Hmm, an interesting experience. Every time I watch the skills competition, which is probably three out of every four years, I'm always reminded about the difference between hockey culture and basketball culture. Hockey is more similar to basketball than any other sport, much more so than hockey-baseball or hockey-football. Five players, one goal each to guard, the use of picks and screens, size down low, stuff like that. Yet the cultural differences are so extreme; basketball is a sport that encourages and celebrates players who not just can, but WILL win games by themselves. There's always minority voices talking about the lack of refinement in NBA players, most notably high school players (until that rule was changed), but for the most part NBA players get more recognition and more money if they play like Kobe Bryant: shoot anywhere, pass only if you're inbounding the ball, recognize that you're the best player and dammit, take charge! Unfortunate to some, but it's a game where one superstar can turn a bad team into a playoff team. Just look at Cleveland. If you have a star, you'd better not hold them back because you might cost your team wins.
Hockey's different. The game is faster, more mistakes are made, the best offensive players only play 20 minutes a game and if they even dare to showoff for even a second, someone will knock them on their ass. The top offensive players simply can't take over the game to the same degree; the defense is better, there's less space to be creative, goals are at a premium, and top players rely far more heavily on their supporting cast. The only player who can take over a hockey game on their own is a goalie, but Patrick Roy aside, that's not a position that lends itself to egoism and showboating. You'll find yourself humbled in a hurry. If you doubt that, just tune in to the next game and listen to the ex-goalie colour commentator. You wonder how they even leave their bed each day with such a profound lack of confidence. It's okay Hrudey, you were good, you really were! How about some hot soup?
Anyways, watching the skills competition reinforces that. Hockey players have showboating and fanciness beaten out of them at an early age, whereas basketball players have it encouraged and celebrated. Is it any wonder then that the James Duthie Shootout Spectacular had so many misses? Missing Crosby hurt the entertainment value, but you could tell most of the players just weren't getting it. Except for Ovechkin and St. Louis, who at least tried, most players looked uncomfortable and nervous. Datsyuk was a waste of time, Kovalchuk used his regular shootout move, and most of the players didn't score. Scoring probably didn't matter as Ovechkin got the fans into it without coming close, but guys, really, relax will ya? Maybe we expect too much, but, when you see 10-year olds on YouTube doing this, one expects that the PROS might do something other than a backhand-forehand deke. Oh Robbie Schremp, where are you?
I thought there was a few problems overall with this year's skills competition. The first event was too complicated, you could follow it but there wasn't any drama or excitement. That got the whole thing off to a slow start, especially considering the Atlanta fans didn't create much atmosphere. Take it out next year and stick to the basics: hardest shot, most accurate shot, fastest skater, best stickhandler, something for the goalies, then the judged shootout. There's some history to these events, records people remember (Ray Bourque, Al Iafrate) so you have to keep some continuity. Also, the thing just looked bad, either too dark or something, but in combination with some technical issues (fastest skater, Chara's first attempt in the Hardest shot) the event just looked cheap and low-grade. Like the camera-on-the-ice guy following the skaters, that sucked. Keep the normal camera angles, that way we can better compare to what we're used to seeing. Just use the experimental angles for replays. Keep the events simple and make sure the players watch the NBA Skills contest so they know what the NHL Dunk Contest should look like. There's tons of potential there. Using local judges was a great idea, maybe in cities with longer NHL history (like next year in Montreal) use alumni goalies instead. It'll only get better as players realize all that stuff they do in practice is actually incredibly impressive, so loosen up and have some fun!
Otherwise, it really wasn't bad. The YoungStars game was pretty good, some nice goals, great saves, but there should be YoungStar goalies too, shouldn't there? Carey Price vs. Mike Smith? Nice and short game too, with pond hockey rules to keep the pace moving. The Accurate shot is always great to watch, Lecavalier hit 103 mph (!), and Horcoff confirmed what pretty much everyone knew going in: he is the World's Fastest Skater. Game on tomorrow and despite what everyone says about the game, it's usually pretty entertaining. Shut up and enjoy it, any more complaints and some idiot will propose that the winning conference gets home-ice advantage in the Finals. Yeah you're right, that's pretty stupid isn't it?
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