HockeySpy.com

F A I L E D    M I S S I O N S - January 30, 2007 From the Cradle Sports fans love the Major League Baseball All Star game. Players go all out to win. Sports fans are turned off by the NHL, NFL and NBA All Star games. Players don’t try. Just a coincidence? The latest fad in all star land is these money grubbing “young star” games. First year and second year players are brought in to sell more tickets to secondary events. This year in Dallas, the young stars hit an all time low for lack of effort. The game was four on four to begin with. If played with heart and enthusiasm these young bucks could have made a strong case for the NHL to go with a permanent four on four format. That was hardly the goal the NHL had in mind, but worth mentioning anyway. These fuzzy cheeked floaters stood around at center ice, waving their stick in the air to call for long bomb passes. A never ending series of 2 on 1’s and 3 on 1’s left the poor goalies high and dry. Fans were not impressed. Television viewers tuned out quickly. Another NHL fiasco in the books. The real All Star game ended in a football like score. The culture of floating is well established with these veteran skaters. But the pathetic performance of the young stars indicates this culture has been passed on to the very young. And that is scary. I had a chance to watch a replay of an All Star game from the 1960’s when the Stanley Cup champions took on the NHL All Star team. Lo and behold a fight broke out between Bert Olmstead and Red Kelly. That’s right a fight. Which is always an indication of a competitive level of play. By players who were paid so little in the winter, they had to take extra jobs in the summer. It’s called the love of the game. Which differs from the love of money.

All written content is property of HockeySpy.com Email any questions, corrections, documents or feedback to our webmaster. © 2006-2007