NHL is damaging its reputation with useless ASG and missing Olympics

[izlez]

1. It would be great to have Olympic hockey, but that's got nothing to do with the all-star game.

2. The all-star game is for kids. Always has been. Always will be. Everyone just needs to accept that.

3. IMO, there has been an opportunity to make the skills competition MILDLY interesting by standardizing all of the events so you could really see who the fastest skater/hardest shot/most accurate shot is and compare guys in different eras. They are always tweaking rules and events so we can't get that. I'd also possibly bring in the Hagelin's of the world for the skills comp, rather than just the all-stars.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

Get rid of the all star competition already. I want NHL world cup (during the all star break) and olympics.

Some of the olympic sports are gimmicky and would not have any professional athletes if not for the olympics, with that in mind they could do a hockey skills competition in the olympics, hardest shot, fastest skater etc and hand out olympic medals to the winners.

 

[Chimpradamus]

The final nail in the coffin was when they forced every team to participate in the ASG with a representative. No matter how garbage your team is, you still have an All-Star, magically so. With that move, they removed any prestige left of being selected. Now there's absolutely no incentive to go for the star players. It was silly before, but now it's just a clown show. Mentioning the number of times you were selected as an All-Star is no longer holding any prestige. It's all circumstancial at this point. "I was the PR face of our garbage team." Great.

It's the same pattern as when the NHL hosted the World Cup again. It was evident it was a Mickey Mouse tournament, when teams such as "Team Europe" and the young guns participated. Everything the NHL touches when it comes to hockey, turns into a giraffe balloon.

That the NHL refuses to acknowledge the olympics is because they simply view them as a financial competitor. Like greedy children, they couldn't agree on anything.

Considering the a-holes in the olympic organization, I cannot blame the NHL franchise holders in a sense, because they're of the same breed. Still, it hurts the sport when the decisions made are decided by greedy, childish clowns, with a completely different agenda than the love for the sport in itself.

 

[OscarsCards]

Since when capitalists care about reputation? Corporate-ass-bullshit.

 

[sandysan]

Olympics hockey is better without NHL players anyway.

yeah I like it so much more when I see my accountant and my kids teacher lace em up on the fourth line.

 

[txpd]

All star games in every sport except maybe MLB are struggling. Its a baseball invention meant for proper use in that sport. In hockey it doesn't represent the actual game. They should eliminate it.

That said the existence of it doesn't not damage the reputation of the league. That's silly

 

[Empoleon8771]

I honestly think that people who criticize the NHL for not letting players go to the Olympics are completely clueless for who the actual bad guy in that situation is. NHLers aren't going to the Olympics because the IOC is run by a bunch of corrupt pieces of ****. The NHL doesn't participate in the Olympics anymore because the Olympics expect the NHL teams to foot the bill for all costs and risks while the Olympics gets all of the profit. There is literally no upside for the NHL going to the Olympics.

People either don't really know what's going on there or they're blinded by dumb patriotism. I'd also throw out that I like the Olympics dramatically more without NHLers than with NHLers. Do you know how fun it was to watch Germany nearly pull an upset on Russia in the Gold Medal game? That was downright awesome hockey.

 

[Sanchise90]

The final nail in the coffin was when they forced every team to participate in the ASG with a representative. No matter how garbage your team is, you still have an All-Star, magically so. With that move, they removed any prestige left of being selected. Now there's absolutely no incentive to go for the star players. It was silly before, but now it's just a clown show. Mentioning the number of times you were selected as an All-Star is no longer holding any prestige. It's all circumstancial at this point. "I was the PR face of our garbage team." Great.

It's the same pattern as when the NHL hosted the World Cup again. It was evident it was a Mickey Mouse tournament, when teams such as "Team Europe" and the young guns participated. Everything the NHL touches when it comes to hockey, turns into a giraffe balloon.

That the NHL refuses to acknowledge the olympics is because they simply view them as a financial competitor. Like greedy children, they couldn't agree on anything.

Considering the a-holes in the olympic organization, I cannot blame the NHL franchise holders in a sense, because they're of the same breed. Still, it hurts the sport when the decisions made are decided by greedy, childish clowns, with a completely different agenda than the love for the sport in itself.

Yeah, you know your selection process is botched when a guy like Nicklas Backstrom, who has averaged a career 0.97 PPG has 1 All Star Game Appearance...

 

[EXTRAS]

I don't think the All Star game damages the sport in any way. Not having An all star game would be more damaging. Non fans aren't aware of the game whether there is or isn't one.

 

[Mandar]

The amount of players refusing to participate in the ASG is becoming pretty overwhelming.

It’s absolutely obvious there’s very few people desiring to watch Kreider vs Bertuzzi vs Tkachuk figure skating with sticks while most fans suffer without real hockey for almost 10 days.

Now, what every hockey fan in the world is waiting for is the best on best Olympics hockey.

The ratings in the USA were amazing for Russia vs USA game despite the early game start.

The NHL needs to abolish the All Star Game whatsoever and replace it with true ASG happening once in four years.

You hate the 10 day break for the ASG....okay, understandable cause its an exhibition that means nothing.

But you would want to shut down the NHL schedule in the middle of the season for about 21 days for another exhibition (yes, they award shiny medals), then we get crap NHL games while the Olympic players get back into the swing of things (not to mention the stupid condensed NHL schedule for the regular season).

Move the hockey Olympics to the Summer (yes, its a cold weather sport - who cares, they play indoors) where it doesn't interfere with what these guys actually get paid to do, and you can get all weepy about what country these guys were born in, and get to represent.

 

[WiLBoY]

We might all find the all star game a waste of time but kids love it. How many times have you heard a hockey player say they used to watch all star games every year as a child

 

[ViD]

You hate the 10 day break for the ASG....okay, understandable cause its an exhibition that means nothing.

But you would want to shut down the NHL schedule in the middle of the season for about 21 days for another exhibition (yes, they award shiny medals), then we get crap NHL games while the Olympic players get back into the swing of things (not to mention the stupid condensed NHL schedule for the regular season).

Move the hockey Olympics to the Summer (yes, its a cold weather sport - who cares, they play indoors) where it doesn't interfere with what these guys actually get paid to do, and you can get all weepy about what country these guys were born in, and get to represent.

It’s once in 4 years . Yes, it’s perfectly fine.

 

[Sniper99]

The ASG is on Saturday Night this year, it was on Saturday Night last year as well.

Dont recall it being on a saturday last year. good to know. previous years before that though it was sundays with the competition on saturdays.

 

[Stlblue50]

The ASG is trash but all ASG's are trash. It's the skills competition stuff I wish would get a big level up because THAT has the potential to be more interesting than it is.

The Olympics are nothing in most cycles. They aren't damaging their reputation by not putting themselves out for South Korea. Only the indoctrinated care.

Skillz comp> ASG for sure

The NHL got out of the olympics at the perfect time. Russia was one of the top European locations to draw the most interest. Even thou the US didn’t medal, that US-Russia Oshie SO game drew extremely good tv numbers. South Korea and the country after would have been horrible for viewing numbers.

Then throw in the wear and tear/injury risk to team’s top players, it’s not worth it. The NHL season is already a long long grind and it ends 2 weeks later during Olympic seasons.

 

[romba]

My 5 year old son cannot wait for the ASG and festivities. NHL devotes and invests one weekend a year for the kids as most Adults have very little interest. It's annoying for me but I get over it.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

I'd like to see the ASG played at the start of the season. Fun way to warm-up for the upcoming season if you will and build hype. I think more people would be interested to watch it as people are graving for any type of hockey after a long summer. Players are in summer mode so the pace of the game is more natural than this goofy thing in the middle of the season.

- Pick the best players based on the previous season, in a way it's recognition for the season you had. Nobody will want to miss opening night or need any extra rest so players will be more likely to attend.
- Players less likely to be injured.
- With the introduction of the bye week the ASG no longer serves as extra break. Just have every team go on the bye week late January. No need to plan any weird scheduling. League being shut down for a week is no big deal after almost 4 months of hockey. Fans could use a break too
- Teams can play pre-season games at the same time. Best players aren't going to play every one of them anyway.

I don't see why not tbh.

 

[romba]

Yeah the Olympics is way more entertaining than the ASG but the IOC is a slimy organization and I don't blame the owners for not sending their "investments" over there to play for free and risk injury. I mean the NHL cant even show Olympic highlights afterwards. They gain nothing from that tournament and have a lot to lose.

If the NHL and IOC could get on the same page the NHL/NBC PR machine can hype the crap out of the Olympics during the season. Such a shame. I had many friends who don't know hockey exists but when Olympic hockey with NHLers came on they were knee deep in rooting for USA watching every game and would even follow the NHL a little after as well.

 

[NeverBeNormal]

The final nail in the coffin was when they forced every team to participate in the ASG with a representative. No matter how garbage your team is, you still have an All-Star, magically so. With that move, they removed any prestige left of being selected. Now there's absolutely no incentive to go for the star players. It was silly before, but now it's just a clown show. Mentioning the number of times you were selected as an All-Star is no longer holding any prestige. It's all circumstancial at this point. "I was the PR face of our garbage team." Great.

It's the same pattern as when the NHL hosted the World Cup again. It was evident it was a Mickey Mouse tournament, when teams such as "Team Europe" and the young guns participated. Everything the NHL touches when it comes to hockey, turns into a giraffe balloon.

That the NHL refuses to acknowledge the olympics is because they simply view them as a financial competitor. Like greedy children, they couldn't agree on anything.

Considering the a-holes in the olympic organization, I cannot blame the NHL franchise holders in a sense, because they're of the same breed. Still, it hurts the sport when the decisions made are decided by greedy, childish clowns, with a completely different agenda than the love for the sport in itself.

If you think NHL owners and the IOC are "of the same breed" you don't know a damn thing about the IOC. The only sport organization further in the toilet is FIFA and even then it's WAY closer than it should be.

 

[YEM]

I honestly think that people who criticize the NHL for not letting players go to the Olympics are completely clueless for who the actual bad guy in that situation is. NHLers aren't going to the Olympics because the IOC is run by a bunch of corrupt pieces of ****. The NHL doesn't participate in the Olympics anymore because the Olympics expect the NHL teams to foot the bill for all costs and risks while the Olympics gets all of the profit. There is literally no upside for the NHL going to the Olympics.

except for the fact that the 2010 olympics featured the highest rated hockey game since 1980

to put that in perspective, the audience for that USA/Canada final peaked at 34.8 million viewers, more than the 2009 World Series (22.8 million for Game 4, the most-watched game), the 2009 NCAA men's basketball championship game (17.6 million), the 2009 NBA Finals (16.0 million for Game 4, the most-watched game).

You cannot, for any dollar amount, buy that kind of interest and exposure for the sport of hockey. That's the kind of stage needed to "grow the game."

I had many friends who don't know hockey exists but when Olympic hockey with NHLers came on they were knee deep in rooting for USA watching every game and would even follow the NHL a little after as well.

exactly

 

[Empoleon8771]

except for the fact that the 2010 olympics featured the highest rated hockey game since 1980

to put that in perspective, the audience for that USA/Canada final peaked at 34.8 million viewers, more than the 2009 World Series (22.8 million for Game 4, the most-watched game), the 2009 NCAA men's basketball championship game (17.6 million), the 2009 NBA Finals (16.0 million for Game 4, the most-watched game).

You cannot, for any dollar amount, buy that kind of interest and exposure for the sport of hockey. That's the kind of stage needed to "grow the game."

exactly

You are aware that's the exact argument Instagram influencers try to use to get stuff for free, right? Exposure doesn't count for **** when the NHL takes all of the risk and has to foot the cost to send the players. Spare me that crap.

To pretend the NHL should think that exposure is enough to foot that bill is downright hilarious.

 

[MikeK]

I miss the NHL players at the Olympics. I get the reasons against it from the Leagues perspective but as a fan I don't care. The NHL should be there. The thought of McDavid never playing a single Olympic game for team Canada makes me want to puke.

 

[JETZZZ]

You hate the 10 day break for the ASG....okay, understandable cause its an exhibition that means nothing.

But you would want to shut down the NHL schedule in the middle of the season for about 21 days for another exhibition (yes, they award shiny medals), then we get crap NHL games while the Olympic players get back into the swing of things (not to mention the stupid condensed NHL schedule for the regular season).

Move the hockey Olympics to the Summer (yes, its a cold weather sport - who cares, they play indoors) where it doesn't interfere with what these guys actually get paid to do, and you can get all weepy about what country these guys were born in, and get to represent.

As unpopular as that idea is, its still beats waiting for a World Cup every 8-12ish years

 

[YEM]

You are aware that's the exact argument Instagram influencers try to use to get stuff for free, right? Exposure doesn't count for **** when the NHL takes all of the risk and has to foot the cost to send the players. Spare me that crap.

To pretend the NHL should think that exposure is enough to foot that bill is downright hilarious.

you are not too bright to compare this situation to instagram influencers, lol
one only need to look at the 1992 Olympic Dream Team to see the world wide influence that the Olympics can have on a professional sports league, that was really a watershed moment for the NBA on a global scale which directly led to a lot of people in a lot of different countries following the NBA/starting to play basketball. But yeah, compare this to some ditzy broad on the gram trying to get a free meal at a restaurant.

 

[GOilers88]

Been saying it for years. If they insist on doing the ASG the players should be chosen via their peers. Coaches, players and managers should be the ones voting for who makes the All Star Game. Letting fans do it, and giving them almost unlimited voting just seems really silly to me. Why do people need to be able to vote more than once? I don't understand.

As for the Olympics, I'd much prefer to see them be the Amateur Games once again so it doesn't bother me that the best professional hockey players aren't there.

It's like watching "The Dream Team" in America destroy everyone in basketball. Everyone else might as well just play for 2nd place.

 

[ijuka]

NHL loves wasting time on all star game, but wasting the same amount of time on olympics is a no-no.

It's weird because winter olympics are huge and give tons of publicity. It's amazing for marketing, much better than ASGs.