End of Season Congestion
February is a short month and the superstars of this great game aren’t going to need much convincing by the end of it either. The month kicks off with the All-Star game on the 2nd in Los Angeles, before returning to club action for two weeks, and then the coveted Winter Olympics from Salt Lake City starts February 15th.
Is this all too much? The elite players of the game will be competing non-stop, while the rest will have a considerable break. This isn’t about inequity, they’re highly paid athletes, but is the schedule at that point too arduous?
The question is, do the all-stars really want to compete in the all-star game? Easy…of course they do, or do they? Daniel Alfredsson and Curtis Joseph certainly don’t mind if they don’t. Two Olympians and certain All-Star candidates who acknowledge the strain that this time of the season (especially in this Olympic year) will have.
It’s just one game, but perhaps it’s the potential innappropriateness that may doom the All-Star game. It’s on the same weekend as Super Bowl XXXVI, and really, isn’t the entire Ice-Hockey tournament of the Olympics going to be like an All-Star fortnight?
Ratings may be important, and who knows how they will fare, but important too is tradition: the All-Star Game has been shown for 52 years, but
it’s a difficult scenario when great players don’t necessarily want to play.