The Intern's Hard Wood: All-star teams '08

Amongst all the Super Bowl hoopla this week, the NBA all-star reserves were announced. While going through the list, the obvious first thing I noticed was that one of my favourites, Jose Calderon got the royal shaft and was not named to the team. This got me thinking who else is on the All-Snub team. Definitely the biggest travesty is Hedo Turkoglu not being an All-Star. He is putting up career stats and is one of the biggest reasons why Orlando is third in the East and so far this season he has already nailed three game-winning buckets. But alas, Joe Johnson got the nod even though his Hawks are six games under .500. In the west,two players also on the snub list are Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson. Both players are having great seasons and I would love to see Captain Jack and The Baron as All-Stars but in a conference with an overabundance of talent, it’s inevitable that there will be some would-be all-star casualties. But really who would you omit. The obvious choice would be David West, but in all honesty, he is having a fantastic season and the Hornets are the top team in the west. Plus the All-Star game is being played in New Orleans. He gets my vote (also, I have him on my fantasy team).

In other news around the NBA Jason Kidd has openly admitted he wants out of the swamp. Right now Dallas seems to be in the lead in the J-Kidd sweepstakes. We shall see in the upcoming weeks were this future Hall of Famer will end up.

The Spurs acquired former Memphis Grizzlies point guard Damon Stoudamire. This is a very good signing considering their current back up point guard is Jacque Vaughn and seriously it’s pretty hard to get worse then Jacque. Well, then again, there’s always Darrick Martin. Intern Out

What is wrong with the NHL. Jan '08 edition

With the NHL's all-star weekend passing by, I had to write a few notes that came up explaining why hockey is dying in North America, more specifically, the states:

The slam dunk competition in hockey form. Are you serious? How dumb is it that they're holding a competition where scoring doesn't matter, people — like Dominique Wilkins — who have little-to-no knowledge about hockey, are judging and goaltenders treat the event with enough seriousness that they're rushing players and poke-checking them before they can try their moves? Yet another idiotic idea by the NHL.

How sad is it that the NHL held their all-star game in Atlanta and the majority of hotel rooms booked in the city were not for hockey fans, media or players, but for a poultry convention in town the same weekend. That's pretty much all you have to say about why the NHL is slowly fading into obscurity, especially in the southern states. Get the Thrashers out of Atlanta already.

Next season, for the second straight year, the NHL will open their season with games in Europe. This time around, Stockholm and Prague will host a pair of games each. The only problem is that the league shouldn't be worrying about marketing the brand overseas like this, they should be working on getting more people in the United States on their bandwagon. Canada's always going to have a population of hockey nuts but with the majority of the teams located state-side where popularity is dwindling, it's no wonder why the league is in rough shape. North America should be the NHL's target audience, not Europe.

Finally, while it is understandable that in pretty much any sport's all-star game, defence isn't the aspect to be showcased, it should still be brought up that these guys should at least be trying on the back end. Now, I know that hitting is "outlawed" in the all-star game to prevent injuries and I'm not saying that the teams should deploy a Devils-style trap but come on guys, you're the best players in the league and you can't show a tiny bit of hustle to get back? But this isn't so much of the NHL's problem as it is all sports' all-star games, with the exception of baseball that is.

Popularity Bowl rosters

It's that time of the year when the NFL announces the AFC and NFC rosters for their all-star game, the Pro Bowl. Now, in most sports, fan voting does not account for 100% of the selections for the all star games. In the NBA, MLB and even NHL, only the starting lineup is picked by the fans — often leading to players making the team by name and fan loyalty only. But not in the NFL, where the entire team is picked via fan voting. Sure a few reserves are picked by the league based on performance, but everyone else is there because the fans want them.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? There will be snubs no matter how the team is assembled and fans usually do a reasonably well job, especially this year. Snub columns are dreadfully short and can only really argue for the likes of David Garrard, Fred Taylor and Derek Anderson. But those three are at positions that are nearly impossible to win at considering their opposition. How could Garrard and Anderson ever beat out Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. They were also defeated by Big Ben but he's more deserving than them. Taylor's having a great season and might be the best running back to never make the Pro Bowl. He was beaten out my LDT, Joseph Addai and Willie Parker. I would pick any of those three over Taylor in a heartbeat.

Will the NFC play with ten players on defence for the first snap? The slain Sean Taylor was voted to the NFC team to start at free safety. One can only wonder when he received the majority of his votes. He was a really good player so far this season, but would fans click on his name more after learning the tragic details of his murder? Either way, I think it was a nice touch for the league not to have taken him off the ballot completely — which I'm sure there would've been debate over.

God's Team, the Cowboys led all teams with 11 players named to the squad including seven starters and four backups not to mention a few reserves including Roy Williams, who will most likely get a call to take Sean Taylor's place. It's no surprise to see that many Dallas players on the team considering how well they've played this season, as well as the relatively weak competition of the NFC.

In the AFC, I'm actually surprised to see eight Chargers on the team which ties New England for the most selections from an AFC. The Chargers haven't been living up to their quoted potential this season and I suspect that this may be due to fans voting for names they know instead of selecting the top performers.

An all-star good time

While I get ready for tomorrow’s uber-post, last night’s MLB all-star game should garner some attention from the sports world, even though it was slotted into a jam-packed day of sports. That was sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell.

Ichiro made some instant history last night and won the game’s MVP award because of it. After a smash towards the right-field wall, Ken Griffey Jr. Thought he was in good position to play the bounce; he was wrong. The ball hit an advertisement banner and went in the opposite direction of Griffey, who was on towards centerfield instead of the right field corner the ball ended up in. Rounding the bases was no problem for the speedy Ichiro, who is now in the record books as the only player to ever hit an inside-the-park home run during an all-star game. Congratulations, you now have a nice new hybrid SUV in San Francisco for when you visit.

The American league was able to hold onto their 5-4 lead and take home field advantage in the World Series for the fifth consecutive year. Including the horrendous tie of 2002, the American league stars haven’t lost the mid-summer classic in ten straight years now. Talk about dominance.

It’s now being reported that moody superstar Albert Pujols – currently embroiled in his personal longest home run drought – is upset that his own manager didn’t use him in the game last night. La Russa actually sent Aaron Rowand, a defensive specialist for the NL, to bat with two outs and the bases loaded out in the ninth inning last night. If you ask me, yeah, that’s a pretty dumb move. La Russa had a chance to win but he blew the game and now has his star mad with him.

What splashes?

Every single lead that you’ll read regarding last night’s home run derby will probably include something about the mass of kayakers that get screwed by the lack of home run balls hit into McCovey Cove. That was my clever way of doing it and not sounding like the rest of the pack.

With four right handed hitters advancing to the second round, very few blasts came out towards the mass of sea-faring, souvenir snaggers. In fact, only a Ryan Howard foul ball made it into the bay.

The Blue Jay's Alex Rios put up the biggest round of the derby with 12 jacks in the second round to put him the championship with Vladimir Guerrero. Too bad for Rios that he crapped the bed and could only knock two out the championship while Vlady easily hit three, tossing his bat in walk-off fashion after the last.

Much has been said in the past about the Derby messing with player’s swings but I think that’s garbage; has anybody ever complained that the NBA’s equivalent – the slam dunk competition – mess with their player’s game? Never. It just seems like the sluggers get lazier after the break, or won’t get as many good pitches because opposing teams will now recognize further that the a derby champ is big hitter. I would think Alex Rios will only be hurt by doing well yesterday.

A little Japanese influence?

Hideki Okajima of the Red Sox and Chris Young of the Padres have won a trip to the all-star game thanks to internet voting. Okajima beat out Pat Neshek, Roy Halladay, Jeremy Bonderman and Kelvim Escobar while Young won the vote over defending Cy Young winner Brandon Webb, Carlos Zambrano and Tom Gorzelanny. Roy Oswalt was initially in the voting but was selected to replace John Smoltz who is nursing an injury.

Is it just me or is the fact that Okajima's 4.3 million or so votes over the course of four days smell a bit fishy? I think that some of those votes from the far-east may have swayed the scales in the Japanese player's favour.

It should also be fun to see if Young and Derrek Lee, who threw punches at each other a few weeks ago, will interact during the break. My money would be on them keeping their distance. Young also, ironically started his suspension resulting from the brawl earlier yesterday.

OJ Mayo shoots out lights

Well, actually it was kind of the opposite. At the McDonald’s All-American game Mayo, touted as ready-for-the-NBA by some scouts, shot a dastardly 4 for 17 from the floor. This only goes to prove that he could fit in perfectly with some of the lottery teams this year and only goes to discredit the horrible NBA age-limit.

The NBA last night

In jumping-the-gun news

Well, it turns out I opened my mouth, figuratively, before I looked up the facts. It seems I misheard a Sportscenter announcer and wrote yesterday that the Suns had already swept the West on the road, when, in fact, they still had to make it through Philadelphia last night. Looking at it again, it’s fairly obvious my words jinxed the Suns, a similar that my Shaun White article had for the X games. What is most shocking about this turn of events is the fact that the Suns, who many will pick to win it all, couldn’t take care of a team that had dealt their, by far, best player away in hopes of tanking the season for a shot at Oden or Durant. People shouldn’t be too confident in the Suns now.

Vegas backlash

After reports of shootings, violence and other crimes in Las Vegas over all-star weekend, Tracy McGrady has come forward and said that he would consider skipping next year’s all-star game in New Orleans if he didn’t feel safe. T-Mac, who is perennially voted to play in said game, may be onto something considering how the all-star festivities are scheduled to take place mere days before Mardi Gras. It will be very interesting to see if any other stars who are guaranteed to be voted to the Big Easy take up a similar stance to McGrady.

The Intern’s Take On: NBA All-Star Weekend

VIVVVAAAAA LAS VEGAS

Sunday night brought close to a momentous event in a very anti-climatic way. There were lots of ups and a lot of downs. The exciting 3-point competition was capped off with Hibachi shooting from behind the arc with one arm but there was also the less then stellar rookie game. Mark my words next All-Star weekend we will see history in the making as the Oden-led rookies will walk all over the sophomores. It will definitely be a sad state of affairs. It will also be the first time the sophomores will have lost since the league instituted this format.

Then there was the joke of a celebrity game which included an insanely juiced up Carrot Top. Seriously, what the hell is that guy on? Then there was life-sized “Ken” doll known as Wayne Newton; I haven’t seen that much plastic since the last time I took out the recycling. Finally, the exhilarating dunk-off showcased Gerald Green performing a Dee Brown-esque dunk over Nate Robinson: classic. The Judges showed no love for Dwight. Come On! He stuck a sticker of his face on the top of the back board mid dunk and then pulled out a measuring tape to measure how high it was: Classy.

The All-Star weekend’s plateau was the dunk comp because the actual All-Star game was lackluster at best. It really was a showcase of the West dominance over the measly East. It was basically like watching an NBA team play their D-league counterpart; except, at least, the D-League team would actually play as a team. It was actually quite scary how well the West gelled as a team. They set an All-Star record with 52 team assists and Kobe was still able to get his 20+ shots. Damn, I love watching west coast basketball. My major gripe with the game came at the hands of King James. Throughout the second half Lebron was playing like he really wanted that MVP trophy. He would march down the court not make a single pass and then jack up a shot. Good job James. What he failed to realize is that his team was down by 20 and he had no chance at the trophy.

On a different note, there were a couple of instances that did bring a smile to my face. Two of them included the big Diesel himself. The first one was when he followed up a missed dunk with a monster slam and finished with a kiss T-Mac’s forehead. Classic Shaq. Second was when point guard Shaq tried to take Memnut Okur off the dribble and threw up the ugliest shot of the night with Memo laughing at him the whole time. Finally, the highlight of my evening came with Agent Zero doing a through-the-legs dunk off the trampoline with all the dunking Elvises. It’s safe to assume that Eddie Jordan wasn’t too pleased. Consequently, Gilbert didn’t see the floor again for the rest of the evening. Yet again Gilbert Arenas’ hi-jinx made my day.

Dan, West trounce opponents

All-star weekend in Vegas has ended and no one even got shot, which, actually, is quite surprising. One can only hope this game leads to an actual team being placed in Sin City, or at least make all-star weekend there an annual event.

Skills Comp: In the final round, after Chris Paul and Lebron James didn't make too much effort to move forward, it came down to defending champ Dwayne Wade vs. Kobe Bryant. While Wade had a record setting time, it came down to Kobe proving that he still has learned to pass correctly by missing 4 straight attempts.

3-Point Shootout: I'm going to be straight-up honest and say that if I hadn't taken Mike Miller to win; my second choice was Jason Kapono. In fact, if I had seen a recent picture of Miller wearing his hair band like that, I would have picked Kapono. In case you didn't see where this paragraph was going, Jason Kapono won.

Slam Dunk Competition: In what was comparably a shoddy contest, my boy, G-Money, Gerald Green came out on top, nearly by default. Green busted out 2 of the 3 best dunks of the night to take the crown. One included teammate Paul Pierce laying the ball off of the side of the net, followed by Green dunking it. Green also jumped completely over defending dunk champion Nate Robinson similar to what Nate did last year over Spud Webb. Dwight Howard didn't make the finals but showed some innovation by slapping a sticker onto the backboard while dunking. The sticker ended up at an amazing 12' 6" showing that he could've done something great if Stern had allowed him to raise the rim.

The Game: Kobe showed that he was the star of All-Stars by winning the MVP at last night's all-star game. The West dominated a game that had plenty of offense and very little defensive effort. The only reason I even say "little" instead of "no defensive effort" is based upon the fact that Garnett did have that huge block on D-Wade and there was the occasion errant pass picked off. But if you expected a Spurs-style defensive lock up, you were watching the wrong channel. A 153-132 victory is pretty much the type of score-line you should expect to see. But this is what an all-star game is supposed to be about; a showcase of the game's most talented players proving what they can do.

The Prediction Challenge: We never claimed to be good at picking or wagering so I hope you didn't rely on our wisdom. The final score, including the three events that we didn't post on this site (Celebrity game, Rookie v. sophomore game and Barkley v. Bavetta) was 4-2 for I, Dan, who laid a smackdown of sorts on the lowly Intern.

Note: I took the West in the celebrity game, the Sophomores in the Rookie challenge and Barkley in the foot race. The Intern took the East, the sophomores and Bavetta.

Dan vs. The Intern: NBA All-Star Weekend

Here at the Ramblings we like to wager on sports. More so I like making picks on pretty every event that I can while the Intern isn't quite as inclined to do so. But considering this all-star game is being held in Las Vegas and the Intern is the biggest basketball fan I know, we're having a little contest of sorts here at the Ramblings to see who can pick better over all-star weekend. And if you think we're going to include the shooting stars contest, you must think that we consider that an actual event; not just an excuse to include the WNBA this weekend.

Skills Competition:

Dan: Wade nearly broke the record last year in this event but I don't think he has what it takes to bring it home this year. I would pick Chris Paul but I'm still not sold on him. So when in doubt, go with what you know. Pick: Kobe Bryant.

The Intern: I have disliked this comp since it was conceived. I feel that the skills challenge proves nothing and is about as useful as Dick Chaney. Hmmm, on that note I guess I will pick Chris Paul for no real reason.

3-Point Shootout

Dan: The NBA has put the races on equal terms for this competition with 3 white guys and black guys in this competition. I think a white boy will walk away with the title for the second year in a row; but it won’t be Dirk. Pick: Mike Miller

The Intern: For the 3 point comp I am going to have to give the nod to Dirk. With the confidence he is playing with this year I can definitely see him repeating. The only way I see him losing is if Gilbert is allowed to wear his Agent Zero All-Star jersey, then nobody stands a chance; there is still a 50 / 50 chance he won’t show up to the completion because of his little addiction to a certain Texas card game. He might be a little preoccupied.

Slam Dunk Contest:

Dan: Big men rarely get the love in this competition and with both Tyrus Thomas and Dwight Howard in, it leaves Gerald Green and Nate Robinson to choose from. I can't stand Nate and rumour has that Green's got something huge planned, how can I go against him. Pick: G-Money, Gerald Green.

The Intern: The most anticipated event of the whole weekend is the glorious dunk competition. My initial pick for this was Dwight then the all knowing Commissioner Stern vetoed Howard’s idea to raise the net to 12 feet. Good work Stern… Idiot. My pick is G-money just on the basis that it is G-money. So enjoy the festivities and I will be back with my analysis next week.

All-Star Game and MVP:

Dan: Anyone who knows anything about basketball over the past few seasons knows that the West is the dominant conference. But, it is hard to argue that, with all of the injuries that they've suffered, the West can pull by a team featuring Lebron, D-Wade and CB4. Pick: Eastern Conference All-Stars.

The safe bet for MVP is anyone not named Mehmet Okur but I've actually got to pick a player, not just who it won't be. Since I've picked the East to win, I pretty have to take one of their players here. I think that Lebron James nabs the award after being fed the ball from Dwayne Wade all night long. Pick: LeBron James

The Intern: I want to go with the West but my intuition and the fact that half of the West team is injured or not playing, I am giving the East the nod. For MVP, I am going to have to go with Hibachi. I have a feeling his vendetta tour will extend to the all-star game and if he is allowed to wear his Agent Zero jersey he will be able to wield the powers of Thor. Plus he has been playing like garbage for the last 2 weeks (vs. Portland 9 points? Come on) so he is out prove why he is sometimes referred to as the black Jesus. ‘Till then, stay classy Toronto.

Where have all the All-Stars Gone?

As we approach the NBA's all-star events this weekend, the stars seem to be bailing in favour of some mid-season time off. Several big names had already declared that they didn't want to play this weekend due to injuries. First, Yao Ming was voted to the start the all-star game while he was still on the injured list. Soon after, more and more stars came falling with assorted injuries. In fact, the West broke the record for most injured players named to an all-star team with 4. Carlos Boozer, Steve Nash and now Allen Iverson have all ducked out of the game with a bevy of injuries. In the East, it's looking as if Jason Kidd won't be playing on Sunday, according to reports that is. The list may not even stop at those names; on Tuesday night, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade both played through injuries. 'Melo sat out the fourth quarter with a quadriceps injury while D-Wade played through the pain of a muscle bruise.

The conspiracy theory going around is that players don't want to play in the game this year for more selfish reasons than to recover from injuries on the weekend off. Since the game is being held in Sin City, it's thought that players would rather attend swank parties instead of playing in a meaningless game.

PS. To give you an idea of how big the parties will be this Sunday, Michael Jordan is said to be looking to hire 75 dancers to perform at his 44th birthday party on Saturday night.

The Intern's prediction of: NBA All-Star Reserves

**Note from Dan: This was written pre-announcement**

I am sitting at my desk shaking with anticipation for the big announcement tonight on TNT. Tonight at 7pm the reserves for the All-star game will be finally revealed. This announcement will be definitely shrouded in a veil of controversy and goddamn it how I love controversy.

The major storyline I foresee tonight is will Melo be an All-star? I say hell ya! I know the argument against him is that he has only played 28 games due to the little dispute that took place at the Gardens, but think about it this way; he has played 4 times more games then Shaq and Mr. O’Neal is a starter. Furthermore, Melo is the league leading scorer, which is more then enough to qualify him for a spot on the hardwood. Now that I have got that little diatribe about Melo being an All-Star off my chest its time to get the good stuff and that is who I project to be a reserve.

Let’s start with the Leastern conference. Ben Gordon definitely needs to be an All-Star. He is leading the Bulls in scoring at 20+ a game and is Mr. Clutch in the fourth quarter. Next to him should be Jason Kidd. With 15-8-8, his numbers speak volumes, ‘nuff said. Onto the forwards, this is where it gets really tricky solely because the east is devoid of talented big men. JO gets the nod just by default and with the ankle injury to ‘Twan I have to give the other spot to Caron. There are only two true centers that are consistently producing in the east and they are Dwight Howard and Eddy Curry. I pick Howard out of contempt for Isiah Thomas. Remember the C.B.A.? Exactly, fuck you Isiah! The two wild cards I take are Michael Redd and Joe Johnson. That’s right, no love for Carter.

Onto the unstoppable juggernaut known as the Western Conference; Steve Nash: no explanation needed. Next to him I have to go with Deron Williams. Man, it’s scary how much Williams and Boozer remind me of the infamous Stockton – Malone combo. Now here comes the tricky part with the over-saturation of talented threes and fours in the West. I’m going to have to go with ‘Melo and the potential MVP, my boy, Dirk Nowitzki. Finally I’ve got to go with Amare as Center. My two wild cards are Shawn “I can do anything” Marion and Josh Howard. If you have any hate mail, feel free to comment. I’ll be back after the all-star reserves announcement.

J. Guy

The Intern's take on: NBA All-Star Starters

The starting Rosters are in for the upcoming all-star game and, for the most part, I actually agree with them. Being a Raptors aficionado, I absolutely love the fact that Agent Zero beat out VC. BURN IN HELL CARTER! Breathe Jeff; I need to stop myself now before I go into Anti-Vinsanity rant, you don’t want that. It was a pleasant surprise that my boy, CB4, beat out JO for the starting forward position.

Now I do have a few gripes about the outcome. First issue: how in the name of Zeus’s butt hole can anyone justify the Diesel getting the starting nod? He has played in a staggering 6 games all season, and is averaging 12 points and 6.5 boards. Give me a second to catch my breath because I am in complete awe of these sub-par stats. Even Eddy “I have an eating problem” Curry is having a better season then Shaq. I realize that Shaq Baby has been an All-star since the turn of the century, but this year he just shouldn’t make the cut.

I know, I know, the fans vote these All-Stars in but the league should institute a minimum number of games a player has to play to be eligible to participate in the All-Star festivities.

Now my main issues with the West is how can you not have somebody representing either the Suns or the Mavs? They are one and two in the league respectively. Since Yao has already announced that he will not be playing, I think that either Dirk should get the call or they could insert Nash and rotate the rest of the lineup. We shall find out soon. Finally, the rest of the roster will be announced on Today. It should be very interesting because of the lack of talent in the East and the abundance of awesomeness from the West. Till then.

J.Guy

NBA Wrap

Kobe Gets Screwed

After his elbow to Manu Ginobili of the Spurs, the league saw fit to suspend all-universe player Kobe Bryant for yesterday's game against the Knicks (which they lost in a close one). Despite Mamba's attempt for an appeal, the NBA ruled with an iron fist. It's a shame that the league won't make further moves to improve the Knicks, like, namely, throwing Isiah Thomas into a landfill somewhere near Newark.

Can Anybody Stop The Suns?

Apparently Kevin Garnett didn't get the league-wide memo that the Suns are really good. KG and his Timberwolves stopped the Suns' winning-streak. Garnett dropped 44 in the win and put a proverbial beat down on the Suns. Take that Nash.

All-Star Debacle! Say It Ain't So!

As much as you may not like Mark Cuban, you have to admit that he never fails to entertain in some way, shape or form. In his blog today Cuban mentioned an interesting subplot for this year's NBA All-Star game in Las Vegas. Is the city going to be able to handle the influx of that many people? I've been to Vegas during a seemingly lull-time of the year, during the week none the less, and it was still crazily busy. Would the city effectively shut down when one of the biggest party events of the year stops by town for a whole weekend? Just remember, Mark Cuban called it first.

NHL All-Star Day Two Wrap

In a severely spiteful move toward these very ramblings, Brian Rolston, Bill Guerin and Yanic Perrault of the Western Conference combined for eight points last night. Jason Blake and Justin Williams of the Eastern Conference outscored their hot shot teammates Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin by a margin of 4-1. This comes on the heels of my criticism that none of those deserved to be All-Stars just a few days ago. Well, a big thanks goes out to you guys; a big, sarcastic thanks.

While the game turned out to be high scoring, as per usual, it seems that American fans still didn’t really care. After the game ended, the score and relating story were posted on ESPN.com as the third story in the queue. The, I guess you would call it, headline story of the page was (and currently still is as of 11:36 AM) a magazine piece about a high school football player who is currently incarcerated for statutory rape. This story (which is a good read) was posted on the site at 5 PM last night. So, I guess hockey is most definitely a second class sport in the U.S. and will continue to be for a long a time. If the promise of Crosby and Ovechkin teaming up doesn’t draw fans, what will?

NHL All-Star Day One Wrap

The East wins the NHL All-Star Skills Competition

So what's the relevance behind this? Not too much actually. It's more for the fans and allowing the players to have some fun on a de-facto day off. Does this event have an affect on the All-Star Game? No. Does the All-Star Game have an affect on anything? No. So do the results mean anything at all? No. All we know now is that Andy MacDonald had the fastest lap out of the six guys participating, Marian Hossa and Eric Staal both hit four targets in five shots and that Zdeno Chara can shoot the puck harder than the guys he competed against. Oh, and never forget that Rick Nash can skate and stickhandle faster than a big defenseman. Just remember to take everything that happened at face value.

East holds off West in Young Stars Game.

In a game seriously lacking anything remotely resembling defensive play, the young guns from the Eastern Conference held off a comeback attempt from the West's kids 9-8. While it is fun to see what the future of the NHL can do, especially Evgeni Malkin, what kind of message it is sending to the kids who watch these future stars play and let their opponents walk around them? Their should be at least some effort put into defense in this game, if anything, not to just hang your goalie out to dry.

NHL unveils new jerseys, sort of.

What was anticipated to be the debut of the league's newly designed jerseys turned out to be the NHL and RBK showing off the All-Star game uniforms for tomorrow's game. Disappointment hit on another level as those jerseys very much resembled last year's get up. The event was nothing like it was anticipated to be and the new design for uniforms only look like a tighter, slightly more streamlined fit of the previous incarnations. It looks like we'll have to wait some more to get a glimpse of the new designs for the regular teams.

As a side note: each media member received an Eastern Conference jersey; the twist is that they were all size 54. It seems that the NHL thinks every sports journalist is quite big boned, to say the least.

Even More Thoughts About All-Star Games

Wait, the NHL's All Star Game is on a Wednesday? Better ratings than last two year's contests!

While in the past the NHL's All-Star game has usually been played on a Sunday afternoon or evening, that set up is basically a recipe for failure. If you were a sports fan and faced the option of watching the AFC or NFC championship games, or a meaningless contest of hockey, most would tune into football.

You're naming the site of the 2009 game before you've confirmed where the 2008 game will be? Makes more sense than hall of fame voting!

While it was still unconfirmed that Yankee Stadium would host the 2008 MLB All-Star game, Bud Selig didn't hesitate to name Busch Stadium in St. Louis as the host of the 2009 contest. What also struck me as odd in this turn of events is that the decision to hold the game in New York is a 180 of what has been occurring in recent years of the All-Star game. Commissioner Bud Selig has been making it a point, of late, to award the midsummer award to cities with recently built stadiums, as opposed to older venues. The Yankees last season in the house that Ruth built will be 2008 and I understand that this will be a celebration of the history behind the grounds. But with the current trend of newer stadiums as hosts, would the league not be better served by having the new Yankee Stadium host the game in 2010? Either way it is a good choice to have one of the Yankee Stadiums host in either '08 or '10. The real question is which one?

Another All-Star Controversy!

Is there any way that the sporting world can do away with the ridiculous every-team-must-be-represented rule for all-star games? Some of the snubs from the game this year are completely egregious. The game, like I've said before is supposed to be a showcase for the fans; shouldn't they be treated to watching the best players in the league rather then a slouch playing on St. Louis who has 33 points (Bill Guerin).

Marc Savard has 56 points and is by far the highest scorer on Boston, but with Zdeno Chara on the team and the Islanders needing to send someone, Jason Blake got the nod.

Yanic Perreault can now write NHL all-star on his resume, even though he's fourth on his own team in scoring. Both of the Sedin twins still don’t have that title, but should this year.

Usually Detroit has a high scoring team, but this year they haven't been lighting the lamp as often. Somehow, even after Nicklas Lidstrom was voted as a starter, Henrik Zetterberg was picked with a less than impressive stat-line.

Jarome Iginla was left off the squad but Brian Rolston wasn't. Chris Pronger, who is second in the league in defensemen scoring, will be watching the game from home, but Philippe Boucher will be playing.

There are some horrible choices to represent the teams with the poorer records. From Carolina, both Eric Staal and Justin Williams were selected over both Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour. Both Whitney and Brind’Amour, two cagey veterans, have more points then Williams and Staal.

Superstar Jaromir Jagr was held out of the game in favour of line-mate Brenden Shanahan. Jagr has been playing great and is in the top 10 scorers, Shanahan isn't that bad, but Jagr's snub is highly noticeable.

As for goaltenders, it turns out leading the league in goals against average (Hasek) or goaltending your team to the best record in the west (Giguere) won't get you a ticket to Dallas. Cristobel Huet got the close call over Ray Emery who could've made it as well.

It's understandable that the game means nothing (unlike baseball's midsummer classic) and people get too worked up over snubs, but some thought should be put into it. The NHL is still trying to draw fans in the U.S. but having inferior players in the all-star game isn't going to help.