How did the NHL weekend go?

A little shout out for our boy J with the picture.

You are reading the ONLY sports blog on the internet where the writers actually have an annual party to celebrate and watch the NHL All-Star Game (this year was the 3rd annual). We would watch it no matter what. East vs West. North America vs The World. Blackhawks vs Penguins. It doesn't matter. We'd watch it. That's because we love the heck out of hockey. It is clear, however, that the general American (country, not continent) sports fan doesn't seem to love the heck out of hockey. It baffles me, really, but it's the truth. The NHL, and their idiotic commissioner have done multiple things to try and market the sport to the general sports fan, mostly to the collective groans of real hockey fans. We've seen the end of ties, the shrinking of goalie pads, the legalization of the two line pass, and the four on four OT. All total bologna, and none of which have done anything to improve ratings any more than if we were actually still televised on ESPN2 (I hate it, but it's true). 

However, the bad choices have slowly started getting replaced by smart choices. It started with the introduction of the Winter Classic. Sure, only douchebag teams have played so far (outside of Buffalo and Chicago...no, only outside of Buffalo), but it has been completely positive. Ratings are boosted, eventhough the game is on New Year's Day (although, postponing the game to the afternoon this year was a bad call). Now, starting this season, we have two outdoor games, as the Heritage Classic is going to be played North of the boarder later this season. The latest in a short string of good ideas was this year's All-Star game. Letting two captains (and, unfortunately, their two pre-picked alternates) pick their teams for the All-Star game in a fantasy draft format was awesome. It turned the entire weekend in Raleigh into a gold mine for the NHL.

I tuned into the fantasy draft on Versus and watched the entire event. I enjoyed the heck out of it. It was so well done, and so much fun, that it was a hit. Saturday's skills competition, although probably a little slow for the non-hockey fan, featured some great moments, got the rookies involved, and made for some fun TV. Sunday, with the fantasy drafted teams going head to head, was a real treat. The game was fun from faceoff to final horn, with end to end action (and even the occasional amazing save) making it an enjoyable 60 minutes for all. Not to mention how much I enjoyed the three chili dogs I put away at our party.

But, you might ask, did this new format for the NHL All-Star game do anything to bring in more interest for the general sports fan? I would say an emphatic yes. The fantasy draft was all over the news in the sports world, getting play from ESPN that night and multiple "real media" websites the next morning. The skills competition probably did the least to expand the product, but Sunday's All-Star game grabbed even more headlines in the general sports media. Going on the same day as the Pro Bowl may have been somewhat of a bad coice, but we were still right there in terms of coverage. In fact, multiple major media outlets ran stories with this headline on Monday morning (just Google it to see all the different variations):

"The NFL Pro Bowl Should Be More Like The 2011 NHL All-Star Game"

This is huge for the sport. A decision to change an aspect of the game, and now all the other major sports are scrambling to try and copy it because of the interest the fantasy draft generated in an exhibition game. Again, this is huge for the sport.

So, congratulations NHL. You finally made a change to the game that won the approval of both hockey purists and the general sports public. You may have earned yourself a couple of more viewers. You deserve a pat on the back.

Now, if we could just talk about lowering that "Second Half of the Season Special" for NHL Center Ice.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē