Mixing Things Up

Pretty much every sport's All-Star game is boring. The players would rather have the day off because their season is long enough as it is and since the game doesn't count no one really tries or plays any defense. What results is a disjointed hodgepodge of bad passes, half-hearted swings and missed alley-oops. Every game is equally bad. (Ok, fine, twist my arm to rank them in terms of watchability: 1. MLB 2. NBA 3. NHL 4. NFL.) Recently, in an attempt to change this lackadaisical attitude towards their mid-season exhibition, the NHL decided that this year's All-Star game needed some spicing up and announced some changes. They were going back to pond hockey rules: name two captains and have those captains choose teams from the remaining roster of All-Stars, divisions and conferences be damned.

I think this is a fantastic idea. If the game doesn't mean anything and it's purely for the entertainment of the fans, why not completely mix it up? These guys will spend a total of two days practicing together either way, so does it really matter if players on one team are from Montreal and Los Angeles? Plus, this is just the kind of fan-centric idea that will bring a new buzz to an event that wouldn't otherwise make the front page of the sports section. What sports fans hasn't sat down and thought about the roster they would form if every player was available and the salary cap wasn't an issue? Everyone is going to watch just to see how the rosters end up shaking out. And, let's be honest with each other, everyone is going to want to see who the last guy to get picked is. The only way the NHL could possibly screw this up is if they had the captains pick the teams in private and then announced the teams by position, thereby robbing fans of the chance to see the order in which players were picked. If they instead made the picking of teams its own show a couple days before the game I'm willing to bet that would get great ratings.

I have to give the NHL a ton of credit for this one. They might be the fourth-ranking major sport but at least they try. And this is not even the first time they have used their mid-season exhibition to try something new. A couple years back they used the All-Star game to showcase that they were a global game by having the rosters feature "North America vs. The World." (A format the NBA would be wise to try once.) While it fizzled after a couple of years, at least the concept brought some buzz back and made the players actually care about playing in an All-Star game. Also, when they see the league having an issue with something they fix it right away, rather than spend six months having meetings and committees discuss options. Some might call this constant tinkering desperate, like they are resorting to cheap tricks to get attention. I see it as a sport knowing that it is supposed to be entertaining, not that it has to be some guardian of the past (baseball, I'm looking at you). Bottom line is this: for the first time in over a decade, I'm planning to watch an NHL All-Star game. The idea might be gimmicky, but it also appears to be effective.