The thrill is gone

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Alex Ovechkin (CP)

Hilary Duff would help

Here are some suggestions for improving the NHL All-Star Game:

1. Have fans vote for a player from each team and then have NHL hockey operations fill in the blanks with additions. If the fans of the Washington Capitals voted Alex Ovechkin as their all-star, it would be much harder for him to snub the game.

2. Make it innovative. If the game doesn't count, let's jazz it up. Break the periods into three segments, 10 minutes of 5-on-5, five minutes of 4-on-4 and five minutes of 3-on-3. Experiment with some new concepts, bigger nets for instance, and let fans vote on which ones to use in the game.

3. Money. In pro sports it can solve just about anything. Attach a meaningful purse to the game and players will show up.

4. Play the game in Vegas every year. Load the weekend up with celebrities and parties. Players will come, corporate types will come and fans will watch. Give the media total access and make the weekend a convention. Having Hilary Duff (left) and other hockey-loving celebs would glitz up the event. Nothing wrong with that.

5. Outdoor games have garnered the attention of the public, so if you don't like the Vegas idea, how about adding the all-star game to the Winter Classic? Have an alumni all-star game, the all-star game and then finally the Classic. There are all kinds of options here. The league has built a monster in the Winter Classic and the all-star game should piggyback on it.

6. Champs vs. the all-stars was a format used in the old days and would still hold intrigue today.

7. Canada vs. USA/World is a format formerly used by the American Hockey League and with right around half the players in the NHL born in Canada it lends itself to a Ryder Cup format.

8. Make it count. Baseball has added home-field advantage in the World Series to its all-star game and players have bought in. Last change in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final would be something to get worked up over.

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Unlike superstar Alex Ovechkin, Gordie Howe showed up for the all-star game. Mr. Hockey even gave an elbow to fan Bradley Galbraith during an autograph session in Ottawa. (POSTMEDIA OTTAWA CITIZEN)

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Hillary Duff (CP)

OTTAWA -- Gordie Howe walked through the media hotel lobby on Friday, still thinking enough of the NHL All-Star Game to make an appearance, even if today's most popular player doesn't see it that way.

It's hard to imagine Howe standing up in front of reporters back in the day and telling them he was taking a pass on the all-star game. Players in Howe's era, to a fault, did what the league asked of them and that included promoting hockey.

Today's leading men? Not so much. Despite their salaries being directly tied to hockey-generated revenues, if players don't want to attend the all-star game, the precedent has been set, so taking a pass isn't a big deal.

Mega-star Alex Ovechkin said "no thanks" to this year's game in Ottawa and won't face admonishments from the league or the Washington Capitals.

With Sidney Crosby unable to play due to post-concussion syndrome the NHL's star power is a little dimmer than usual. Ovechkin, however, has elected to take a warm-climate vacation and leave his league and game hanging.

The biggest name in the game is hurt and the Robin to his Batman has decided to take a powder. Talk about selfish. Talk about petulant. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Just don't talk about the honour that comes with being selected an all-star. Ovechkin can't, or won't, hear you.

Some, like Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Kimmo Timonen, still believe the all-star game is worth supporting.

"I always think this is kind of your personal choice, but for the fans, I don't think it's right," he said. "The fans are the ones who pay our salary. They wanted to see him. He's one of the best players in the world. At the same time, it's been a long season and maybe he's got a tiny injury for something. But as a fan, I wanted to see him here."

In the hockey world, that's a nuclear call-out. Players never say much about one another and for Timonen to go down this road, real resentment must be brewing among some players.

Is Ovechkin at fault? Certainly. But worse is the process that affords him the wiggle room to get out of it.

The game is a mish-mash, with the criteria for participation changing from year to year and the league constantly tinkering in search of a successful formula.

Enough with the tweaking. We don't need a remodel, it's a teardown job. Bulldoze it and start from scratch.

The most anticipated aspect of the weekend is the Fantasy Player Draft on Thursday night with the rest being a three-day drip of anticlimactic non-events culminating in Sunday's snoozer.

The NHL has made strides while working to include the fans as often as possible. Suspensions are no longer handed down to players without an explanation for the people that buy tickets. Brendan Shanahan gets out his handycam and shoots a video to explain what's what.

But the all-star game and its processes, which asks the fans to elect the game's starters, is still one of those behind-the-curtain deals where there is not enough transparency or accountability to those fans.

Cancelling the all-star game is going too far. Fans want to have a chance to see all the best players in hockey on the same ice at the same time. It should be a recipe for success and not disaster.

Lots is in place to make this a winner. What's missing is a strategy and the will and commitment to follow it.

Maybe Ovechkin has it right. Maybe he shouldn't feel obligated to attend because the ship is so rudderless.

Maybe that's the shame in all this.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless

Gary Lawless, Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 28, 2012 C3