On Our Soapbox: All Star Game

We know that most people are jaded when it comes to the All Star Game but doesn't anyone else see the magic that happens when so many handsome and talented hockey players are on the same sheet of ice and in the same city for a weekend?

Doesn't that get anyone else as excited as we get?

We love watching these players goof off and get friendly with each other. It's like a Bad Girls Club Reunion (and you should know how we fee about the BGC) with hockey players and we can see who likes who and who won't even talk to who.

The dynamics of an All Star Game are what we love the most. Seeing them interact is the best part because we think that they all hate each other when in reality most are probably friends despite what team they are on. Sometimes at least that is the case.

The skills competition is the best because we can see them actually have fun and show off a little bit. It doesn't hurt to see them have a fun side and for fans to see players from teams that they don't normally see. Maybe that exposure will generate interest in that team and bam, another fan is born.

Now we're just sounding like Gary Bettman. We can't help it when we get all riled up for the All Star Game.

What upsets us about the All Star Game is the fact that people will berate it and say that being a 'purist' means that you can't like the All Star Game. They will sit in their bedrooms and yell about how Bettman rigs the whole thing which we never understood because why would someone rig an All Star Game? Doesn't make sense to us.

Then thy rant about how there is no point to it. It doesn't give the team any winning points and the players don't even try. They will yell 'til they're blue in the face about how the All Star Game means nothing and even the players hate it.

Because really, everyone know that these losers on messageboards and YouTube who call themselves 'hockey purists' know that every player hates the All Star Game. They won't even give this new format a chance.

The All Star Game is supposed to be fun and light. This isn't the Olympics, this isn't some ultra-competitive game where the winner escapes death. It's supposed to be fun.

This year will be different. We have full faith in Brendan Shanahan. He's a former player who has been in the All Star Game so he should know how to improve upon it. Unlike some twenty-eight-year-old sitting in his parent's basement.

The All Star Game is like a weekend in Cabo. It's a weekend where the points don't matter and the players can have some fun and not think about the impending playoffs.

Sure the game is sometimes tedious but that isn't why we watch it. We watch because of the players and the skills and the ridiculousness that abounds when it is all said and done.

It's supposed to be fun so just take it for what it is: a light-hearted event that players and fans should have fun with.

Okay, now we're out of breath. That's it for this edition of On Our Soapbox.

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Here is the full roster of the All Star Game.

Who are you excited to see in it? Who are you disappointed didn't make it? Who do you wish that they forgot?

We could not be more excited that Matt Duchene was named an All Star. Let's just hope that all of this fame doesn't go to his head now...

And seeing Marc Staal named an All Star? What has this world come to? We're excited but we would have picked Ryan Callahan over him...maybe...


NHL.com has a series of articles pertaining to the roster:

- the uniforms for the 2011 All Star Game were unveiled, we're still undecided whether we like them or not


- almost half of the roster are All Star newbies...article

- yet again the 2003 draft rears it's golden head, this time for the All Star roster


In other news...

- Derek Stepan was named to the Rookie All Star team and is also finding his groove in New York

- In other Rangers news, Michal Rozsival was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes for Wojtec Wolski

- Chris Osgood will be out for at least six weeks after having surgery on a sports hernia.