That said, I do normally look forward to the Skills Competition. Last night, however, was not a shining moment in NHL history as Doc Emerick would have you believe.
There was so much down time during the broadcast that I felt like I was watching an NFL game (I'm pretty sure I could have cooked a steak in the time between the Young Stars game and the accuracy contest). The commercial breaks were so long I felt like I was watching an MTV show. The commercials themselves were so overplayed that I felt like I was watching a Rangers game, where I see the same Bud Light commercial 8 times in 150 minutes. Except last night, it was Chris Berman "going all the way!" and losing 41 pounds.
And if they show that unfunny chump who hosts "Sports Soup" one time during the All-Star Game, I'm going to turn it off. Okay, that's not true, mainly because I won't be watching the game fully (I'll be working so I will catch it in pieces).
They also dropped the ball terribly with the Young Stars game. There were 14 goals scored in it, but they might've shown 8 being scored. Every time a goal went in, they were showing some half-motion replay of a shot hitting the post or one of Carey Price's 4 saves in the game. They spoke in great length about Marc Staal - which I appreciate - but I would have rathered them show me the goal being scored while speaking instead of his babyface. They had Pat LaFontaine speaking throughout the whole third "period" at a low-volume so I couldn't hear half of what he said. The 2nd period started while I was still watching Chris Berman's diet, and when the broadcast returned, we were treated to the sight of a young girl enjoying some food with her little brothers instead of the game. By the time they showed the ice, we were 34 seconds in.
It was just a mess of a broadcast. If the NHL is going to such great lengths (as a one-game suspension!) to get all of it's stars there (look, it's Mike Modano and Stephane Robidas!), you think they wouldn't have hired a high school AV club to do the event and would've shelled out money for a real crew.
The YoungStars game was a total mess. It would have been awesome if the directors and Carey Price actually cared about what they were doing, but hey, it's just a skills competition, right? It's not a showcase of the NHL's biggest stars to people who wouldn't normally watch hockey or anything.
ReplyDeleteI sort of agree with the suspensions, or at least the philosophy behind them. Players should want to play in the All-Star Game. However, what's unsaid in all of this is the tremendous pressure put on these players by their respective clubs to skip the All-Star Game in favor of getting rest. The teams have to be held accountable as well. Nobody wants the NHL All-Star Game to end up like the NFL Pro Bowl, where nobody watches and the teams are totally different than the selected teams because players will do anything to avoid playing.