BOSTON – Count the Bruins players among those that are in favor of the changes to the NHL All-Star Game starting this season.
The NHL announced that the All-Star Game will go from a traditional Sunday hockey game to a three-game, 3-on-3 tournament with assembled squads made up of 11 All-Star selected players separated into their NHL team divisions. They will play in a tournament-style setting with the two East and West divisions playing each other, and the winner of those games facing off for a $1 million purse on the line that breaks down to slightly less than $100,000 per winning player.
So, rivals, such as Bruins and Canadiens players, will be competing on the same team, which should make for an interesting dynamic on the ice.
“It’s cool. Honestly it would be really weird to be on a team with Montreal guys and Detroit guys, or even Toronto guys. So that part of it will be interesting,” said Torey Krug. “I remember as a kid growing up and watching the All-Star Games, and just being in awe. So this adds a different wrinkle to it where you can showcase guy’s skills.
“It will probably be a little tougher on the body, but that’s okay. I feel like the interest [in the All-Star game] had died down a bit with the fan base, and it was just the same thing over and over again. It adds a different element to it, and it will be fun watching guys like Patrick Kane and [Vladimir] Tarasenko go down and dangle a little bit in a 3-on-3 [setting]…we’ll see what happens.”
The 20-minute games on Jan. 31 in Nashville will be modeled closely after the highly entertaining 3-on-3 overtimes that were adopted this year by the NHL. The league will also be doing away with the Friday night player draft that had been a staple of All-Star weekend over the past couple of seasons, but will keep the Saturday NHL skills competition prior to Sunday’s 3-on-3 tourney.
It’s a one-year experiment for the NHL and the NHLPA before they decide whether or not to adopt it long term, but it’s something that Bruins players were interested in with some minor reservations.
Boston Bruins
“I don’t mind it. I’m obviously one of those guys that likes the ‘old school’ stuff, but I think the 3-on-3 is really exciting. I agree that the last couple of years have been kind of slow-paced games, and not much effort was put into it. That’s bad for the game, and bad for the fans,” said Patrice Bergeron, who played in last season’s game, with an embarrassing 17-12 final score, in Columbus. “So we’re trying to do something about it first of all for the fans, and for us having some fun with it. Having a tournament like that might be a good way to bring out the competitive level in all of the guys.”
As a goalie the 3-on-3 OT isn’t exactly made for him, but Tuukka Rask similarly also liked it as an outside-the-box solution.
“I think that idea is pretty entertaining. That’s what you want an All-Star Game to be, right…entertainment,” said Rask. “I know there’s been some talk that you had the skills competition, and then the game afterward…that that nobody cares about the game. So, I think this is a good idea.”
The $1 million winning prize certainly doesn’t hurt either, right?
“It’s one of those things where I hope not…I hope it isn’t [the money] that makes a big difference,” said Bergeron. “It’s there and guys are aware that it’s there. Maybe that would work for some guys. But I hope it’s more about the tournament idea bringing up the competitive level.”
Clearly, the priority among all Bruins players polled about the game alterations was creating something a lot more entertaining for NHL fans and that’s certainly as it should be in any All-Star Game setting.