All-Purpose Hockey Thread II

I watched the Youngstars off and on. It was kinda embarrassing seeing these kids kinda floating around like it was just a big game of shinny.

The skills competition is old and tired. The whole thing is just plain dull.

I'll watch a little bit tonight because the Baby Jesus and Ovechkin will be on a line together with Briere and Lindy Ruff has said, "We're gonna kick the West's ass", so maybe there'll be a little grit in the game. Doubt it but hey, you never know.

 

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=193421&hubname=

Darius Kasparaitis was put on waivers.

 

I have an idea. The NHL needs to decree that the conference that wins the YoungStars game gets home ice in the Stanley Cup Finals...

 

That'd work.

Or go back to the days when the Stanley Cup Champions from the previous year played the NHL All-Stars. There'd be some adrenalin in that game.

 

I agree with you on the Young Stars game, but I still get a kick out of the skills competition.

 

You know what would give the All-Star game a boost? Play it outdoors wherever possible. Seriously. The outdoor game they played in Edmonton generated a ton of buzz.


Now obviously, they probably couldn't do that in Atlanta next year due to weather, but in 2009, they could play it in the CFL stadium in Montreal.

 

If the league is married to the mid-week schedule, how about something like this:

Monday: Some sort of Major Junior-level all-star game (north america vs. world)
Tuesday: Workout and skills competition
Wednesday: All-Star Game

Would a game pitting a team of the top junior players from the US and Canada pitted against a team of the top junior kids from Europe be more entertaining? Is it even logistically possible?

Just throwing that out there for the sake of discussion.

 

QB
The problem is that the all-star break is nothing more than a glorified trade show for the industry and the players see it as a nice break from the regular schedule.

No one wants to get hurt in the game so there's no hitting so it's basically the same game you'd see at your local arena at 10:30 on a Wednesday night. It's jsut that this game is on television.

As nuts as it still seems, MLB turned their all-star game into something meaningful.

 

Make it a road hockey game in Atlanta, complete with traffic. Structure it like a video game, with more challenging levels as you progress -- the first period is on a residential dead-end street, the second period is downtown and the third period is on I-75.

"Car!!"

"Game on!!!"

 

Yeah, Kasparaitis was the Rangers' biggest problem.

Once again, the Dolans prove that they preside over the biggest clown convention in sports. Unfuckingbelievable.

 

One of the HNIC announcers reported that polls showed that most fans favoured keeping the schedule the way it is. Who did they poll????

The look of surprise on Ron Maclean's face upon hearing this was the highlight of the night for me.

 

Those new jerseys are horrible looking. Watching Bouwmeester skate out in that thing just crushed me.