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..