It was announced today that Nick Lidstrom and Eric Staal would be the captains of the All-Star teams for their game coming up on the 28th in Carolina. As far as the captains are concerned, I have no problem with the choices. How can you really disagree with their thinking? Other than a formulaic and clichéd Crosby vs. Ovechkin matchup, they didn’t really have any other realistic choices.
Lidstrom has been in the league forever and has played at an elite level for so long that he has the respect of everyone within the hockey world and even those who are just casual fans. Of course, Staal is the captain of the hometown team and gives Carolina fans an extra incentive to cheer within the arena itself. It’s one of the few ways that you can create an excited atmosphere for a game that offers very little excitement.
I’m still very curious to see how the NHL decides to produce their all-star selection draft show because if they screw this up, it could be player/highlight pack/player/highlight pack and very boring to tune into. Sure, there’s intrigue on who the first picks will be for each team, whether Lidstrom or Staal will be pressured into picking players from their own team and of course, who’s going to be the Mr. Irrelevant of the draft, but in between, there could be a lot of dead time that could be blad and uninteresting.
Will there be time for interviews during the draft? How many of the players will be mic’d up for comments as the picks are being made? I could see this being a disaster, but then again, I had my doubts about HBO being able to make the Pens/Caps rivalry as interesting as their boxing 24/7 episodes, but they did an amazing job. I’m not saying this will be HBO good, but just giving credit to the NHL for shutting up a doubter once before.
I can already see what people are going to say about this entry. Who cares about the All-Star game? The game is boring and no one should waste their time watching a highly-skilled game of shinny. I get those opinions and I’m not going to bother trying to come up with an argument for those people because I am one of those people. I won’t be watching the All-Star game because I want to.
However, there is a big part of me that wants to see the All-Star game become relevant and an important date on the schedule again. Maybe it’s the kid in me, but I remember how big of a deal this game meant to me when I was a lot younger. But I’ve aged and become a little jaded as the years have gone by and with that, my love for the game has gone away. I hope it comes back and with that, I wish the new All-Star format good luck. Nick and Eric, it’s up to you to make it as interesting as possible.