Has the NHL Failed Its Fans By Passing on the 2010 All-Star Game?

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” - Abraham Lincoln

Ahhhh yes, kinda makes you think of the NHL All-Star game, doesn’t it?

Not to repeat the obvious, but the NHL version of the All-Star game is often referred to as the “Worst in professional sports.”

Well, I’ve got news for you. Due to the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver and the NHL’s subsequent participation in said games, the NHL will not be having an All-Star game this upcoming season. What's worse is the Phoenix Coyotes are set to host the All-Star game in 2011, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Back to the main topic, the All-Star game....Question is, will anybody care that the All-Star game is missing?

The NHL All-Star game is typically a bore. Sure, it’s great to watch all of the NHL’s “best” players on the same ice surface, but, given the fact that the physical element is void from the game, what we end up watching is a glorified skills competition, not a true NHL calibre game.

The All-Star game lacks any semblance of intensity and a complete lack of physical play and hitting. Fact is, without the physical elements, watching hockey is pretty boring!

Obviously, due to the price of insurance policies and a lack of desire on the players part to “Give it their all,” it is impossible to envision a day when NHL players and their teams will be willing to let the players “Have at ‘er,” buckle down, throw the bodies around and actually “Compete” in an All-Star game.

No Sir, what we fans are left with is a shell of the NHL game, one in which you would be lucky to break an egg in your shoulder pad if you went into a corner, much less actually witness a body check! Let’s call it what it is, shall we? The NHL All-Star game is a farce!

Ok, so we have established that the actual All-Star game is a farce, what’s worse is the way the players are selected to represent their beloved teams.

The addition of the Internet to our lives has, for the most part, been extremely positive. In fact, there are many amongst us who believe they could never live without it. Well, in the case of the NHL’s All-Star selection process, the Internet is the NHL’s worst enemy.

Every time the NHL settles on an All-Star game site there are an extraordinary amount of votes placed for the home teams players via the Internet. The usual criteria of top goal producers, best defenseman and most dominant goaltender are thrown out the window.

What we have left is what amounts to a popularity contest, a contest that often ends with numerous undeserving players being selected to the All-Star game. The problem with that is two-fold. Having players at the All-Star game that do not belong there is both asinine and unfair, furthermore, the election of said players diminishes the selections of those players that actually earned the right to be there based on their performance.

This past season many of us watched as Montreal Canadiens fans shamelessly hit the Internet in an attempt to sabotage the votes by selecting only those players that wore the Canadiens Red, White and Blue. Sadly, their efforts paid off. The end results were that several Montreal players were elected to the All-Star game when clearly there were more deserving players left out of the competition.

Montreal forward Alex Kovalev and to a lesser extent Montreal defenseman Mike Komisarek, did not deserve to be there and Saku Kiovu received a ton of votes, even though he had a very average first half.

Heck, even the Pittsburgh Penguins fans got into the act by electing Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar to play in the game. Gonchar, who was injured at the time of the All-Star game and had barely, if ever played a game to that point in the season, should not have been on the elected list, the fact he was on the list was, to say the least embarrassing.....

I for one will miss the All-Star festivities that lead up to the actual All-Star game. I love watching a kids face light up when he encounters one of his hero’s from his favorite NHL team, it’s important for building the NHL brand and it allows the players to give back to the fans, which will always be important. That said, I won’t miss the game itself.

So, I put it to you my loyal readers. Has the NHL failed? Are they content with the their failures, specifically the All-Star game and it's election process? (God knows there are many more failures!)

There will be no NHL All-Star game this season, will you miss it? Does it still have it’s merits? Should we just have an extended skills competition and be done with it? Have your say in the comment box.

Until next time,

Peace!

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Cheers!