All-star games are passe and should be eliminated. They\u2019ve been non-competitive for years, becoming a parody of the sport played.<\/p>\n
But they generate revenue. So they continue.<\/p>\n
Of particular disdain is the NHL all-star event, made to look even more toothless by alternating with international hockey. This past Olympic tournament is the toughest possible act to follow.<\/p>\n
The NHL will prop up the international format when it visits Long Island for its all-star extravaganza next Feb. 5-6, utilizing a five-team three-on-three tournament featuring the U.S., Canada, Finland, Sweden and a squad from the \u201crest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three-on-three overtime at the Olympics was spectacular.<\/p>\n
Three-on-three in an all-star format will be limp, lifeless, lacking intensity. Those jingoistic juices will not get flowing. It\u2019s not the same. The integrity of international hockey will be compromised.<\/p>\n
Of greater offense is the \u201crest of the world\u201d team.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pointedly mentioned that Russian players will be included.<\/p>\n
Which means Russia won\u2019t have its own team.<\/p>\n
Putin bad, viva Ukraine, ignore any U.S. malfeasance, Russia is banned, etc.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s stars should just say nyet. Decline participation.<\/p>\n
Russia is one of the two biggest hockey nations of all time, dogfighting with Canada over that status.<\/p>\n
Politics and sport shouldn\u2019t mix.<\/p>\n
Russia should have been in these last Olympics. America\u2019s flag-waving and legitimate pride in accomplishment duly noted, the result of the men\u2019s hockey tournament was diluted by Russia\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
But at least the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation (for that governing body\u2019s world tournaments) have the guts to tell Russia no.<\/p>\n
The NHL wants to have their borscht and eat it, too.<\/p>\n
Dodge the political fallout of letting a Russian team play.<\/p>\n
But get the drawing power (such as it is) of letting Russian stars play.<\/p>\n
Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, great goaltenders like Igor Shesterkin, old-school legends like Alexander Ovechkin and the Penguins\u2019 Evgeni Malkin need to form a united front and tell the NHL to let Russia play, or we won\u2019t.<\/p>\n
That won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
If Russian hockey players haven\u2019t put up a fuss about being banned from the Olympics and the worlds, they won\u2019t do it for this.<\/p>\n
But they should.<\/p>\n
Because this stinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All-star games are passe and should be eliminated. They\u2019ve been non-competitive for years, becoming a parody of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-689872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}