2008 NHL All Star Game

[mack 44]

No, he's bald and in denial. It was bad last summer and now it's just Jason Alexander in "Shallow Hal."

I also have to say the goalies have been good in this contest, not for stopping the pucks but for not coming out and being a douche like Nabokov. Let the guys try their shot for chrissakes. It's not like the NBA makes the dunk contestants go up against Mutumbo.

DiPietro also needs to be miked up every game, no matter what game is airing on this channel.

[hellaavangard 33]

I think DiPi just said a naughty naughty word on air...

[cxo 0]

.

DiPietro also needs to be miked up every game, no matter what game is airing on this channel.

The Criss Angel comment was cringe-worthy.

[TheBert 0]

Finally. Ovechkin goes all in.

Goalies definitely need to let the shooters do their think. Maybe they need the Sean Skinner goalie.

[cxo 0]

So far there has been about one shimmering of creativity. It happened quick, but it was there.

[mack 44]

Mellanby sure has changed since retiring.

[Chadd 916]

One of the worst skills competitions I've ever seen. Disjointed, producers unable to keep up with the camera changes and replays causing you to miss shit during the young stars game. The trick shot thing was a colossal flop too, just like we all expected.

[TheBert 0]

Next year, goalies better be instructed not to be heroes during the dunk competition.

[Chadd 916]

Next year, goalies better be instructed not to be heroes during the dunk competition.

No goalies at all to encourage more trickery and to prevent someone from "fucking up" their hip like Rick did tonight.

[GekigangarIII 0]

The "creativity" shootout was like watching a family member die on stage.

And Mellanby was beyond a douche...

[Downz 0]

One of the worst skills competitions I've ever seen. Disjointed, producers unable to keep up with the camera changes and replays causing you to miss shit during the young stars game. The trick shot thing was a colossal flop too, just like we all expected.

I really couldn't agree more with the producers sucking major balls on this one. The youngstars game is 12 mins long and you are going to show replays on every goal. How about a splitscreen with live action and then the replays. Can someone explain to me why they have a guy with a camera following the shooter in the shootout. That view blows. Once in a while they do that in the regular season and it drives me nuts. Thats 2 hours of my life I certainly won't get back. Damn the NHL.

[Chadd 916]

One of the worst skills competitions I've ever seen. Disjointed, producers unable to keep up with the camera changes and replays causing you to miss shit during the young stars game. The trick shot thing was a colossal flop too, just like we all expected.

I really couldn't agree more with the producers sucking major balls on this one. The youngstars game is 12 mins long and you are going to show replays on every goal. How about a splitscreen with live action and then the replays. Can someone explain to me why they have a guy with a camera following the shooter in the shootout. That view blows. Once in a while they do that in the regular season and it drives me nuts. Thats 2 hours of my life I certainly won't get back. Damn the NHL.

two and a half if you watched the intros.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Yeah that shit was a complete let down. Props to Ovey for atleast TRYING something fun. Sad thing is the best highlight of the whole night was when they showed the clip of that 9 year old kid doing the spin o rama michigan thing. I don't get why more guys didn't do things like that. Yeah chances are your not gonna score but thats not what that contest was intended to be about.

The new relay competition sucked balls too. Anyone that is in the NHL and cant stickhandle through the markers at a snails pace needs to die. Saucer pass thing was kinda cool, but still nothing great. One timers into the target was neat, but when do you ever want to hit a huge thing square middle of the net. Putting something in the upper corners or something would been cool.

DiPietro and Legace both did a great job mic'd.

Oh yeah, who dared Perron to get on camera and do that. JR? haha!

[mack 44]

I think the YoungStars game either needs to change or just be gone. Yeah it's great to see the young guys get a shot to come out but it's a waste if it's going to be like that. They won't even bring young goalies? Legace may have been one of the better parts of tonight's "festivities" but give a young guy a shot at playing.

Dead horse, but they need non-stars in the skills comp. Kurtis Foster could have easily beaten some of those guys, least of all Phaneuf and his whiff.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Its almost like they need an All Star Game in and of itself, and then quite separately have a skill event.

The skill event could be mid season and is for the best of the best at the certain skills, skating, shooting stickhandling etc. Players could do all the voting for that, then the ASG could be after the season NFL style voted by fans/GMs or whatever it is decided by now.

[cxo 0]

Its almost like they need an All Star Game in and of itself, and then quite separately have a skill event.

The skill event could be mid season and is for the best of the best at the certain skills, skating, shooting stickhandling etc. Players could do all the voting for that, then the ASG could be after the season NFL style voted by fans/GMs or whatever it is decided by now.

People hardly watch the all-star game mid-season. I really doubt you'd get alot of folks to tune into a game mid-summer when baseball is picking up steam.

[Fire0nIce228 1]

Ah true that. I was just thinking it needs to be separated.

[start_today 758]

I think one of the only things the NHL does right as far as drawing viewers is scheduling the allstar game in the bye week before the superbowl. At least some people might turn it on when they're looking for UFC.

Luckily, since this was on Versus, no one actually saw what an embarassment it was.

[camhockey16 5]

all i know is whoever was controlling the wireless mic's on the players should be fired - i think i heard the f-bomb at least three times from them not turing off the mic's while the announcers were talking

[cxo 0]

It wasn't horrible in it's entirety, but it's clear they didn't layout the new additions to the skills competition well. I've personally never really been a fan of the youngstars game altogether.

[Rustpot 1]

It looked like Datsyuk wasn't very happy doing that shootout. He probably thought it was just as stupid as we did.

If they really wanted it to work, play HORSE. Coin toss to see which team goes first, then play HORSE. A player Michigans the goal from beside it and the next shooter needs to repeat or improve or the team gets a letter.

You'd get guys having camera men or other players lay down, to use pylons for cross-rink goals, call in a goaltender for a certain move, etc etc.

I think the relay comp was OK.

Whose idea was it to include defensemen in the shootout elimination and sniper shot? The players should be allowed to say "I'm no good at that, I want hardest shot." Then we don't have Lidstrom looking silly hitting 2 for 9 or whatever he did after the announcers were saying how great his wristshot is.

Damn Zetterberg and Crosby for getting injuired!

Definitely needs to be a goalie showcase though. Not just stopping shootout attempts or making a rink-length goal. Get them anti-points in this ridiculous skill shootout for doing a hand-stand butterfly spin save or something.

Edit- They need to take the sticks away if they want to keep that format for fastest skater. Absolutely horrible.

[LarrieNation9 0]

I watched it on CBC here in canada. I dont know if anyone commented on it yet but, they had Iginla talking to someone, maybe Phaneuff, and he said he put a long plug in to make it stiffer because, "Wood is stiffer than metal". Maybe I'm wrong but I thought making the stick longer gave it more flex. Kind of funny to hear from Iginla

[JR Boucicaut 3765]

I watched it on CBC here in canada. I dont know if anyone commented on it yet but, they had Iginla talking to someone, maybe Phaneuff, and he said he put a long plug in to make it stiffer because, "Wood is stiffer than metal". Maybe I'm wrong but I thought making the stick longer gave it more flex. Kind of funny to hear from Iginla

I heard that too! I was like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

[Chadd 916]

Yeah that shit was a complete let down. Props to Ovey for atleast TRYING something fun. Sad thing is the best highlight of the whole night was when they showed the clip of that 9 year old kid doing the spin o rama michigan thing. I don't get why more guys didn't do things like that. Yeah chances are your not gonna score but thats not what that contest was intended to be about.

Most NHL players aren't good at that stuff because it's utterly useless in a game format. Why waste time practicing things you can't use in a game? It goes double for the all star game because most of those guys have been around for a while and are even less likely to showboat.

I watched it on CBC here in canada. I dont know if anyone commented on it yet but, they had Iginla talking to someone, maybe Phaneuff, and he said he put a long plug in to make it stiffer because, "Wood is stiffer than metal". Maybe I'm wrong but I thought making the stick longer gave it more flex. Kind of funny to hear from Iginla

And people buy products simply because pros know what's best about equipment.

[camhockey16 5]

was it me or did they completely butcher the fastest skater competition?

i think they posted all the times backwards and then on top of that they pulled kovalchuk out of the finals and stuck in campbell.