The Show.

Anyone who has ever been on the playground during recess can appreciate what the NHL is doing with this year's All Star Game. Every league has a goal of keeping its All Star Games innovative and fresh so they can maintain fan interest, and the NHL has a history of switching things up and trying new formats. For a while they did North America vs. The World as opposed to East vs. West, but this year it's a whole new game, and in my opinion, a much better game. This year, two captains will pick from a field of players and the two teams will play. Pretty simple, just like the days of touch football in elementary school. With this format, instead of playing for a conference that a player probably doesn't have a ton of pride in, said player is playing for someone who picked them for a reason. This boost's up the pride factor which should make it a more intriguing game from a player's standpoint, which in turn will make it more interesting for fans. All Star games are notorious for being bland but I think this will put an interesting spin on things and make the game much more interesting.

One of, if not the most important part of any All Star Game is fan interest. How are you going to assure that fans are going to be interested and intrigued? Every league has tried different things to maintain a strong fan following. The MLB made their All Start Game matter by awarding the winning league home-field advantage in the World Series, and in the midst of receiving criticism about the declining interest in the NBA slam dunk competition, the NBA and it's players began to make things interesting by incorporating props, costumes, and even food. Fan voting is a good way to ensure interest, but only to an extent. Luckily, the NHL hasn't given fans 100% say in who is in the game, but they've given fans the power to choose the top six players (a goalie, two defensemen and three forwards), which is a very happy medium. The league will pick an additional 36 which will assure that the right players get into the game. Out of the 42 selected players, two captains will pick the team's they want, regardless of what conference the players are in. This will make it the best game possible for two reasons: The first reason is that the east vs. west format doesn't assure a good matchup. As we've seen in baseball, the AL has dominated the All Star Game by for the better part of the last decade, losing just once since 1997. With captains picking teams, there will be much more parity and will thus lead to a better game. The second reason is that the captains may not necessarily pick the best players, but rather the right players. It's not always about having as many top goal scorers on your team as possible, but rather having the players that will work well together and give you a well balanced team.

A big argument for those against this All Star Game's format is the fact that someone is going to be picked last. I'm sure you remember this process as a kid: the captains pick the best players first and when it comes to the last few players feelings inevitably get hurt. To me though, if I'm considered the worst All Star in the NHL, I'm still an All Star in the NHL, right? Being named to the game is enough of an honor, and if I'm picked last I could care less. Of course that's just me, but these players are grown men. I'm sure being picked at all will negate any hard feelings or embarrassment, if there's any at all.

I was skeptical of this change at first because it's such a dramatic one, but the more I've learned about it and the more I've thought about it, the more I like it. It takes pro hockey to the pond where all that matters is playing the game. It'll be a lot of fun to see these players playing for each other rather than playing for a conference. Although All Star Game's in general are known for being somewhat sluggish or trite, I think this new format will add a bit more energy and pride to make it a game of interest. Whether it will work or not, I have no idea. All I know is that the league has my interest as a fan, which is essentially their goal.