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NHL All Star Game 2012

January 28, 2012 by · Comments Off on NHL All Star Game 2012 

NHL All Star Game 2012, The NHL All-Star Game is headed to Ohio. The league announced Saturday, during All-Star Weekend 2012 in Ottawa, that the 2013 event will be hosted by the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 26 and 27.

It’ll be the first time the Blue Jackets have hosted All-Star Weekend, but it’s not their first time hosting a premier NHL event. Nationwide Arena was the site of the 2007 NHL Draft, and commissioner Gary Bettman praised that event as evidence to why Columbus will be a strong host for the All-Star Weekend.

“We’re looking forward to bringing our All-Star celebration to Columbus,” Bettman said. “The Blue Jackets did a great job of hosting the NHL Draft in 2007, and I have no doubt they will raise the bar even higher when they welcome our All-Star celebration next January.”

In Columbus, fans are excited about the event, even though it’s still a year away. Via Blue Jackets blog The Cannon:

If true, it is a bittersweet honor, given the way this season has gone. But perhaps the best way to see this is as a recognition of the dedicated and growing fanbase here in Columbus who have truly embraced NHL hockey over the past decade.

With expanded hotel options in the downtown area slated to be completed this summer and the arena issue resolved, it appears that the logistical stumbling blocks that previously kept the Jackets from hosting major events after the 2007 NHL draft have been cleared up, and perhaps this will help to engage a city that has split between writing off the team or reaching a boiling point of frustration in their search for a winner.

NHL SKILLS COMPETITION 2011

January 29, 2011 by · Comments Off on NHL SKILLS COMPETITION 2011 

NHL SKILLS COMPETITION 2011, The project is an opportunity to see the humor in spite of, and the personality of NHL players in a way unprecedented. Two captains, Niklas Lidstrom of Detroit and Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes hometown, have the honor of drafting teams for the All-Star Game. The teams will also play in the skills competition Saturday with twelve players’ beginners. Lidstrom and Staal will be assisted by a cabinet of two captains who were appointed by each team in the NHL. Martin St. Louis and Patrick Kane will help the team Lidstrom and Mike Green and Ryan Kesler will Eric Staal.

Although I am not much stock in the plethora of model projects swirling the Internet, rumor has Staal first pick and try to play two of his teammates Hurricane on one team. Jeff Skinner and Cam Ward could give the team a Staal even greater advantage of the rink, but would it be useful to pass on stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos (who played with St. Louis in Tampa) to try curry favor with the fan? All goalies must be retrieved per round of 10, so Ward is worth a first round or second choice?

Although the weekend out of the NHL has its share of criticism, we must give credit to the league to be ready to make things happen. With a fantastic brand new team format highlighted by the school project tonight; the league is at least trying to improve on an admittedly stale format.

But have they gone far enough? After all, if the project may be unique, that creativity has not even extended to the rest of the weekend.

The game itself is standard fare all-star, and even the skills competition will be based largely on old standbys such as marksmanship and races fastest skater.

It need not be this way. The league has the opportunity to really embrace change, and should take advantage by introducing new events at Saturday’s competition skills that would really connect with the audience modern NHL.

It’s not too late. Here are 10 ideas for new events that the league should move quickly to implement in time for Saturday night’s competition:

Respect the game, like all other players enthusiastically booing, screaming and high-five each other in response to various events, PK Subban cowers in the fetal position and tried desperately to avoid cracking a facial expression. Special celebrity judge: Mike Richards.

Fashion Cents Fans World League will try to sprint at the gift shop, find the jersey of their favorite team, spend their entire paycheck on that, and then he put on and wears it for a few seconds before the team announced that it is replaced by another new design.

Lame Duck Cory Clouston delivered a fiery speech to state reasons for members of the Ottawa Senators, who are competing to see who can go the longest without rolling her eyes and was completely uninterested. (Note to organizers: this event will require a timer to measure thousandths of a second.)

Two staging Outrage enforcement officials drop the gloves at center ice immediately after a faceoff, at which point all members of the assembled media scrambles to do exactly the same overwrought “staged battles must go “argument. Bonus points will be awarded for the volume, repetitive, and have your entire column filed before the four gloves have even touched the ice.

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