Welcome to Top-Shelf Takes, a weekly series from staff writer Mary Clarke all about the NHL. Lace up your skates as we dive deep into the epic highs and lows of this little sport called hockey.
It’s no secret that the NHL’s All-Star weekend needs some work. Over the weekend, the 2023 NHL All-Star Game came and went without much fanfare from the wider hockey world. And when it was a topic of conversation, hockey fans ripped into the NHL for its lackluster showing.
For years now, the NHL’s All-Star events have been a huge miss. The All-Star Skills Competition has become overproduced drivel instead of a playground for NHL stars to showcase their awesome skill. And the All-Star Game itself lacks any sort of urgency to it, making it meaningless to watch as a worse version of three-on-three overtime.
While there’s always going to be people who aren’t going to care about the NHL’s All-Star offerings, it’s clear many hockey fans want a better product to display the league’s stars. So, if the NHL won’t fix its own All-Star weekend, I’ll do it for them in four easy steps.
1. Make the stars show up
Is it really an All-Star event if your biggest stars are skipping out on the festivities entirely? Kirill Kaprizov opted out of the skills competition and did not look at all like he wanted to be part of All-Star weekend when playing. The Seattle Kraken had no representative at all because the players wanted to go on vacation together instead.
Sure, not every NHL star is going to want to give up a prime mid-season vacation, but the league can definitely do a better job in enticing players to play along. Whether it be by setting All-Star weekend at more appealing destinations or giving players that do attend some sort of perk, the NHL can clearly do more to make the weekend more fun and less of a chore.
Oh, and while we’re at it, get rid of the one player per team rule. Keep a representative or two around for the host city but other than that, invite only the NHL’s superstars that people want to watch.
2. Bring back the player draft
The best part of NHL All-Star weekend used to be the antics between players during the All-Star team draft. Remember when Alex Ovechkin wanted to get drafted last so he could win a car? This is what they took from us!
The NBA has a player draft for its All-Star Game and it works wonderfully. Sure, the NHL may not have the same level of personality as the NBA, but the draft still was a fun time when it was around. Do you want to market your stars better, NHL? This is how you do it.
3. Keep it simple, stupid
In recent years, the NHL has gotten way too deep into the gimmick events for the skills competition. No one wants to see NHL players golfing with hockey sticks and pucks. I feel like I speak for hockey fans everywhere when I say the breakaway challenge, accuracy shooting, and hardest shot events are the most enjoyable to watch for their simplicity and immediate relation to the sport.
If the NHL wants to mix things up, adding in a goalie goal competition — with no gimmicks — or interesting stickhandling events would be the way to go. There’s nothing wrong with a little simplicity now and again.
Not only that, ESPN’s broadcast of the event has gotten way too involved for its own good. John Buccigross screaming random phrases that make no sense is bordering on Tony Romo levels of grating. Dialing back the broadcasting to be less intrusive is a must for the NHL, or at least offer a separate feed that’s just the direct audio and nothing else.
4. Give All-Star weekend meaning again
No one cares about NHL All-Star weekend because we’ve been given no reason to care. Many of the players don’t care either, as evidenced by their lack of effort on the ice. No one’s asking for Stanley Cup Playoffs level of effort here, but the lack of passion is evident with each passing year.
Even with all this doom and gloom, the NHL actually saw a viewership increase for the 2023 All-Star festivities. It’s hard to say why, exactly, given how uninspired it all felt this year, but something the NHL is doing is working.
Still, the NHL has to find a way to make All-Star weekend meaningful to its viewers. The fans attending the event notwithstanding, the hockey world as a whole has no reason to care about the All-Star Game. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Give hockey players a reason to attend the event and a reason to hustle out there — home ice advantage for the playoffs, perhaps? — and fans will follow suit.
The NHL’s All-Star weekend doesn’t just have to be a mindless exercise on the hockey calendar anymore. It can, in fact, be fun, but only if the NHL allows it to be.
Three stars
3. Islanders lock up Bo Horvat after bizarre trade
At the time, I didn’t understand the Islanders trading for Bo Horvat as a pure trade deadline rental. But now that Lou Lamoriello has locked up the forward for eight more years, things make a bit more sense than they did before. The Islanders playoff odds are still below 20 percent, according to MoneyPuck, but adding Horvat long-term is a step in the right direction for the team’s offense going forward.
2. Jacob Trouba lays monster hit to set up Rangers goal
Trouba has gotten in trouble before with taking liberties on hits to other players, but this hit he laid on Nazem Kadri was a great example of a clean — but hard — hit. In the second period against the Flames on Monday, Trouba rocked Kadri with a shoulder-to-shoulder hit that knocked the lid off his opponent and sparked a scuffle between the two teams.
Trouba goes over the edge sometimes but this is a beauty pic.twitter.com/XBffvBk219
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) February 7, 2023
The Rangers ended up getting a power play out of the dust up, which New York then took the lead off of to end the period. Talk about a smart hockey play to make a clean hit then bait the Flames into taking a penalty because of it.
1. Jesper Bratt’s big hat turns heads
We at ForTheWin love a big hat. It’s the peak of comedy and I’m glad athletes have embraced the Dark Helmet look. After scoring a massive overtime winner for the Devils on Monday, Bratt wore a hilariously big hat with the word “hat” on it to celebrate.
Last night's overtime winner earned Jesper Bratt a very big hat.😂@NJDevils | @Jackie_Redmond | @Hartsy43 | #NJDevils | #NHLNow pic.twitter.com/Tf000Aj2Dz
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) February 7, 2023
Perfect execution. No notes.
What to watch
Lightning vs. Avalanche – Thursday, February 9
A repeat of last year’s electric Stanley Cup Final? Sign us up! Even though this is a regular season matchup, the Avalanche are currently fighting for their playoff lives, meaning there will surely be extra intensity coming into this one.
Blackhawks vs. Coyotes – Friday, February 10
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane’s days as Blackhawks are numbered and both teams are in the hunt for the first lottery spot as well. This hockey game definitely won’t be good, by any means, but the storylines entering it are pretty juicy all the same.
Sabres vs. Flames – Saturday, February 11
This inter-conference matchup has high stakes for both teams, as the Sabres and Flames are teetering on the edge of the playoffs. Keep an eye out for Tage Thompson who, as of Wednesday, has been held pointless in his last two games and is due for a big breakout soon.
You can watch the 2022-23 NHL season streaming on ESPN+.
