Former Michigan Tech forward John Scott was named the MVP of the 2016 NHL All-Star Game.
Last Updated on Thursday, 04 February 2016 11:21
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
If you watched the NHL All-Star Game, I don’t need to tell you that the NHL hit a “home run” with this event. They needed to change the format and did … and I think it worked as well as anyone could have imagined; certainly that goes for me.
First, let’s look back. Why did the NHL need to change this event? They needed to change because it was the opinion of many that the All-Star Game was barely worth watching. Maybe it was not worth watching at all. Oh, the Skills Challenge was fun, but the game itself was dreadful. The games would end with a score more associated with football and with few on the ice really trying. Not working hard just is not and cannot be the hockey way of things. I could not watch the game itself for a number of years. I thought it embarrassing to the game and to the league.
Embarrassing is a strong word maybe. But let me digress. Until this past Sunday, the only sport with a good all-star game was Major League Baseball. Not so much because they play for something (home field advantage in the World Series), but mostly because baseball in the All-Star Game format is mostly played the same way as most baseball games. Pitchers try to get batters out, hitters try to hit and second basemen still field the ball and throw it to first. Baseball in its All-Star Game form doesn’t change, and actually many times is played at a very high level by its many great players.
The other major sports, like the NFL’s Pro Bowl, we accept for being mediocre. We know the players are not going to hit or play with the intensity they normally would in a real game. We understand that and accept that. The result, however, is that few of us will actually admit to watching the game. The NBA is a game of high skilled, high priced celebrities, or so it seems to me. I think their sport is fine with ultra-high scoring games where their stars shine. But I don’t watch this one either.
But hockey is a game that is mostly about character, about team, and about skill and goaltending, too! The ultra-high scoring All-Star Games of the past were entertaining for some, but I think for most it just didn’t resemble the sport we love. More importantly, it didn’t resemble what most love about the game. The game was too easy. Hockey is a sport where hard work matters. Grace matters, too, but in the end, our game of hockey is about character and team, and not so much about individual showmanship. Past All-Star Games did a poor job of reflecting this. I might even argue the All-Star Game has been a showcase of poor messaging for the sport.
And while the NHL All Star Game will always feature the game’s “stars,” I think we all want both our stars and our game challenged. And this year they were. The format still featured the game’s top stars of course, but it was competitive. The players played hard mostly. It’s never perfect, but I mean come on, if anyone says they predicted a 1-0 championship game of 3-on-3, the Montreal Canadiens should hire you tomorrow. But indeed, the final game did end 1-0.
Four teams representing the four divisions started the event playing a semifinal consisting of two 10-minute halves, with the winners meeting for $1 million. Especially in the final game, Doc Emrick, the play-by-play announcer, and his sidekick, Eddie Olczyk, actually called the game as if it mattered. I think they did so because the players played the game in just such a way.
The deeper the game progressed, the more I as a viewer came to realize everyone was playing the game to win. I know this was not the 5-on-5 version, but it was a real 3-on-3 game. And it was good, and highly skilled. And if you have an appreciation for goaltending, and I want to believe any real hockey fan does, you were treated to world class goaltending.
The championship game was scoreless with a minute left in the first half when at one end Roberto Luongo made a great save. Then immediately to the other end, Jaromir Jagr made a great move to the middle of the ice to his forehand and was subsequently robbed by Jonathan Quick. The crowd went crazy! It seemed, and rightfully so, that everyone was into this game. Certainly the Nashville fans were. And I was. And the announcers were.
Midway into the second half, P.K. Subban seemed to be hooked, taking a scoring chance away. The play immediately moved to the other end where Corey Perry scored the game’s only goal. Pierre McGuire shortly thereafter mentioned that maybe Subban had been hooked previous to the goal and maybe it should have been called. A short time later, there was a coach’s challenge on a goal scored. The goal ended up being rightfully disallowed. Even the refs played a role in this All-Star Game; who would have guessed it?
John Scott is another part of the story, and in the end, a very good story in my opinion. I will let you search the web for opinions and stories on that. I searched myself to learn more about his initial story of being voted into the game. He’s more the enforcer type, the type that never gets invited to the all-star dance. Scott was not only voted into the game, he was named All-Star Game MVP. It turned out to be quite the Cinderella story; funny to describe it a Cinderella story when it’s about a guy who was mostly an enforcer in his career.
Anyway, when I went to research Scott’s story on the web, I read an article by a hockey writer who told John’s story of how he got voted into the All-Star Game. The funny part for me was the writer voiced his own opinion, writing, “Let’s face it, the NHL All-Star Game as an exhibition of skill or as a meaningful game is dead.”
Funny to be that wrong publically. I am not making fun of this writer as I too have been wrong more than a time or two. It did illustrate, however, where many thought the All-Star Game had gone. But as of this past Sunday, the NHL All-Star Game is far from dead!
Kevin Hartzell is the director of player development for the NA3HL’s Twin City Steel. A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. He was the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen from 2012-14. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His book “Leading From the Ice” is available at amazon.com.
