Move NHL All-Star Game To End Of Season

Apparently the NHL All-Star Game doesn’t appeal to everyone as a fun event.  That should concern the NHL when those opposed to attending the event are the players receiving the honor.

The NHL All-Star Game lost one of its most recognizable participants when Pittsburgh Penguins captain  Sidney Crosby pulled out of the game late on Thursday with what is being called a “lower-body injury”.  This is one of several blows that struck this years event in Columbus as Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Pekka Rinne are also out of action this weekend with various injuries.

Or are they?  Rinne and Bobrovsky had to be replaced in games they were unable to finish.  Those are legitimate injuries.  Malkin has also missed time this season including the Penguins last game before the break against the Chicago Blackhawks.  But in the case of Crosby we find an expanding issue the NHL needs to deal with.

In this piece by Craig Hagerman of The Hockey Writers the question is asked whether players are just getting injured at the wrong time of year to take part, or is self-preservation the primary reason?  By the half-way point of the season if you aren’t nursing some sort of injury you’re probably spending most of your time in the press box.  So all players could certainly use a few extra days off.

This is how Cam Talbot spent his. Sign me up.

Crosby certainly isn’t the first player to miss the NHL All-Star Game under questionable injury news. Going back to the 2009 game Detroit Red Wings stars Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom were suspended – SUSPENDED – for one game each for skipping the event. And Crosby will be forced to miss the Penguins next game against the Winnipeg Jets.  Which is a pretty special night in Pittsburgh.  Stop suspending players for missing an exhibition and don’t ever do that again, NHL. Ever.

Consider that the game itself has flaws. I’ve never understood the concept of having a game that honors your best players for that season being played in the middle of said season. If you are going to honor your best players for that year, do it when the year is over.

And for the love of Gordie Howe don’t try to get ‘baseball cute’ and attach meaning to the game. If Gary Bettman decided that Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals was going to ride on the result of the NHL All-Star Game he would need a Department of Commissioner Safety. Could you imagine Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman watching Steven Stamkos go down with an ‘upper-body injury’? It’s the reason players don’t hit each other now. There is still half the season to play and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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Give players the chance to put their heart, soul and most effort into the pursuit of the Stanley Cup. Get the NHL All-Star Game out-of-the-way and let the season be the focus. I’ve suggested giving players a break mid-season to rest and recover and move the event to the end of the season. The league should be doing everything they can to allow their players to perform at the highest levels in games that matter most.

You aren’t going to prevent injuries from happening. And if the game were moved to after season’s end there will still be players that don’t go because of that reason. No matter what you do with the NHL All-Star game that fact isn’t going away. But you can give players time to themselves. Whether that’s spending time with family and recharging mentally or soaking five days in a cold tub nursing injuries, they should have that time.

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The product on the ice will improve later in the season. The quality of the NHL All-Star Game improves because there are no more games to save yourself for after the season. That’s the last one. So you would see a different effort and maybe a body check or two because participating players will have all season to get healthy. And if that extends the season, maybe it’s time to start considering contracting the season by 8-10 games. Contraction of the schedule needs to be on the table anyway with the seemingly inevitable expansion of franchises into Seattle and Las Vegas.

There are a series of dominoes ready to start falling if the league does nothing about the NHL All-Star Game. There will be a series of events that follow which take away from the quality of the game. Players like Crosby will look for more time off due to expansion adding more travel mileage, which likely comes in the form of regular season games. Stars taking regular season games off devalues the product for season ticket holders. If your most important consumers see the value of their investment erode while the costs increase, how many will walk away? Will waiting lists for those tickets shrink as well?

It’s a problem the league shouldn’t have to deal with. And suspending players for not going is only going to make hate the NHL All-Star Game more profound. The league clearly cares about the event by staging it. Teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets spare no expense in promoting and staging the event. But when you build it, your stars are not coming. The league needs to protect their players, not punish them for trying to heal.