All-Star game
in Dallas promotes hockey in Texas
Michail Boncea (HV)
The NHL All-Star game is not about
playing defense, it is about scoring as many goals
as possible and showcasing the younger players and
the offensive talent while trying to promote the game
especially in the USA. As an example since the game
is being played in Dallas, this is the perfect time
to do a bit of showcasing about how much hockey has
grown in the Dallas area. In 1993 the Dallas Stars
were born when Minnesota Stars moved there. At that
time about 50 kids played hockey in Dallas area now
over 8000 do so. As well another example being that
back then only 1 high school in the Dallas area had
a hockey team, now over 70 high schools have a hockey
team! This NHL All-Star game is also the coming out
party for both Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin
to name just two of the young current NHL Super Stars
that will be leading the league in points for years
to come.
If you plan to watch this year All-Star
Game only 13 of the 42 players from the 42 players
of the 2004 All-Star Games are back with a majority
of the players playing in the Wednesday All-Star game
being their first time. This All-Star game will be
something that hockey fans would not forget for a
while to say the least since they will be seeing both
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin playing on the
same line for the first time ever in a game. Many
traditional fans would argue that the All-Star game
now is not truly showcasing the best NHL talent players
since after the fans voted players are added automatically
to the All-Star game, the rest of the teams are made
up of players from each team in the league. In doing
so Super Star players like Mark Savard, Jarome Inginla
and the Sedin brothers to name just few players are
not part of the All-Star game this year. Though the
NHL is saying that it wants all the fans of each team
to enjoy the game so in doing so they have to send
a player from each team. No matter if you believe
that the current modern NHL All-Star Game format is
the best one or not, you can’t miss the fact that
the players that will play on the ice on Wednesday
are truly world class hockey players. Many people
would argue that the current NHL is so deep in talent
that they can literally have two NHL All-Star games
instead of one to try to showcase all the current
Super Star talent in the league.
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Photo: Longtime
Dallas Stars defensman Sergei Zubov.
© Michail Boncea (HV) |
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