NHL All Star Game..... Waste of time?

Whether or not you think that sports All Star games are a waste of time they still see a point in them. In the MLB for some reason the winner of their All Star game has the home field advantage in the World Series. In the NFL its after the season ends so has no impact on the league itself. The NBA's is pretty much the same as the NHL as its winner and loser really does not matter. Pretty much all 4 major sports All Star games are just a show for the fans, even though most of us would be perfectly happy without one.

My problem with the NHL All Star game is that there is never any kind of contact. It's basically like they are playing a no checking scrimmage that always ends like 10-9 or 8-7. Whether is the East vs. West or North America vs. the World it doesn't ever change too much.

This year the NHL is trying to change up the format a bit. Its not East vs. West or North America vs. The World. Its Red vs Blue with the fans choosing the captains for each team and those 2 captains are choosing there teams out of a player pool the has been chosen by the fans as well. The NHL is even taking so far as to having a Fantasy draft 2 or 3 nights before actual game. The only thing remotely interesting about the whole All Star weekend might be the Skills Competition.

This year has a couple of notable snubs from the game. Henrik Zetterberg from the Detroit Red Wings who is one of the best players in the league, but he was left off. Danny Briere who is one of only 8 players in the league with at least 20 goals, yet he was left off. Roberto Luongo who has backstopped the Canucks to first place is somehow not in the pool of players. Sergei Bobrovsky, who should have been at least in the young stars game has been left off as well.

The bottom line is that if the NHL doesn't figure out some way to make this game interesting to people, its definitely going to be just like all the other All Star games where nobody watches and nobody truly cares about the outcome. The only thing the NHL can do is try to do it like the MLB does and have the game actually matter. Even though i am not a fan of the fact that in baseball the winner of the All Star game, the NHL might have to take a page out of their book in that aspect.