Rocket's Richard, Belzile entertain hometown crowd in skills competition at AHL all-star classic

It seemed like old times. The crowd at Place Bell cheered the Laval Rocket players while braying at the Toronto Marlies. Some habits are hard to break.

Following a three-year hiatus because of COVID-19, the AHL all-star classic made a triumphant return Sunday night as the skills competition was held before about 9,000 spectators at the home of the Rocket, represented by leading scorer Anthony Richard and captain Alex Belzile. The latter was a late replacement for defenceman Justin Barron, who remains with the Canadiens.

Belzile, who just had a five-game stint with Montreal during which he produced four assists, kept a throng of media members waiting an inordinate amount of time following the competition while he signed autographs. For one night, at least, he enjoyed his rock star status.

“It’s such a nice event and it seems like the time just flies,” Belzile said. “You have to enjoy it while it’s happening. With the crowd that we had, I had goosebumps a couple of times on the ice. It’s all good, it’s all fun and it’s really good to have it in Laval.”

Belzile competed in three events. He scored three times — on four shots — against Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf during rapid fire; added two more goals in the pass and score discipline, completing his night’s work being stopped in his lone opportunity of the breakaway relay. In the latter, he juggled the puck on his stick before batting it out of mid-air.

“I tried to do a little baseball move,” he explained. “It’s an all-star game. It’s made for moves you’ll never try in a game. I just tried to do something to get the crowd to cheer. It’s all fun. It’s a good event. The crowd was unbelievable. I’m just having fun right now.”

At age 31, Belzile realizes these opportunities don’t often present themselves. Now in his fifth season with the Rocket — first as captain — he hasn’t been showcased like this since the 2018-19 season, when the game was held in Springfield.

“They could have called up any guys in the league,” Belzile said of his last-minute addition. “My name was picked and I’m really happy. When I’m going to look back in 10 years, I had the chance to play in an all-star game in Laval with the creme de la creme of the AHL. That’s a good experience.”

Richard, with 22 goals 42 points through 38 games, is known for his offence and speed, although he posted a surprisingly pedestrian time of 13.322 seconds in the fastest skater event.

“A guy like me, 90 per cent of his game is in his legs,” Richard said. “My legs were kind of heavy from the weekend, the travel (a pair of games at Toronto) and everything. I knew I had to give an extra push to find a second gear. For the first time … I’m happy with the way it went.

“I was a bit surprised with how everything went. Right from the start, you could see the fans were into it. Guys were ready to perform. I feel like everybody gave their 100 per cent to show their skills. It was nice to be a part of it on the ice.”

For the record, Hershey’s Ethen Frank set a new league all-star record for the fastest skater with a time of 12.915 seconds. The hardest shot was produced by Syracuse’s Darren Raddysh (102 mph). Finally, Rockford’s David Gust became only the fourth player in AHL history to connect on all four attempts in the accuracy shooting.

The two-day event concludes Monday night (7 p.m., TSN3, TSN5, RDS) with the all-star challenge.

hzurkowsky@postmedia.com

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