NHL needs to figure out a better product for this thing. They have a bunch of average players in this game while leaving stars at home. None of the players seem to be enjoying themselves.
You have to incentivize them in some way to give a shit. And that’s difficult when someone like Mike Richter tore his ACL at this event when it was a bit more serious.
It’s essentially the baseball episode of south park. Nobody wants to win and have to play a 2nd game.
Exactly zero teams wants to incentivize the all stars to play harder. I think the presentation could be boosted though. Kinda go with fake rules like those old mtv rock n jock games or just replicate the 3on3 mode in NHL23
It’s cool to see top guys playing together for like 5 minutes then they’re all just boring. It’s not like 25+ years ago where guys felt there was a big competition between conferences.
They made more sense when there was no way to see the stars across the league on a regular basis but these days you can watch any game wherever you are. They’re just not interesting.
I think it just needs to be said what the goal of the all star game is. And I don’t know what they consider it to be. What what I can tell you is my kid had THE BEST time at the game. He loved that he knew so many of the players. He loved seeing all the league mascots. And he loved seeing a couple of his favorite players win (RIP panthers/flames trade debate). so for a live event that’s a unique showcase of the sport, it excels. As a tv “sporting event” I could see it being boring. But it’s a way to treat sponsors and I think it still easily works as a live event. There’s enough rooting interest for the home players. It’s fun. I do wish they (and the nba and mlb) would screw with the rules some though. Throw a money puck in there. Give the goalies a chance to do something fun. Go with nba Jam style 10 point spots. Remove the blue lines. Whatever. Just have fun. skills challenge is a bit of another story. They just need to focus that more because I heard attending it was really weird and it dragged on forever.
They had it last night unless I'm mistaken what the hardest shot competition is. Pettersson won at 103
Yup. Terrific job, Lou. Can’t wait for his son to be the introduced as the next gm. He’s currently running the AHL team in Bridgeport.
Pastrnak I think starts at 11. Bratt I would bet isn't going to budge below 9, unless he hits a cold spell in the second half. Larkin is an interesting one, because I think he'll get 8 or 9 from someone and I don't think Yzerman will want to match.