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The Rog's Rant

NHL All-Star Game is really good…for those who aren’t playing

The best thing about the National Hockey League’s All-Star Game is the five days off it gives the players who aren’t playing in it.

Hate to be that blunt about it, but that is pretty much the case with the annual affair, which is the worst of all of the four major professional sports that stage one on an annual basis.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is pretty good, but baseball isn’t a physical sport so their game is kind of cool. The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is also pretty good, as the league does a good job attracting all of the top players to it by making it a real party. Physical play is a part of basketball for sure, but there can be a good game to watch without it.

The National Football League’s All-Star game is also a joke, but the league knows it’s a joke and doesn’t care. It’s a paid vacation to Hawaii for the players and their families and everybody knows it, as the league doesn’t even bother to promote it.

The NHL All-Star Game is awful and the worst of the lot for a lot of reasons.

First, hockey is a very demanding game physically. There isn’t enough hitting in most regular season NHL games, never mind the All-Star Game, so remove all hitting and hockey just isn’t hockey.

Secondly, the top players don’t want to play and they aren’t ashamed to admit it. The event is a shiny game and it means absolutely nothing – even the fans don’t really like watching it and the players know it.

Third, the NHL’s season is way too long already. All pro leagues’ schedules are too long, but the NHL is especially ridiculous in length given the physical nature of the game. Players look at those five days off (longer for some of them if their teams don’t play the day before or after) and dream of getting a chance to rest nagging injuries and re-charge their batteries for the rest of the season.

They then turn their dreams into reality by announcing they are too injured to play and do the right thing and go home for a few days and rest. Quite frankly I don’t blame them in the least.

Hey, I guess this sounds pretty negative towards the National Hockey League but I don’t mean to be. I think the NHL has done a great deal to improve its product in the past 18 months, I love the NHL and I love the sport.

But All-Star Games and hockey just do not mix. It’s like oil and vinegar – the two should not be put together.

I’ll watch just about any NHL game or any hockey at all for that matter, but the NHL All-Star Game?

I’ll pass, thanks just the same.    

Comments on The Rant of January 10 on Mark McGwire:

“The baseball writers have spoken. Sure McGwire hit 583 home runs, but if he hit most of them on the juice, that’s not the same as Harmon Killebrew and the homers he hit.” – Cal in Oshawa  

“Baseball should be totally embarrassed about the McGwire and Sosa stuff. You’re right The Rog, he should be taken off the ballot by baseball or voted in based on his numbers.” – Leroy in Toronto

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