All the fun of the All-Star Game; women and hockey; and more injury woes for Sidney Crosby
NHL topics this week include all the fun of the All-Star Game; women and hockey; and more injury woes for Sidney Crosby.
The All Star Game, Pt. 1: The Fan Fair
Before I hear any complaining about the All Star Game, I'd just like to say I kind of enjoy these things, deep down. Obviously, there were some issues (the lack of Ovechkin, Crosby, etc.), and ? of course ? the limpness of the play itself, but you have to admit, watching a bunch of the best players in the world play a game of shinny, score like crazy, and jaw at one another for a couple hours on a cold Sunday in January is really not that bad. It's not full-on regular season play, sure. But everyone needs a break.
We'll get to the game and skills competition in a moment, but I'll relay my experience here in Ottawa with some of the other, related events going on around town. While there were a few outdoor events and exhibits to see (along with a separate ceremony and celebration going on at the Governor General's house) the NHL Fan Fair was really the place to be. If you could get in. The line, which by midday wound its way down a full city block from the entrance of the convention centre and then most of the way back again (not to mention inside), had calmed down a bit later in the afternoon ? probably mostly due to the fact they ran out of tickets. In any case, I got in (though barely), and had a look around.
Two weeks ago, I was covering a political convention in the very same building, and while a lot of the scenery was different, and there was a distinct lack of policy speeches and delegate voting, I kind of got the same vibe from the Fan Fair in a weird way. It was more than just a showcase for the game: even though, as an attendee, you might be there to support the whole operation and believe in its inherent goodness or something and that you support or even admire the leader on that stage, but all the same, you kind of can't help notice they're taking your money.
But never mind, right? This is a business after all.
Speaking of which, the first thing I did, effectively, was buy hockey cards ? something I haven't done in years. I genuinely enjoyed the feeling of peeling open the pack and wondering what names were inside. I used to force my poor mother to stop at gas stations all over the stupid place when I was a kid just so I could jump out and buy a pack of either Upper Deck (if I had the money) or (I hate to admit this now) the cheaper Pro-Set, by far the ugliest early-90s cards. I used to have this insane rule when I was younger that it would be good luck if I didn't open all the packs I bought at once. So I'd pace them, maybe opening one a few hours later. It never worked ? I never got the special edition stuff. But I had one of those Beckett card pricing books, just in case, as if my stupid 1991 Larry Murray was going to be worth any more than the paper it was printed on. Though looking them all up passed the time.
Anyway, I digress.
There was some other stuff on the main floor ? including a room where you could don the equipment and jersey belonging to a few choice players for a photo op ? but the really good stuff was upstairs. Admittedly, the NHL puts on a flashy show. The main convention hall featured a bunch of small, fake rinks where people could try out various skills like those featured at the competition, including hardest shot. Taking up most of the back wall was what can be best described as a massive shrine to the Stanley Cup. The Cup itself sat, looking rather diminutive, in front of a 20-foot tall model of itself, and high above the rest of the hall on a giant, half-circle platform with a curved, winding ramp on which devotees trudged slowly upward to its altar for a quick photo. Around the bottom of the entire thing were the Cup's disciples ? the other trophies ? displayed behind thick glass, facing outward like they were defending it. It was a bit much, but kind of cool in its largesse.
Aside from all the physical things one could do, there were the chances for some seriously memorable encounters with players. Legend Gordie Howe showed up to talk and sign autographs and, obviously, drew a crowd of many hundreds. But other fan favourites like Jarome Iginla, Corey Perry, and ? yes ? even Jeremy Roenick was there. Scott Hartnell also showed up wearing a Hartnell Down toque in support of the website of the same name, which was initially set up to count how many times he fell down during the season. He teamed up with the site for charity during the weekend, and offered to give $1,000 each time he fell during the game. He did it 4 times.
Overall, people seemed to enjoy the Fan Fair, despite a few complaints on Twitter about the length of the lineups. People didn't even seem to care that it cost between $10 and $15 to get in.
The All Star Game, Pt. 2: The skills and the game
Which brings us to the main event(s). It's tough to say which event gets more support and/or derision, the skills competition or the game the next day. I'm more a fan of the skills event, personally, because it's done with a bit faster and there's more opportunity for some outrageous moves.
Case in point: the breakaway challenge. This event in particular is hated by some because it's often slow and you're more likely to see your favourite player flub a move than not. And besides, breakaways or penalty shots are so often done in the context of extreme tension and excitement, they can't help feel a bit boring when all of that is removed from the situation. It also doesn't help if the goalies don't get the concept and just save everything.
Luckily, Saturday, despite a few insipid attempts at trick shots, there were some genuine highlights. First, was Carey Price, the Montreal goalie who handled half the shots. He was mic'd up on CBC, and was mostly entertaining to listen to bantering with the broadcasters. He also had fun with it, turning around at one point to see if he could watch the oncoming player in the reflection of the glass. Apparently he could, as he saved the shot ? backward. (Insert requisite joke about the Habs' poor season here).
Anyway, to the goals.
First, is one you might have seen: Chicago's Patrick Kane donning a Superman cape in Dwight Howard style and pulling off a nifty trick.
And though that was fun, it was really Tampa Bay's Steve Stamkos who ran away with this one. Here's a short highlight reel of his goals. They're great.
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Of course, the hardest shot competition is always popular ? mostly because it just seems impossible that Zdeno Chara will match the number he put up the previous year and then he just goes ahead and does it anyway. This year was no different, as he whaled in one that hit a whopping 108.8 miles per hour.
Seriously now. That is way too fast. It's crazy to think that Shea Weber, who hammered home a couple over 100 mph, really didn't even seem relevant in the competition. That is just kind of ridiculous. During the game Sunday, the fans egged Chara on to unload another bomb, but he withheld, smartly.
Are any of the skills competitions useless? Should others be inserted instead of ones that exist? Open to thoughts in the comments.
The goals in the game itself were a little less exciting than probably everyone had hoped, but a few stood out. Marion Gaborik managed three goals during the game, including one (his first) against fellow Ranger goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist. Here it is, complete with his salute to teammate Artem Anisimov's ill-fated gun move.
The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson. Here he is getting a really pretty goal, care of the Sedins:
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Those of you who happened to see the broadcast on CBC already know Alfie was lionized all weekend long. He was asked how he was enjoying the experience about once every 1.7 seconds by this or that commentator, and when they weren't shoving a microphone in his face to have him say, again, how amazing it all was and how much fun he was having, they were asking a different player what level of glee Alfie might be experiencing at that exact moment and, basically, on a scale of Great to Totally Awesome, wouldn't they agree that Alfredsson would rank basically off the chart?
I'm exaggerating, but it was a lot. Though, to be fair, despite not winning a Cup, Alfredsson is currently one of the finer players in the game. He's done a lot for his community and is endlessly lending his name and face to a number of good causes. He's tops in Ottawa, but there were other guys there. Nobody, for instance, seemed too interested in talking to Suter or Eberle, and it was their first one. For the record, I'm not knocking Alfie ? he, like Iginla, for instance ? is a stand-up guy.
Which made it even more annoying that the fans, generally, couldn't apparently bother to take a page out of his book and act like decent people and not a pile of hyper-fanatic troglodytes, as they continually booed any Leafs player who touched the puck all weekend long. Even in the skills competition. Even at the player draft Friday night when they weren't even playing. I even got tired of it after not too long, and believe me, I always enjoy a solid booing from a crowd of thousands. But at an All Star Game, it comes off as simply crass ? gloating, even. Reserving all your cheers for your home team captain is cool, but it doesn't mean you have to do it at the expense of other great players, I figure. I could be wrong on this one, but I hope not.
In any case, solid All Star weekend, overall. Even Drake was decent.
The All Star Game, Pt. 3: Women and the culture of hockey
One of the offshoots to the All Star Game story was one that popped up Friday night during the player draft.
In a post at TheLeafsNation.com, Danny Gray wondered about sexism in hockey, and what kind of message the NHL was sending to kids watching (who he figured were the real audience for the draft itself):
Kids watching at home can imagine themselves up on stage being drafted and putting on an All-Star sweater. Well the boys can. If you're a young female hockey fan your options for daydreaming are slightly more limited. You can imagine yourself on-stage, dressed in tights and heels silently handing each player their sweater.
There were exactly three women visibly involved in the Fantasy Draft: the two aforementioned sweater shuttles, and [TSN's social media handler] Alyonka Larionov. Alyonka was relegated backstage to read off tweets that the Athletes were sending during the draft.
So, was Larionov (daughter of former NHL-er, Igor) just eye candy and a poor representation of women in the sport? Or was this just some unnecessary hand-wringing.
Over at the Mark, they put the question to Sportsnet magazine writer Shannon Proudfoot. Here's part of what she had to say:
"Fortunately, that cheap and cheesy portrayal of women doesn't reflect the way I've seen female reporters treated among our colleagues. Since I started writing about sports six months ago, there's been no missing the fact that we're a relative rarity, but I've basically ignored it with the mentality that if I want to be treated like just one of the crowd, I'll act like I am. Like athletes, journalists respect performance: If you deliver solid stories and insights, you'll build credibility regardless of whether you walked into the press conference wearing heels or a suit. And if that's na�ve wishful thinking, so what? In a competitive field like journalism, being underestimated is a gift. [...]
If we care about more girls and women playing, watching, writing and talking about hockey ? and we should ? the best way to get there is to stop ogling them or applauding them as exotic zoo creatures. Just shrug, pour them a beer and ask what they think of the game, like you would for any guy."
Which is comforting to know, but doesn't really address the issue directly, I don't think, given that it's a different industry entirely. Maybe that's because it's a tough question to tackle. I'm not sure whether Gray was really on to something with his post, or whether it was a bit of hyperventilating, but I'm inclined to side with the former.
In my wandering through the Fan Fair on the weekend ? arguably a showcase for the best front the NHL hopes to put forward ? there were only a couple of instances where women were featured prominently. Granted, this is an all-male league (shout out: Manon Rh�aume for being the first to break that barrier, though briefly), and so seeing a bunch of guys around oggling over hardware and the like is understandable. And it's not as if the NHL didn't try in some ways. There were, after all, autograph sessions with female hockey players.
And yet...
Among all the cool things the Fan Fair showed off, one of the more prominent items ? one that basically forced itself on you ? was a roaming dance squad made up of young girls in short skirts and tight tops who, intermittently, broke into a routine as pop music suddenly blared from unseen speakers overhead. And everywhere they showed up, very quickly a group of guys would gather around, phones out, recording it all.
Maybe it's nothing, but there was a marked difference between the way the Fan Fair showcased different women. Female players were featured, but it was either next to a known NHL player, or they were given a terrible meet-and-greet/autograph time slot altogether ? Team USA's Jessie Vetter and Team Canada's Jennifer Botterill were set to sign autographs at 4:30pm, only an hour before the whole thing shut down. In other words, you had to go search the female players out.
On the other hand, the sexy dancers were thrust in your face every few minutes during their 3-hour dance blocks (in the schedule, I might add) all over the building, gyrating and hooting and, really, having very little to do with the sport at all.
Crosby's neck
The upcoming week will, thankfully, bring back more regular season action and plenty of new story lines to analyze. But one that just won't go away is that of Sidney Crosby's head. Or his neck, as the case now appears to be.
Crosby's agent Pat Brisson told ESPN Saturday that the Canadian forward, who is considered by many to be the best player in the league, is seeing specialists to deal with the neck problem.
Canada's Rogers Communications' Sportsnet also reported on Saturday that Crosby has two cracked vertebrae which were discovered by an American doctor in Utah.
Which, unsurprisingly, complicates things.
At the National Post, veteran sports writer Cam Cole wondered (ranted, really) how that particular item was missed during the time Crosby spent recovering.
"He complained from the very first, and the Penguins confirmed at the time, that he was suffering from "neck soreness," which initially sounded like an excuse not to call it a concussion, because back then, teams were still ducking, diving and prevaricating to avoid using the C-word. ...
Wouldn't that be likely to guide a team of doctors to the approximate area where ? nearly 54 weeks after the fact ? it took a specialist Crosby visited in California on the recommendation of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to finally find cracks in the first and second cervical vertebrae? [...]
Who knows, maybe the next great scandal in sports is going to be team doctors, and the inherent conflict of interest when they are being paid by the teams, which need their best players on the ice to win games and sell tickets."
At the Toronto Star, Damien Cox affirmed that disappointment, positing that perhaps Crosby and the Penguins were not quite on the same page with the evaluation of the injury.
"After all, Crosby sought out medical opinions on his own after being increasingly frustrated with his inability to get back into the Pittsburgh lineup even after he was able to pass baseline concussion testing. That's not unusual these days, as more and more star athletes seek advice and opinions from non-team-affiliated physicians and specialists.
But sometimes it causes friction."
According to the team, there's none of that. Penguins' coach Dan Bylsma told the Canadian Press he and Crosby both feel "he's gotten every possible support from the Penguins and the Penguins' medical staff in the situation he's in, to try to find an answer to where he's at, what his condition is, what is his best road for recovery."
Still, the situation is looking grim, and without a quick turnaround the future for Crosby and the Penguins isn't totally clear.
Back to Cox:
"Until now, the Penguins and Crosby have had an exemplary working relationship. Heck, Crosby used to live in owner Mario Lemieux's house, and the strength of that personal relationship may help him to work through this latest hurdle.
Certainly, Saturday's news helps to understand the mystery and confusion about Crosby's absence from the game since Dec. 5 when two seemingly innocuous incidents of contact. [...] So maybe this helps things start to make sense for No. 87. Or maybe it opens a new, unwanted, unhappy storyline."
It finally emerged the alleged neck fracture didn't, apparently, exist. A review revealed some soft tissue damage, but no evidence of a fracture. However, the injury could lead to neurological issues. Crosby skated Tuesday and held a press conference that evening. He said he was hopeful it could be treated and would improve.
Still, Cox and Cosh still raise some interesting issues about Crosby's treatment. Even with the revelation the fracture was but a ghost, the Crosby saga is already particularly uncomfortable one for the league, generally. It picked its spokesman, all right.
Goals!
Let's go with a couple from the All Star Game, given there were so many:
Malkin has a really pretty one here, that doesn't even seem possible from that angle:
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And Giroux gets one past Tim Thomas, with a classic reaction from the Obama snubber:
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/01/all-star-game-ottawa-sidney-crosby-neck
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