How to Fix What's Wrong: The Great All-Star Game Debate

I can't wait until five years from now when the novelty of the Winter Classic wears off. It's going to be getting the same flak that the ASG is right now. The NHL isn't going to get a storybook ending (2008) or a great game (2009) every year. I remember a time when fans loved the idea of North America vs. the World in the ASG and look how fast that got old. You're not going to get a storybook moment every year no matter what you do and I think people tend to expect too much.

And after last year, maybe things are going in the right direction. There are a lot of energetic young kids and the NHL is playing around with how to make them more interesting. They gave Rick DiPietro a mic, which headed in the right direction, and the new shootout competition gave you a new moment with Alex Ovechkin. Ask the sellout crowd in Atlanta (At-freaking-lanta!!!) if they liked the game. They were excited the whole weekend from start to finish -- and I know we can't credit the Jonas Brothers for all of it.

EM: When you mention your trip to Atlanta last year, I think you hit on something, and it's the reason why both these games are going to keep going for the duration -- and that's the fact that they are absolutely huge events for the cities that they're held in.

There's been a lot of interesting thinking about the future of the NHL Winter Classic and how it might get stale after a while, just like the ASG. But once you're at the event itself, any and all objections you might have had about it are bound to disappear. I still understand the arguments against the NHL Winter Classic and in conversation and in print they absolutely stand up. But all you need to do is spend five minutes in a historic ballpark with over 40,000 hockey-mad fans and you'll change your mind awfully quick. As for it getting stale, something tells me that's going to take a while.

But back to the ASG. As it stands right now, the ASG absolutely struggles to garner any attention. I'll give the league some credit for scheduling the game on the Sunday between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl so it can break through all the noise. I still think you need to do something more.

KS: If there's one thing this league is good at, apparently it might be scheduling. Although as long as we are playing the Stanley Cup Finals while it's beach season in New York, I can't give them too much praise. But I digress.

It seems like the whole idea about the All-Star Game is that the idea of it might be antiquated. One of the main reasons I loved watching it as a kid was because I would be able to see players I rarely see. Growing up in New York in an era without digital cable, satellite and games live on the web, it was hard to see guys on the other side of the Mississippi like Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull or Jeremy Roenick. Ten years later and all it costs me is about $150 to see their modern equivalents any night I like.

Call me crazy, but I still like the idea of having them all in once place, even if I can see them infinitely more often. Honestly, how many times can we expect to see Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin on the same bench, or if we're lucky, the same line? It's one of those matchups that real fans dream of, even if the game is a bit subdued. I don't think there's any reason to send this game the way of the dinosaur. If anything, it needs some fresh thinking, which the NHL seems to be attempting.

EM: A couple of years back over at Off Wing, I proposed that the league steal an idea from English soccer and move the ASG to the start of the season. In the EPL, the season is kicked off with something called the FA Community Shield, a charity game between the previous season's EPL champion and the winner of the FA Cup. It's a huge event, they play it at Wembley Stadium in London and it's the one event that marks the start of the new season to die hard and casual fans alike.

Besides moving the game to the start of the season, I'd also change the format so the game would be hosted by the previous season's Stanley Cup Champion, pitting them against an All-Star team composed of players from every other team in the league. If that sounds familiar, that's because it's the format that was used for the original hockey ASG that actually pre-dates the establishment of the NHL.

You could keep our skills competition and your Young Stars game too. Have the NHL All-Stars coached by the head coach who lost the Stanley Cup Finals the year before. You can keep fan voting if you like, or alternately, just use the roster from the league's first and second All-Star teams named at the end of the season by the Professional Hockey Writers Association and let the head coach fill out the rest of the roster however he likes.

Better yet, with only one team of All-Stars instead of two, that means only the best players and the game's biggest stars will find their way to the game. Something tells me sponsors would love it just as much as the current game and so would the city that hosted it. As for the press, they'll get an honest shot at talking to all of the game's biggest names before the season begins.

Of course, there's only one problem: Like it or not, the NHL has decided that the wave of the future is to start the season in Europe from now on. Two years ago it was two teams and two games. This year, it was four teams, four regular season games and a couple of exhibitions. Next year, it looks like it will be three teams six games. And with so many players starting the season with an arduous travel schedule, I don't think the timing works anymore.

KS: I like your ideas, but I'm not sure they would completely solve our problems. Another exhibition game on the schedule when we've got two at midseason and a whole bunch at the beginning is iffy (I say that because North America doesn't pay attention to those games in Europe). Over-saturation, being my point.

It's hard to really pinpoint a solution that satisfies everyone. For example, I am thoroughly convinced that no matter how you select All-Star teams people will complain. I think what needs to happen is to give the players a reason to want to be there. Put some money or something behind attending and take away the trepidation players and coaches have about playing it. Put $10,000 on the table for each player on the winning team, with an extra $10,000 going to charity. $5,000 for a goal scored. Anything.

In terms of scheduling, heck, let's move the All-Star Game itself to the beginning of the season and put the aforementioned incentives behind playing in it and scoring (or MVP, goalies for the amount of saves, whatever). Hold it a week before the season starts so that everyone is healthy and teams can't be afraid of their players getting hurt for the stretch run. If you're not one of the teams going to Europe, you'll have two weeks to rest up for the season and if you are, then you'll still have a week after you get back.

I don't know that we settled a whole lot here, other than that we should rework it -- somehow. Personally, I'll be watching this weekend but I can admit that it's not going to be the most exciting night of the year for me. I am interested in seeing the Super Skills, though. And if there's a way that we can actually trot out the players with the hardest shot, etc -- and not just folks already on the All-Star teams -- I feel like that would add some seriousness to that. But before I go on for days, I'm just going to end it. Any parting words, Eric?

EM: Just that there's got to be some way to improve this game and inject excitement into the process. Earlier this season, I wrote that the league ought to consider stealing an idea from the KHL, and have two superstar players select the All-Star teams. In Russia, it was Team Jagr vs. Team Yashin. Here, why not Team Crosby vs. Ovie Style? You could select the players just like you would in a fantasy draft, and come up with all sorts of gimmicks to create some tension in the player selection process. We have so many examples from reality television, you'd figure that there would be at least a few ideas they could steal from there?

The current format has just played itself out, at least when it comes to the NHL. Baseball will always have the game because of the great tradition. Basketball will because it's the one sport that seems to get more exciting when teams don't bother to play defense. Nobody cares about the Pro Bowl, but it's a luxury that the NFL can afford because it's such a tremendous financial success. Heck, even MLS figured out that the best thing to do at an All-Star Game is to play the league's best against an historic side from overseas, a format the NHL played with in the 1970s and 80s.

All I know is that the minds inside the NHL hit a home run with the Winter Classic, and now it's time to figure out something, anything, new to do with the ASG. If not, the game is simply going to keep creeping toward irrelevancy.