Mendes on NHL All-star game still relevant

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Despite what Nick Kypreos may tell you, the NHL All-Star Game is still an important event.Usually, I would never dream of challenging Nick Kypreos. The guy was one of the most feared enforcers during his time in the NHL. cheap NHL jerseysThe closest I’ve ever been to a fight was watching Screech rip Zack’s designer silk shirt on an episode of Saved By The Bell. But here in cyberspace, Nick and I are on an even playing field. And I’m going to take issue with his most recent column on our website, in which he suggested it was time that the NHL did away with the All-Star Game.
Nick feels that players don’t consider it an honour any more, suggesting they would rather spend time with their families than participate in the NHL All-Star Game. To quote directly from Nick’s column:”Would you go when your wife and kids are looking forward to that non-refundable trip to Hawaii?”I have two problems with that statement.First, there is little sympathy from the average fan if a player making $2.7 million loses out on a non-refundable trip to Hawaii. (And if you’re having a productive season, you might want to purchase trip cancellation insurance. Just a thought.But secondly – and more importantly – there is a bigger issue here.
Why are the players so looking forward to their break? The reason is simple: The regular season is too much of a grind. Consider the back-to-back games, extensive travel and a hockey schedule that doesn’t wrap up until Roy Halladay is making his 10th start of the season for the Philadelphia Phillies. wholesale NHL jerseysYou want a radical idea? Don’t get rid of the All-Star Game, just reduce the length of the regular season and have the Stanley Cup awarded in the middle of May. Then the players would have plenty of time to head to Hawaii. And maybe players wouldn’t be so desperate to avoid all-star weekend like it was an invitation to a dysfunctional family reunion. Nick also admits that when he was a kid, he was intrigued by the idea of seeing Darryl Sittler go up against Bobby Clarke. His theory now is that kids are so overexposed to hockey on television, that the All-Star Game doesn’t hold the same merit with today’s youth.But even if Little Johnny has the NHL Center Ice package,San Diego Padres hat, I’m still certain he wants to see what would happen if Ovechkin and Crosby were teammates. Or if Henrik and Daniel Sedin were on opposite teams. Or whether Zdeno Chara has a harder slap shot than Steven Stamkos. As we mature as hockey fans, we tend to outgrow the All-Star Game. I loved the All-Star Game when I was growing up. My favorite memory was watching my childhood idol – Mats Naslund – get a chance to play on a line with Mario Lemieux.
Naslund ended up with five assists that day and I never cared that I was watching a game of glorified pond hockey. But as I got older, I became more cynical about the game. My tipping point probably came when Vincent Damphousse scored four goals in the mid-season classic. After that, I never quite looked at the game the same way. I viewed it the same way most adults do today – as a pointless spectacle on the calendar. But sometimes we forget that kids today look at Ovechkin and Crosby in the same way that I used to look at Naslund and Lemieux or how Nick used to view Sittler and Clarke. Curiosity and imagination of young sports fans is alive and well, despite the influence of television and video games. And until I don’t see kids playing street hockey and pretending to be Phil Kessel or Taylor Hall, NHL jerseys I’m going to still believe in that notion. The All-Star Game is the one event on the NHL schedule that is caters to the kids. The adults don’t ruin it with talk of salary caps and pending free agents. There are no debates about headshots and what suspension to give a guy who says “sloppy seconds” in front of TV cameras. This weekend is just a chance for some old-fashioned hero-worshipping, which is far too absent in our age of media scrutiny. Kids need an opportunity to dream big and think that heroes really do exist in our society. The All-Star Game makes players seem larger than life for children. As adults, we need to remember that, since we are supposedly keepers of the game. I realize next year’s All-Star Game is in Ottawa, which means I’ll probably have to deal with Nick Kypreos in person. I’m just hoping he’s forgotten about this blog by then.