With another all-starless weekend on tap, it's time for the league to seriously consider scrapping the current format and taking the event overseas.
In a Wednesday conversation on Prime Time Sports with National Hockey League senior vice president Colin Campbell regarding fighting, I was struck by one of his revelations about a possible need for change.
"They don’t let you smoke on airplanes anymore," he said. "Things change."
In a way that statement also sums up the upcoming all-star game in Montreal this weekend.
Sure it has some majesty about it, what with its long history and the fact that the game is part of the celebration of 100 years of Montreal Canadiens hockey, but the truth of the matter is that despite everyone’s best efforts to say otherwise, things are different: The game simply isn’t relevant any longer.
Players, veterans and young players alike, so often try to skip the event or at least create an excuse –medical or personal—as to why they can’t come that it has now become commonplace not to expect anywhere near the best the NHL has to offer. The list seemingly is longer every year but it took on a new face this week when Columbus goalie Steve Mason, citing nothing more than "needing a breather," opted out of the weekend.
Mason, a legitimate candidate for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year wasn’t even talking about the game itself. He’s opting out of the Young Guns affair on Saturday night.
Talk about a slap in the face.
Now, understand that nothing having to do with all-star weekend is of any joy to goaltenders. They are little more than human targets (targets susceptible to serious injury no less) in a shooting gallery, but come on. A first-year player opting out for no good reason makes Roberto Lunogo’s need to be with his pregnant wife last season seem almost heroic by comparison (especially if you leave out the fact the game was in January and the baby wasn’t due until April).
We’ve also learned that with Nik Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk claiming an injury exemption (would that be lower body, upper body or a body of hurt for not having any member of the defending Stanley Cup champions being voted to the starting team in the now ludicrously flawed fan-voting process) there will be no one representing what is arguably still the best team in hockey at the all-starless affair.
It was announced Thursday that Sidney Crosby, the league’s marketing doll, will skip the affair due to injury and be replaced by the Tampa Bay Lightning's Martin St. Louis. Crosby also missed the game last season due to injury although this one appears a tad more suspect than the very serious ankle problem of a year ago.
Throw in additional no-shows such as Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom, Boston’s Milan Lucic and Los Angeles’ Erik Ersberg and I’m expecting the League will soon be making an offer to San Jose to have Claude Lemieux named as a replacement for a suddenly indisposed Brendan Shanahan.
Enough already.
Look, the league can’t cancel the All-Star game because it has a commitment to fans who want to see it in their town and corporate sponsors and advertisers who have a desire to sell their products to a captive, though still willing, audience.
It’s also not the league’s fault that the players who do show up want to go half speed and without hitting in an effort to reduce the chance of injury. As one NHL executive said to me recently, "it is what it is and that’s the problem."
So here’s my solution: Take it overseas for awhile.
Really, both the League and the Players Association is on record as wanting to have an expanded presence in Europe so I say give them the all-star game.
I don’t for a moment think there won’t still be a problem getting players to play, but think about it. European players might appreciate the chance to play in front of home crowds in their national arenas. North Americans who might want to participate but hear the call of a few days off that all their non-star brethren are enjoying will at least get a tour of a city slightly more exotic than the usual NHL ports of call. Toss in healthy enough stipends to allow them to bring family and a few friends to say Paris, London, Stockholm, Moscow or Berlin and who knows what the sign-up sheet might look like.
True the League might lose a few sponsors on this side of the border but the truth is those elements are likely to want to sign up for the burgeoning number of outdoor Winter Classics that will soon be at a monster stadium near you. That shift opens the door to European companies who just might want to sell a few of their household brews and wares to an audience that just might tune into to a continent-wide television broadcast just to see what their heroes look like close up.
Who knows, if the concept were to catch on their could be an occasional flip-flop where the League takes a regular season game to an old Olympic playpen in Austria or Lillihammer, while the occasional all-star game returns to play never or seldom visited arenas in Columbus, Nashville, Phoenix, Buffalo and Raleigh.
Heck, if it’s true absence makes the heart grow fonder, wannabe cities such as Las Vegas, Hamilton and Kansas City could draw a crowd, maybe to be joined by defunct but still wistful places such as Quebec City, Winnipeg and Hartford. With a few improvements, Long Island, and Toronto might be able to make the list.
OK, I’m kidding (a little) about Long Island and Toronto, but Campbell is right when he says things change.
It’s time change came to the all-star game and its placement outside North America should be a change the NHL moves to the top of its to-do-list. And when that gets old, how about an All-Star Challenge Cup outdoors in Europe with a rubber match in North America.
Change baby change.
