Marian Gaborik terrorizes teammates en route to All-Star Game MVP
KANATA -- When Marian Gaborik of the New York Rangers scored the first goal for Team Chara during their 12-9 victory over Team Alfredsson in the 2012 NHL All-Star Game, his celebration wasn't a spur of the moment idea.
Gaborik channeled Artem Anisimov's celebration against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a December game -- one that sparked a mini-brawl between the teams.
"We planned that actually," said Team Chara teammate and Slovakian countryman Marian Hossa. "He told me about it so I kind of knew when he was going to score. Especially, he want to score on Hank [Henrik Lundqvist]. I was laughing when he pulled it off."
[Related: Top five goals at the 2012 NHL All-Star Game]
"I don't think he [Lundqvist] was too happy about that," Gaborik joked after his three-goal, one assist performance earned him the game's MVP award.
Lundqvist wasn't the only Team Alfredsson goaltender to go home unhappy as Gaborik and Hossa, along with Pavel Datsyuk, combined for four goals and 10 points. The Rangers star credited his experience playing with Hossa in eight tournaments with Slovakia for helping their line succeed.
Lundqvist also wasn't the only Rangers teammate that Gaborik gave trouble to. Defenseman Dan Girardi finished a minus-1 and was unable to give his Team Alfredsson teammates any pointers to slow down the 29-year old Gaborik.
"I was obviously on the minus end of two of his goals so that wasn't too good," he said.
"He made a couple of good plays and he just had one of those games that everything was going in for him. That line was pretty dangerous out there. Every time they came on the ice the D wanted to change."
Gaborik was told by NBC Sports Network analyst Pierre McGuire after the game that Rangers head coach John Tortorella, who was behind the bench for Team Alfredsson, joked that he was going to fine him $1,000 for his celebration.
"He's just jealous we won the game," quipped Gaborik.
Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy
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