The NHL All-Star Game

NHL All Star Game 2011

I have been a huge hockey fan for as long as I can remember.

Hockey is one of those sports that many don’t know anything about because they did not grow up with it. You see, to most people a favorite sports team comes from their past or their hometown. Say you live in Pittsburg and your dad rooted for the Steelers, most likely you will root for the Steelers and they will be your favorite team your whole life. Hockey is the same way. If dad didnt watch, neither do you.

Very seldom does a person switch allegiance to a team just because. In my opinion sports are ingrained into our psyche. A person that constantly switches teams he roots for just because they are winning or the champ at the time is the butt of all jokes to his friends and is known affectionately as a “fair weather fan”.

I digress. This post is about hockey. Namely the new NHL All-Star Game in particular. The league did something that has never been done in professional sports with regards to their annual “best player” showcase. What they have done is simply take then school-yard rules of picking players and see who the best team is.

The way it will work is: Four captains will be picked amongst the players in the National Hockey League. Two for each side (Eastern Conference and Western Conference) and each of those captains will chose who they want on their team to represent the conference in the All-Star Game and Skills Competition.

If you have ever played sports you know exactly what I am talking about with this kind of draft and we always hope that we are not the last guy standing…

I love it!

The NHL knew they had to do something. Their league is in a slump and has been for years. Very few Americans watch the sport and it is not on broadcast TV like it was in the 1970’s. ESPN lost its broadcast rights years ago when the fledgling OLN Network (now called Versus) picked up the league when it used to air fishing and hunting shows in its regular rotation.

The US doesn’t have its flashy announcer like Canada does (where many people watch hockey and call it the national sport). His name is Don Cherry and if you know anything about hockey you know about Don.

Sure we root for the home team in the Olympics and watch feel good movies like Miracle but who doesn’t? I mean, the whole world was crazy last summer for the World Cup and nobody knows anything about soccer, much less played as a kid.

The NHL has to do something to keep the fans hungry and maybe bring in some new ones.

I think this might just do it.

What do you think? Lets keep this discussion alive.

Robert Forto | Team Ineka | Alaska Dog Works | Mushing Radio | Dog Works Radio | Denver Dog Works

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Dr. Robert Forto is a musher training for his first Iditarod under the Team Ineka banner and the host of the popular radio shows, Mush! You Huskies and Dog Works Radio Shows