NHL All-Star Game

[JPL]

I have to say this year the game has become a big joke. The league knows the fans were using a bot program to shill vote for Montreal Canadiens players. They let the voting stand and shunned some of the better players in the league because of it. This list includes player who are tops in the league in scoring such as Alexander Semin, Mike Richards and Patrick Elias. Alexei Kovalev is a starter and Alexander Ovechkin isn't The game is on Versus not National TV. It's an absolute joke and shows how inept Bettman is at running the league

[Jared]

The Bettmans live in Wayne. Not too far from you. I did a summer program for a month with his daughter in high school. Now that you know, you can go picket outside his house.

[Damon18]

It is a complete joke the way the "voting" turned out. Four Montreal Canadiens on the starting team?!! At best only one of them should even be on the All-Star team!
Kovalev has been horrible , Komisarek's only claim to fame is being knocked out by Milan Lucic, and Markov is hardly better than an average defenceman. Price has certainly not been the beat goalie this season. Well I guess that's what you get with fan voting!

[Ian]

Honestly ... All-Star games are stupid. The leagues have to stop letting fans vote. It's absurd. That turns it away from a true reward for the best players in the league to a popularity contest. It's ridiculous.

It's not just the NHL ... look at football. Favre goes to the Pro Bowl with 20 TD passes and 19 interceptions while Phillip Rivers, owner of the best QB rating in football, stays home??

I don't even waste my time with these things. They're a joke.

[The Reservoir Dog]

Never really see the point in these games.

Anyway. Not totally sure how the voting system works over there for these things but when the player of the year in Soccer in England is voted for it's by his fellow professional and not the fans. Each player will vote but not for someone on their own team.

The Football Writers also have their own award for player of the year.

I can only presume that when you vote for players in the All Star Games it's either a phone or text vote so someone is making money out of it somewhere.

Maybe it's time the players voted for the All Star Games.

[Ian]

Maybe it's time the players voted for the All Star Games.

That's the way it always was in U.S. sports, too. The coaches, players, and media were the only ones with a vote.

They added the fan voting very recently and it's obviously messed things up dramatically. All of the major sports have had some glaring errors in the selections since the fans got involved.

[alphamommy]

I've never liked fan voting for all-star games. Baseball has been doing it this way for years, and it's frequently turned into a popularity contest.

In the late 70s, after Bucky Dent's clutch home run clinched a Yankees playoff victory over the Red Sox, he went on to at least one all-star start, even though his stats for the season at the half way point didn't seem to indicate that he was worthy of a place in the starting line-up.

I admit that I voted for NHL all-star players, but it doesn't mean that I think that's the way to pick an all-star team. The games would have more meaning if there were a more objective method of picking the team!

[JPL]

I watched the Skills Competition earlier since there was nothing else on and they have to be kidding with the Versus Coverage They missed more goals than they showed during the Young Stars Game. They were showing replays of the last goal scored or a save during play and kept missing goals. Even worse they were focusing on a player sitting on the bench while a goal was being scored and then never showed the replay of that goal.

[PirateLover]

My brother ran into Montreal-bound Jeff Carter at the airport on Thursday. He wished him luck. I still just can't get into hockey yet this season. Maybe I just need to get to a game..

[Donald A]

I watched the Skills Competition earlier since there was nothing else on and they have to be kidding with the Versus Coverage They missed more goals than they showed during the Young Stars Game. They were showing replays of the last goal scored or a save during play and kept missing goals. Even worse they were focusing on a player sitting on the bench while a goal was being scored and then never showed the replay of that goal.

This bothered my wife a lot, too. Just show the young stars game without all the other stuff!

[Recusit8m]

I watched the replay of the vintage 1980 All Star game on the NHL network...What a difference...No silly fanfare or some goofball on a spinning organ...Oh and I cannot STAND the freakin Cheerleaders...Looks like a Hooters Ad...Game is on right now as we speak and I have NO idea whats going on...Dont care...The Extreme Breakaway thing is the most foolish thing Ive seen and I played college hockey at UNH from 1988-1990...What a joke...One of the highlights (for me anyway) was listening to Pat LaFontaine talk about his Charity Lions Den group...How awesome is that...Hockey players are much more articulate than any other sport...Im stepping off my soapbox now...Oh and no Redwings??? lol...Well you all take care and just in case you dont see my avatar...GO BRUINS!!!...lol

[Ian]

Vs. coverage was horrendous. Almost unwatchable, as was the product on the ice.

This cemented for me that I'll no longer be wasting time on this mess.

[JPL]

Probably the worst All-star weekend I have ever watched

[Donald A]

I have been to like 10 Pens games this season and watch most others. The game last night was really boring. I imagine it is hard for these players to play in a game where you never check. I am surprised they called the hooking penalty like they did, there were penalties that could have been called all night.