But that is not today's topic...
Ahem...
Now imagine you have a friend visiting you...just imagine that for a second and you know what? They want to watch their first ever ever ever game of professional ice hockey and the only option that you have on hand is the annual NHL All-Star Game...
What do you do?
Im sorry but i would be embarrassed if this was the way to first show someone the game of hockey for the first time.. here we have a collection of the very best that the NHL has to offer..well with the exception of Crosby and Ovechkin and a few other selected others... but what i see is a bunch of hockey players having a big ol game of shinny in front of a sold-out arena and people watching on national television..Gary Buttman... you wanna sell the game in North America? This is not the way to do it... ok ok so i don't expect the game to be the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs...but omg is this really it? No hitting..no goaltending,, no intensity..nor any emotion or any passion..nothing but a big ol skate...they might as well play outside on a pond in Ontario somewhere...
The game has changed..i know people who will not watch the all-star game whatsoever.. Don Cherry hates the All-Star Game... i would love a time travel machine so that i could go back in time to when it was the original six back when it would be the Stanley Cup champs versus a combination of the rest of the NHL...oldtimers like to tell me that it was a showcase for hockey seeing the champs play the rest of the league.. we didn't get these sad 11-9 scores or any of that.. the game meant something, the other team had a chance to show up the Stanley Cup champs...usually the Habs or the Maple Laughs back in the 60s...on the other hand it was a chance for the Stanley Cup Champs to show the rest of the league that they mean business...
Salaries..expansion...whose fault was it? The chase for the almighty dollar? The WHA? Players coming from overseas? Too much power given to either the players or the owners? The players just don't care about the All Star Game and it friggin well shows! When there’s nothing on the line but pride, it makes for a really boring game, because the top players sold their pride a long time ago.The All-Star Game needs something or if it is going to continue to be a sad display of nothingness than perhaps the game should be held after the season is over.. kind of like the NFL's Pro Bowl.....perhaps it is time to scrap the all star game altogether and just let the players have a break for four days or so in the middle of the season...
I know im better off doing something else when its time for the NHL All Star Game....don't sit home drinking beer and eating Jiffy Pop to watch a bunch of overpaid hockey players who just don't give a rats ass about the fans in the stands or the poor sap who is stuck watching this thing at home on the telly.. go watch an Axemen game at Acadia Arena.. those who don't like the odd scrap will be pleased as fighting results in a three game suspension or something like that.. go watch some kids trying their best down at the local arena..go catch a local hockey game..catch a West Kings game at the Kingston Arena or a game at the Appledome in Berwick or wait for next year to watch the World Juniors to see the next generation before they become NHL players.. do something but do not support this sad excuse to display the games best...
