Marian Gaborik's three goals lead Team Chara to win

OTTAWA -- By unspoken agreement, the NHL All-Star Game has no checking, no penalties, no shot-blocking, no slap shots, no really hard skating and no hard feelings. So any resemblance between the All-Star Game and an actual game of hockey is purely coincidental.

This one, a 12-9 goal-fest won by Team Chara over Team Alfredsson, fit that pattern perfectly. It was nothing like a regular-season game.

What it did resemble was the regular season itself.

Marian Gaborik was outstanding, as he generally is for the Rangers. With his hat trick and Most Valuable Player performance, he kept up the momentum that has helped put the Rangers first in the Eastern Conference. He even tossed in a regular-season highlight clip, embellishing the first of two goals against Rangers teammate Henrik Lundqvist by going down on one knee to imitate the infamous "sniper" goal celebration by their teammate, Artem Anisimov.

"I was thinking about that before the game if I scored on Henrik," Gaborik said. "I wouldn't do it any other way, but if it was against Henrik, I would give him the Anisimov celebration bit.

"I don't think he was too happy about that," the Rangers forward said of the Rangers goalie.

It is one of the many quirks of the NHL All-Star Game that regular-season teammates can be on opposite sides. Team captains -- in this case, Daniel Alfredsson of the hometown Senators and Zdeno Chara of the champion Bruins -- choose up sides in a fantasy draft. They tend to go by nationalities. So Chara, a Slovakian, picked Gaborik to play against Alfredsson and Swedish countryman Lundqvist.

At Thursday's draft, maybe by mistake or out of force of habit, Gaborik walked over to Lundqvist's side rather than Chara's. At media day Friday, Gaborik claimed he has had the upper hand against his friend the goalie during their careers (no doubt recalling his five-goal game against the Rangers as a member of the Wild on Dec. 20, 2007). They exchanged barbs on Twitter.

"I was trying to get into his head the whole weekend," Gaborik said. "It was a pretty good challenge for him. It was better for me."

Lundqvist knows that a goalie in the All-Star Game is like a tackling dummy at football practice. He must take things in stride, including a replay of the celebration that forced Anisimov to apologize the day after he did it against the Lightning. "I didn't see the whole thing," Lundqvist said of Gaborik. "I looked over, I just saw he was down on one knee. It was pretty funny."

Not that it will go unpunished. Gaborik will have to answer to the team's kangaroo court. "Me and G will have to talk about how much the fine will be," Lundqvist said, referring to Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi, who also was on Team Alfredsson. "Obviously, [Gaborik] is not allowed to do that. But I've got to hand it to him, he had a great performance."

It was a wild -- albeit occasionally slow-moving -- event that included two goals each by Alfredsson (cheered wildly) and Joffrey Lupul (booed mercilessly because he plays for the hated Leafs). The Islanders' John Tavares had a goal and a skillful assist in his first All-Star Game. Even defensive defenseman Girardi seemed to have scored before it was ruled that his shot hit off Jason Spezza. "I thought it hit him,'' Girardi said. "It was pretty close, though."

Mostly, the day was a continuation of 2011-12 for the Rangers and Gaborik. "He has been having a great year. He's a confident player, as you can tell," Lundqvist said. "He's skating very well and he's playing a big part for us in New York."

But what will he hear from no-nonsense coach John Tortorella, who was behind the Team Alfredsson bench? "I think he was just jealous," Gaborik said, "because we won the game."