Resetting It to East vs. West

The NHL announced today that Nick Foligno of the Blue Jackets and Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks will be the captains for next weekend's All-Star Game in Columbus.  It's the first NHL All-Star Game in three years, but they're sticking with the format that they pioneered after there was no game in 2010 for the Olympics and has since been copied by the NFL.  It's not East vs. West.  It's not North America vs. the World.  It's Foligno vs. Toews.  The two captains are picking the teams.

When they first announced that this was going to be the All-Star Game format, I gave the NHL credit for trying something new and innovative.  After all, they had to do something to renew interest in a game that seems to be cancelled almost as often as it's actually played.  (This is only the sixth NHL All-Star Game in the decade since Lockout 1.0.)  But, while some elements of it (like the draft) are cool, this format has gotten old.  I'd very much like to see the NHL go back to East vs. West.

There are lots of reasons why I want the NHL to revert back to an East vs. West format.  The biggest being the fact that the NFL adopted it for the Pro Bowl, finding the only possible way to make that game stupider than Goodell had already made it.  But it's also because the "Fantasy Team" idea has simply gotten old.  Just like the North America vs. the World thing did. 

And this is the first All-Star Game since last season's realignment.  One of the things they did as a part of the realignment was change the schedule so that every team played a home-and-home with everyone else.  The main reason for that was so Western Conference fans could see Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and the like.  But in the All-Star Game, those lines are blurred.  Crosby and Evgeni Malkin might even end up on different teams.  When it's Canada vs. Russia in the Olympics, that's OK.  But who wants to see Pittsburgh's two best players play against each other in a midseason exhibition game?

Then there's the fan vote, which is a part of the All-Star Game in every sport that's not going away, which is fine.  But it's because of this format that you get Zemgus Girgensons, a guy on the Sabres that nobody's ever heard of, and five Blackhawks voted in as the six "starters."  By going back to East vs. West, you're doubling the number of players selected by the fans.  The game is for the fans, after all.

It's because of the Blackhawk ballot stuffing, and the NHL's rule that all 30 teams be represented, that players like P.K. Subban, Henrik Zetterberg and Henrik Lundqvist are being left home.  There are All-Star snubs every year in every sport, but by giving the host Blue Jackets three selections to go along with the five from Chicago, that leaves very little room for guys from other teams.

My biggest problem, though, is this.  The distribution is uneven.  There will be a total of ONE defenseman from an Eastern Conference team that will be participating in the All-Star Game--Carolina's Justin Faulk, and he might only be there because he's the token Hurricane.  Meanwhile, there are 16 forwards from the East and only eight from the West.  With the goalies, it's a little better.  Four from the East, two from the West, including "starter" Corey Crawford.  Amazingly, the overall breakdown works out to 21-21, but if you take out the five Blackhawks, that's only 16 players from the Western Conference that were actually selected, and nine of them were defensemen.

Now, I'm obviously much more familiar with the East than I am with the West, but I've gotta think there are enough players on Western Conference teams to fill an actual All-Star squad.  Likewise, the league's best goal-scorers all play in the East, but there's got to be at least a couple Eastern Conference defensemen that were worthy of selections. 

If I were in control and the NHL All-Star Game was East vs. West, here's what the teams would look like:

EAST
Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky (CLB), Jimmy Howard (DET), Carey Price (MTL)
Defensemen: Justin Faulk (CAR), Aaron Ekblad (FLA), Marek Zidlicky (NJ), Erik Karlsson (OTT), Mark Streit (PHI), John Carlson (WSH) 
Forwards: Patrice Bergeron (BOS), Zemgus Girgensons (BUF), Nick Foligno (CLB), Ryan Johansen (CLB), John Tavares (NYI), Rick Nash (NYR), Jakub Voracek (PHI), Sidney Crosby (PIT), Evgeni Malkin (PIT), Tyler Johnson (TB), Steven Stamkos (TB), Phil Kessel (TOR)

WEST
Goalies: Frederik Andersen (ANA), Corey Crawford (CHI), Pekka Rinne (NSH)
Defensemen: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ARI), Duncan Keith (CHI), Brent Seabrook (CHI), Drew Doughty (LA), Kevin Shattenkirk (STL), Dustin Byfuglien (WPG)
Forwards: Ryan Getzlaf (ANA), Jiri Hudler (CGY), Patrick Kane (CHI), Jonathan Toews (CHI), Alex Tanguay (COL), Tyler Seguin (DAL), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (EDM), Anze Kopitar (LA), Zach Parise (MIN), Joe Pavelski (SJ), Vladimir Tarasenko (STL), Radim Vrbata (VAN)