Valuable Player. Burns was also part of the victorious Pacific Division team in 2018 in Tampa, and Tomas Hertl, serving as a replacement for an injured Logan Couture, scored a combined five goals to help the Pacific team win in 2020 in St. Louis.
Meier on Saturday spent most of his playing time on the ice with Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau. The Pacific team, besides goalies John Gibson and Thatcher Demko of Anaheim and Vancouver, respectively, had just one defenseman, Alex Pietrangelo of the host Golden Knights.
