This week the NHL general managers met for the annual general managers' meetings and, although the biggest topic going in was to clarify some head shot questions, the biggest news coming out might be the change to the all-star weekend rosters.
Alright - so not everyone will think it is big news. I am one of them, but at least they are trying. Of the four major professional sports' all-stars games on this continent, the NHL's has been criticized as the yawner of the group. Don't get me wrong. The star-studded lineups are enough to get some people interested, but the glorified rec game still can't get the support the NHL bigwigs are hoping for.
The NHL has always struggled to have their players, who were voted or picked to attend the all-star game attend, but in reality can you blame the players that much. I mean they are human.
Who has never said no to playing a rec hockey game because they were quite content on the couch and figured their team would have enough guys without them?
The NHL plays an 82 game schedule and a majority of the all-stars will be making a playoff run. There is no doubt the NFL schedule is physically demanding as well, but you'd be crazy to think the coaches would let their player go to an all-star game in the middle of playoffs.
In the NFL, the players get sent to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl and from there they are right into the off-season and can heal the injuries.
Players in the NHL have to be back with their teams days later and don't get an unofficial all-star break.
Unlike Major League Baseball, the NHL's all-star game means nothing and it can't come down to the extra game in the Stanley Cup final going to the winner of the all-star game on the ice.
The NBA all-star festivities are just that, a weekend party with a show more exciting than watching the Harlem Globetrotters.
The NHL's newly proposed idea would be comparable to golf's Ryder Cup. This season the biggest question for the Ryder Cup was whether Tiger Woods would be selected as a captain's pick. He was eventually picked after weeks of speculation.
The idea is that the starting lineups for the NHL all-star game are still voted in by fans. Then, after a group of players is selected from the NHL, those players will select the two captains. After that, the team captains will take part in a live draft. There is no West versus East, North America versus the World, the defending Stanley Cup Champs versus the League's All-Stars, Wales versus Campbell, it will just be players selected in the random order as to which team they will play for. A glorified pond hockey game when everyone just hopes not to be the last pick.
Give the NHL credit for trying to drum up more interest for the NHL's all-star weekend, but I don't think this is going to be the final answer.
You know what would make this a big weekend?
Sure, pick the players, stay as close to the grassroots as possible, but why not play it outdoors and keep with the pond hockey theme.
I'd watch it and the sold out football stadiums from the past Heritage Classics proves it could work.
