HOT TAKE: All Star Games are boring

All Star Games are inherently dumb. They are midseason breaks (in most leagues) for all but the very best players in their respective sports. The best players don't get their time off, but aren't really trying very hard either. It's a spectacle that fewer and fewer seem interested in, but still we do it because, well, we like spectacles. 

With as dumb as all star events are, to me the most asinine sports arguments are "who got snubbed" questions about these events, or any attempts at practical analysis of them. All star events are dumb. Analysis of the events are dumb. But this site is also dumb, so here we go.

When I was younger, and the appeal of all star events was seeing how the leagues matched up. Sure, players for the Wild and Blues were rivals, but was this rivalry better than, say, the Leafs and Canadiens? Often times yes. The West versus East was fun enough on it's own, but then, the NHL even refined their mid-season showcase.

 Instead of a full game, the NHL was able to leverage the structure of a hockey game into a brief 4 team tournament. Instead of playing conference vs conference, they played all four divisions, the two in the west in period 1, the two in the east in period 2, and the championship in period 3. It was a more granular version of the grand experiment that an all star game could be. Which division was the best?

Now, it's all gone. The NHL i like the NBA did, and opted for player draft. It's still the same 4 team mini tournament format, but now it's about finding out who is friend with who, and somehow has even less at stake than all star games had in the past.

I hope they don't get as many viewers, because I don't think a bunch of hockey bros hanging out is particularly interesting. I went to high school in Minnesota, so maybe that's a personal bias, but I'd still rather pit divisions, or even conferences against each other once a gain. 

The frozen stream

NHL left NBC programming at the exact right time. For whatever reason, Peacock angers more people as a streaming service than any other. It might be because NBC just doesn't have as much to offer so nobody feels the need to pay for an entire streaming service just to rewatch The Office again. I went to Purdue (The Big Ten's best school without a hockey program), and the Big Ten's rights are partially owned by NBC. No school appears on Peacock more than Purdue.

There isn't a chance in hell I am paying for Peacock.

ESPN reclaimed the American rights to the NHL, and has put a bunch of games online through their ESPN+ package. It's a much more palatable streaming service for most, because it pairs with Disney and Hulu for most people as part of a bundle. Even if I wasn't paying for ESPN, I'm not sure the house would survive without Bluey for a day. Might as well get ESPN, too.

The NHL is going to be able to lean into the streaming market a little bit more, it appears, at least in many markets. Major League Baseball has received the most attention regarding the ongoing bankruptcy of Diamond Sports, the company behind regional sports network brand Bally Sports. As part of the financing to bring the group out of bankruptcy, Amazon is stepping in and purchasing the streaming rights.

If a lot of people have Disney+, and subsequently ESPN+, the number must be higher for Amazon Prime. You don't even need to have an interest in television to make Prime worth it, given the discounts on shipping and what not. And now you may be able to watch several in-market NHL games on Prime. Who knows, maybe out of market?

MLB, NFL, NBA and MLS are all packaged through their own proprietary or exclusive streaming platforms, with a handful of games accessible in other venues. The NFL's streaming option is tied to Youtube (with a game or two on Amazon), while the MLS is on AppleTV but only the NHL will be the only major North American league with games available to stream on ore than one streaming platform once Amazon takes over Diamond Sports, and two of the most popular options at that.

Through good fortune and a forced adaptation, the NHL has found itself well positioned for the new era of sports media. After years mired in the cable backwaters, hockey is positioned to be more widely available than nearly any other sport to the next generation of fans. Now it's up to the league to seize that opportunity. 

Connor Bedard is Chicago's best player: By a lot

 

Your team is not very good if you earn the top pick in the NHL draft. Even with the lottery for the top pick, the eligible teams, even if they are the worst in the league, are pretty bad. The Blackhawks were, indeed, bad last year. Now they have Connor Bedard to show for it, and they are the second worst team in the league. San Jose is mired in a 12 game losing streak, and they only have five fewer points than Chicago. 

Now Bedard is going to be out for a couple of months, and it is hard to see where the Blackhawks go from here. At the beginning of the season, Chicago started with a couple of good veterans in Tyler Hall and Andreas Athanasiou. The Blackhawks looked to be improving, especially if their young core,  centered by Bedard, clicked.

Hall and Athanasiou have played a combined 21 games, and haven't really impressed, while the only players with more than half a point per game, aside from Bedard, are Philip Kurashev and Jason Dickinson. Facilitators and goal scorers alike, even when on a line with Bedard, aren't contributing. Bedard is averaging nearly a point a game all by himself.

That means there isn't really an easy fix coming around the corner. Kurashev, in particular, looks like a block they can use with Bedard to build on. They have some good young defensemen as well, especially Alex Vlasic and hopefully Kevin Korchinski, but that's 4 players on the roster. They have some extra picks early in the next few drafts, but outside of Dickinson, there isn't a lot of tradeable commodity to improve their lot. 

Athanasiou and Hall will be back next year, assuming nothing changes, and Seth Jones will be healthy, but as it stands right now, they will have fifty-two million in cap space. The Blackhawks may not have the youth to build around Bedard. There is not Jonathan Toews to go with Patrick Kane for Bedard, at least not right now. Even if they draft well, the new young players will take time to NHL caliber, which means their peak might come too late to incentivize Bedard into sticking around.

 They could certainly afford to go out and buy the roster, however. Now, the real trick will be convincing the Wirtz Family into throwing that money around.

Is anyone happy in Detroit?

 We're in that magical week between Christmas and New Years, where most of us are going through the motions of work, if not submitting a full effort, or are at home with our families, perhaps waiting or hoping for things to get back to normal. The NHL returned from their holiday break yesterday, and for at least one team, the glow seems to already have worn off. 

Starting us off in Minny! #LGRW pic.twitter.com/PBZrAvncbN

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 28, 2023

Andrew Copp is downright angry to be back on the ice. Ben Chiarot has clearly been given some bad news. At least James Reimer is in the spirit of the holiday by being a grown up version of Scut Farkis. Maybe the vibes in Detroit are down as they find themselves in 5th place in the Atlantic, despite a hot start, or that they are relying on former rival Patrick Kane to help turn things around. Whatever the case, I hope you are looking for the new year in better spirits than the Detroit Red Wings.

Hughes Brothers meet in the NHL for the first time

 

Last night, all three Hughes brothers were in the same arena as the Devils and Canucks played to a 6-5 victory for New Jersey. Luke and Jack had to be separated on the bench by Lindy Ruff, allegedly because Luke was sitting "too close" to Jack, and Jack didn't like that Luke was "touching his stuff". At one point, Jack laid his stick sideways on the bench to create appropriate distance between the two brothers. 

On the ice, Quinn was often in the ear of the officials, particularly when his brothers skated near him. "LUKE HIT ME!" Quinn could be heard loudly yelling on the ice, and helpfully shouting later "JACK WAS OFFSIDES, HE WAS OFFSIDES! 

Tweet of the Moment

 

↓ The perfect gift for the Preds fan in your life ↓

🎁 https://t.co/8Xf2ZyWLut pic.twitter.com/zWgULDEYrP

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) December 6, 2023

"I looked up XXX Smashville and stocking stuffer, but all I ended up with was this hockey tweet.

The Flyers fading light

Philadelphia, as we have all heard, is a gritty, tough town, with no patience for losers, and a passion for underdogs that has spawned an entire genre of movies. There is an edge to all of the teams, and now some success to match the expectations of the fans. The Eagles are in the Super Bowl with some regularity. The Phillies are in the World Series at the same pace. The 76ers haven't reached the mountaintop, but they have one of the best players in the game, and aren't afraid of confrontation. Neither are the Eagles or Phillies, for that matter. 

The original embodiment of the Philadelphia mindset were obviously the Broad Street Bullies. The scrappy Flyers of 60s and 70s brought a new style of hockey to the world, and it was successful. Basically, the strategy was to beat the shit out of their opponents. And it worked!

They were the Bullies through the early 80s at least, and the Flyers were easily identified with Philadelphia and Philadelphian success through the next twenty years or so. The 76ers had their heyday in the years before and after the Flyers' heyday, and haven't won since 1983, while the Phillies couldn't ever seem to get over the hump. The Eagles were just never good. There is a reason why you see them in so many sad sack stories from the 80s through the early 2000s. 

Now, though, it seems like the Flyers are taking a back seat in Philly culture. Is it because ever since Eric Lindros' career was disrupted people started caring about head injuries, and the physical style of yore didn't fit anymore? Or more likely, is it just because the Flyers haven't been as relevant for quite a while now. 

There was a period when Jeff Carter was around that the Flyers seemed poised to take the city over again, but that wasn't to be, and it was lost in Phillies and Eagles stories. The Flyers aren't threatening for the postseason again this year, and they are getting drowned out by other Philly teams making Championship games or series. 

Are the Flyers going to have to start knocking some teeth in again to get a little attention? Maybe they should just win some more games, and catch up to the rest of the league. At least the mascot is still Gritty