KHL angle

I got a chance to watch the KHL all stars game the other day. If the NHL's annual lazy Sunday skate looked to be a bit pointless, this made it look like a gruesome playoff grind in comparison. Russian league's stars practically let each others take breakaways while at the same time refusing to pull the trigger even on wrist shots and always looking for the tic-tac-toe to the empty net. The players seemed to enjoy the scoring fest. Goalies, on the other hand, had hard time summoning smiles to their faces. The game ended 17-16 and the hungriest guys scored 5 goals and up to 7 points.

The skills event before the game seemed to imitate NHL's just as well. Of course they managed to clock the all-time hardest shot by Denis Kulyash, beating Zdeno Chara's blast clearly. Not that either of them had much of use for that talent in the game itself.. I've always been a fan of the Russian skating and stickhandling skills, so the skills competition suits them just fine. Homecomer Maxim Afinogenov took the fastest skater's title. No news there, having seen him play in NHL and internationals several times. That guy sure can fly.

In general, it was fun to see the top talent in KHL. It's a good combination of some very good Russian talent, choosing to play in Russia rather than NHL, some elderly statesmen with great NHL pedigree, like Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Yashin and the cream of European players who haven't been able to lock a permanent NHL roster spot. Good players in general, definitely the second best level on the sport. It's going to be interesting to see how much these leagues will blend in the coming years with players moving back and forth between those.

While the all star game was just foolish, it's great to see this other major league for hockey. It may be extracting some talent from NHL but at the same time it keeps NHL as an organization alert and active in improving. From money perspective it may have the downside that all the rest of the world's leagues have to settle with third grade talent and local juniors on their way up. Well, can't please them all.

From my subjective viewer's point of view, however, the intensity of NHL games in a smaller rink keeps the NHL as the undisputed top of the sport. KHL may have speedier highlights here and there, but the whole package of NHL with heavy hitting, reaction decisions and seizing the moments simply cannot be beaten.

Honorable mention goes to Dominik Hasek. I thought this guy had already retired after winning it all. But there he was, at age of 45, between the pipes on among the KHL's best of the best. With the same weird style that brought back many memories from the past.

All Stars

Okay, the yearly showcase in NHL is behind us and it's my time to point out something from this event. I watched the skills competition and the game itself. Rather entertaining, but somehow missing the real spark. It was obvious that some guys were really enjoying the fooling around on ice with other stars. These are the showman types like Alex Ovechkin. Even some rookies seemed to have the courage to actually have fun, Jeff Skinner and PK Subban most visibly. Then there were the larger bunch of more serious guys who seemed out of place and almost uncomfortable going in the front of this crowd to do some funny stunts. The skills competition in general came out flat, hardly testing the skills for real and mostly concentrating on gimmicks.

It was however really fun to see how much some of these guys can do with the stick and puck, given all the freedom. I have to say that the yound defencemen PK Subban, Kris Letang and Kevin Shattenkirk really rose in my books with the ability to skate and move the puck just like the best forwards. It's good to see NHL embrace these talented defencemen finally and not just try to fill the defencive zone with meanest men with biggest bodies they can find.

What about the all stars game then? It seemed to get split in three parts: entusiastic scoring in the beginning, frustration and waiting the game to be over in the middle and winning spirit rising in the end even on the meaningless game. At first it looked like it was, massive offencive talent facing little resistance on the defence. Resulting in nightmares for goalies. Well they didn't give the whole 100% either.. After some 15 goals everyone seemed to have had enough and there was no need to push for another great effort. The rest of the game was just skating around and making bad plays resulting in turnovers.

The guys seemed to have agreed to not take slapshots to avoid injury, and ended up passing on the great wrister opportunities too, instead going for an optimistic pass. It started to look like high school hockey. For the viewers, it's disappointing to see the best players, but not the efforts. Expecting to see a bunch of talent, but actually seeing only half hearted efforts and really bad hockey decisions. Maybe it was fun in the rink, but I wouldn't pay for that as a spectator.

Maybe it's time to finally drop this tradition, since there's very little incentive for anyone to really give their best in there. Number one rule from managers is to not get hurt, so what can we expect. Maybe a mid season awards gala would do the trick. Give some rest for the banged up guys and let the superstars mingle with each other in more relaxed atmosphere. Perhaps let Ovechkin and Kovalchuk have a hearty laugh without ending in the teeth of reporters and scolding by the GMs.

As a sidenote, it sure isn't the season for Phil Kessel. Getting picked up last in the all stars, not really getting anything done in the skills or game. Pretty well aligned with the state of affairs in Toronto though..