OT: Combine All-Star Game with Winter Classic

[icehogfan08]

Combine All-Star Game with Winter Classic

There’s a lot to like about the NHL’s massively successful Winter Classic experiment. There’s not as much to like about the NHL’s All-Star Game weekend. But if they were melded together into a single event that takes the best from both concepts, there’d be much more to like.

Let’s be clear – it’s not just the NHL All-Star Game that has become an undeniable anachronism. All pro sports all-star games are relics of a bygone era when there were no satellite TV and Internet options by which to watch your favorite athletes who don’t play in your city. Now (with the possible exception of baseball), they are barely comparable facsimiles of the sports they represent, nuisances to physically and mentally worn-down superstars who don’t put in one-100th of the effort they would in an actual competitive situation, corporate schmoozapaloozas where the most fun that’s had takes place at the local danceterias and hotel bars.

(And don’t get me started on the cockamamie vote-in process that exists only to soothe the delicate feelings of fans in the All-Star Game’s host city. It makes a mockery of a game that could be mocked anyway.)

So it isn’t a surprise to see the Winter Classic already usurp the NHL All-Star Game in popularity just five years after its inception. The WC has become more of a must-watch event than the All-Star Game ever could be, but it has its problems, too.

Biggest among them is the issue of holding a regular season game on ice that, to be kind, has all the consistency of partially dried cement. It’s not ideal to keep players from being injured and just as importantly, with the standings races closer than ever, the points awarded in that game could be the difference between making and missing the playoffs. It would be a serious shame if one team made the playoffs because it got a fortunate bounce or two on a subpar playing surface. And for the most part, we’ve seen the same eastern-based teams (i.e. the Flyers and Penguins) play twice already.

But imagine an All-Star Game played on that outdoor ice, on or near New Year’s Day. In such a scenario, players could have far more fun, knowing there is nothing of consequence at stake. The risk of injury on bad ice would plummet. And fans worldwide would be able to see the best of the league’s talent together in an environment in which they’ll rarely, if ever, be able to see them again.

When I mentioned this idea on Twitter, the first question many asked was what would become of the equally ingenious and entertaining 24/7 HBO series that follows around both Winter Classic teams in the lead-up to and completion of the event. The answer is relatively simple: instead of having high-quality cameras capturing every movement of two teams for a few weeks, HBO could focus its attention on the players named to the All-Star Game, thus helping the NHL promote all its elite talents in all markets.

Alternately, the NHL could ask HBO to train its cameras on a team in the playoff race late in the regular-season and air the final product just before the playoffs begin. Wouldn’t that be more inherently dramatic than watching two teams gear up for a game that might never be played due to weather conditions? I say, yes. No, I say hell, yes.

Another complaint was that, under my suggestion, fans in warm-weather NHL cities wouldn’t get to host an All-Star Game/Winter Classic any longer. The answer to that is simple: too bad, so sad. Warm weather cities get <i>warm weather and cold-weather cities get the WC/ASG. That’s a more-than-fair tradeoff for warm weather cities.

Now, that isn’t to say my suggestion will be adopted in the near or far future. The NHL is fortunate to have stumbled upon another corporate cash cow like the Winter Classic, but it’s unlikely to discard the All-Star Game’s positive effect on hockey-related revenue simply because the WC has added to the league’s bottom line.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do. The league could transfer the All-Star Game break to the New Year’s Day stretch and use the traditional late January break to make the schedule less compact and punishing. It could restore each of its crucial regular season games to being contested in a standard rink setting. It could take the best of both events and turn them into one supernova spectacle.

In many ways, the artifice of the All-Star Game set against the artificial backdrop of the Winter Classic would represent perfect synchronicity. It’s certainly an improvement on the current system.

Thoughts on this??

 

[Everyday I'm Byfuglien]

A - warm weather cities CAN have outdoor games and they SHOULD. an outdoor game in LA, Florida or in Las Vegas like they did in 1991 (or was it even earlier than that) would be cool.

B - that said, I'm over the outdoor game. from the overdone "these players grew up playing outdoors" stories to the constant updates about weather... it's kind of stale. plus, when it's in an uninteresting stadium, it's not even that cool looking. wrigley and fenway were neat but the philly and buffalo were lame.

I get it... the whole thing is for casual fans and it brings in an incredible amount of money. Whatever. I can do without it.

Oh and I read an article around this past winter classic where McD was saying how he wanted the Hawks in the winter classic again. All I could think was that he should be worrying about something a bit more important that an outdoor regular season hockey game.

 

[Captain Iago]

While I see and agree with your points, I still enjoy the WC. I'll watch it as long as it remains a real regular season game.

If the WC was combined with the AS game, then I wouldn't watch.
Hell, the only way I'd watch the AS game would be if it were played on hot coals.

 

[DewsSox79]

A - warm weather cities CAN have outdoor games and they SHOULD. an outdoor game in LA, Florida or in Las Vegas like they did in 1991 (or was it even earlier than that) would be cool.

B - that said, I'm over the outdoor game. from the overdone "these players grew up playing outdoors" stories to the constant updates about weather... it's kind of stale. plus, when it's in an uninteresting stadium, it's not even that cool looking. wrigley and fenway were neat but the philly and buffalo were lame.

I get it... the whole thing is for casual fans and it brings in an incredible amount of money. Whatever. I can do without it.

Oh and I read an article around this past winter classic where McD was saying how he wanted the Hawks in the winter classic again. All I could think was that he should be worrying about something a bit more important that an outdoor regular season hockey game.

id have to say he has done a pretty damn good job. he is here to MARKET the team which is his specialty, and I think has succeeded in doing that. another winter classic in chicago would only increase the popularity of the sport.

 

[Everyday I'm Byfuglien]

Don't point that fucking gun at me.

 

[DewsSox79]

Don't point that fucking gun at me.

what

 

[DewsSox79]

oh my avy

 

[DewsSox79]

yeah the winter classic is kinda annoying though depending on the location. they need to get crazy and play on like a mountain top or on an air craft carrier....****...go to the moon!

 

[derosabomb]

ive heard toronto @ detroit alot for next year.

i really wanna a blackhawks 24/7

 

[DewsSox79]

ive heard toronto @ detroit alot for next year.

i really wanna a blackhawks 24/7

the blackhawks would get old all the time unless they went to crazy venues.

it should be det @ toronto, as toronto is a much better city

 

[dabynsky]

the blackhawks would get old all the time unless they went to crazy venues.

it should be det @ toronto, as toronto is a much better city

Does that even have to be said?

 

[Captain Iago]

Don't point that fucking gun at me.

Don't shoot shoot shoot that thing at me!

 

[ZDemp34]

I like this idea, because all-star games are already a joke and it would be cool for it to be played outside just as a fun game and not a legit one

 

[MotorCityCub]

I like this idea, because all-star games are already a joke and it would be cool for it to be played outside just as a fun game and not a legit one

Just get rid of the all-star game all together. Name a mid-season all NHL team and give the players the days off. Most of the players don't want to be there anyways.

 

[Captain Iago]

Just get rid of the all-star game all together. Name a mid-season all NHL team and give the players the days off. Most of the players don't want to be there anyways.

$$$

 

[MotorCityCub]

$$$

Oh, I know they never will, but that's the one game that nobody except a handful of first timers and the host city give a rat's ass about.

 

[Everyday I'm Byfuglien]

But it's the one time in the year that we are guaranteed most of the guys on the ice are either drunk or hung over.

I enjoy knowing that.

 

[MotorCityCub]

But it's the one time in the year that we are guaranteed most of the guys on the ice are either drunk or hung over.

I enjoy knowing that.

Just like the 70's!!

 

[TheChicagoFan]

I actually think the NHL All-Star game is the best of all All-Star games, but putting it outside would ruin it.

I also really like the Winter Classic and that they have 24/7 now because fans get to see what goes on in the locker room. The Hawks on 24/7 would be fantastic.

Det @ Toronto won't happen next year. The Winter Classic is an American thing. Canadian teams do the Heritage Classic.

I'm thinking a Hawks vs. Blues might happen. Would love to have the Hawks in another WC as it is good marketing for the team and maybe this time they'll play all three periods.

 

[DewsSox79]

last years draft was actually different and not so bad doing the allstar game roster like a fantasy draft