City of Ottawa ready to revel with NHL All-Stars and dignitaries

In their 20th anniversary season, the Ottawa Senators want to make the 2012 NHL All-Star Celebration an event to remember.

The Senators teamed up with Ottawa Tourism to put a bid in to host the event and found out in September 2010 that they earned the right to host this year’s NHL Tim Hortons All-Star Game and all the festivities leading up to it. The bid also received support from the City of Ottawa, the National Capital Commission and the new Ottawa Convention Centre.

“We believe Ottawa will be a memorable venue to celebrate the NHL, Canada’s favourite pastime and the Senators’ 20th season,” Senators president Cyril Leeder said at the time.

Fast-forward 16 months and the NHL’s best players are preparing to descend on the nation’s capital for a weekend full of activities.

“It’s great for the fans and the people of the city,” forward Jason Spezza told reporters after finding out he was one of four Senators voted to the starting lineup by fans. “They get to see kind of the lighter side of the players and the interactions between guys. The game isn’t the most serious part. It’s all the stuff that goes around it, getting to see all the stars in one spot together.”

At a rally in early January to encourage fans to vote Senators players onto the starting lineup, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson was in a jovial mood.

“Finally, we get to elect Senators in this country — the Ottawa Senators,” said Watson, who went on to point out the benefits of bringing the all-star weekend to Ottawa. “This game is an amazing event to host — $30 million of economic activity, 7,000 hotel rooms, 400 accredited journalists that are going to be watching this game from our hometown in 150 countries around the world.”

The rally paid dividends as Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, Milan Michalek and Erik Karlsson were all chosen by fans as starters.

In an interview on Sens TV, Alfredsson said he is going to thoroughly enjoy taking in the whole event.

“I’m going to try to savour it as much as I can,” said Alfredsson, who was named as captain of one of the two teams for Sunday’s game along with Boston Bruins defenceman Zdeno Chara.

“I know the days are going to fly by. I’m going to make sure I make my family a part of this as well and I have some friends coming from Sweden.”

During an appearance on last Thursday’s “NHL Hour With Commissioner Gary Bettman,” on Sirius XM Radio, Senators general manager Bryan Murray talked about how the event will showcase Ottawa to fans around the world.

“The big focus in the All-Star Game, other than the game and the skill competition, is downtown, so people that come into the city are going to be, I think, very, very impressed with the downtown core,” Murray said. “I have to say, for people who have never been to Ottawa, with Parliament Hill and all the good things around the (Rideau) Canal, it should be a lot of fun and should be something they’ll remember for a long time.”