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ASG to become 3-on-3 Tournament

CarltonTheBear

CarltonTheBear

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This has been rumoured for quite some time now, but Bob McKenzie is saying that it will be officially announced today. The 5-on-5, 60 minute All-Star game will be replaced with a 3-on-3 tournament. Games will be 20 minutes each.

What to expect from the All-Star Game appears to be as follows: Each division (Metropolitan, Central, Pacific and Atlantic) will be made up of nine or ten skaters and two or three goaltenders. The two Eastern Conference divisions (Atlantic, Metropolitan) and Western Conference divisions (Pacific, Central) will face off in a 20-minute, 3-on-3 game. The winning division from each side will then play a final game to determine an All-Star Game champion.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/allstar/2015/11/17/nhl-all-star-game-3-on-3-divisional-tournament/75970168/
Click to expand...

The fantasy player draft has also been scrapped. I haven't cared about the ASG for awhile now but the fantasy draft did seem to be a pretty fun idea. If only because we got to see a bunch of hockey players completely hammered.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
This has been rumoured for quite some time now, but Bob McKenzie is saying that it will be officially announced today. The 5-on-5, 60 minute All-Star game will be replaced with a 3-on-3 tournament. Games will be 20 minutes each.

What to expect from the All-Star Game appears to be as follows: Each division (Metropolitan, Central, Pacific and Atlantic) will be made up of nine or ten skaters and two or three goaltenders. The two Eastern Conference divisions (Atlantic, Metropolitan) and Western Conference divisions (Pacific, Central) will face off in a 20-minute, 3-on-3 game. The winning division from each side will then play a final game to determine an All-Star Game champion.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/allstar/2015/11/17/nhl-all-star-game-3-on-3-divisional-tournament/75970168/
Click to expand...

The fantasy player draft has also been scrapped. I haven't cared about the ASG for awhile now but the fantasy draft did seem to be a pretty fun idea. If only because we got to see a bunch of hockey players completely hammered.
Click to expand...

Good Lord, there's going to be a lot of goals.
 
bustaheims said:
Honestly, this will probably be a lot more entertaining that the All Star Game has been in years.
Click to expand...

It could really go either way I think. I mean if the teams are scoring every other shift it could get pretty stale pretty quickly. I don't have any problem with them giving it a shot though.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
It could really go either way I think. I mean if the teams are scoring every other shift it could get pretty stale pretty quickly. I don't have any problem with them giving it a shot though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but, at the same time, I think we'll see a lot more fun plays and stuff like that than we get to 5 on 5, even if the players are kind of slacking. I think they'll see this as an opportunity to show off a little, and they'll have some fun with it - and maybe even have some real energy.
 
bustaheims said:
Yeah, but, at the same time, I think we'll see a lot more fun plays and stuff like that than we get to 5 on 5, even if the players are kind of slacking. I think they'll see this as an opportunity to show off a little, and they'll have some fun with it - and maybe even have some real energy.
Click to expand...

Definitely possible. I'm just worried it'll be half-hearted 2-on-1s after half-hearted 2-on-1 until somebody scores. Then again, I guess the regular all-star games aren't that different. To be honest I wouldn't really know I'm pretty sure the last one that I watched was when Heatley scored 5 goals or something.
 
No defense gets played anyway, I don't know what the point of 3 on 3 is? It will basically turn into a shootout, breakaway after breakaway. You might as well cancel the game and improve the skills competition.
 
They did this years ago on CBC and it was really entertaining. I remember a team of MacCauley, Mike Johnson, Warriner, and Cujo. They played on "ponds" outside (smaller rinks).
 
The league also announced that the winning team will win $1mil to split between them. Split 10 ways that might not mean a ton to the best players of the game, but I hope that there's one guy with a ton of debt that just plays his ass off the entire tournament.
 
The concept has potential, but if the guys are going to half ass it like every other all-star game, it'll be ever more cheesy than the regular one.
 
Peter D. said:
The concept has potential, but if the guys are going to half ass it like every other all-star game, it'll be ever more cheesy than the regular one.
Click to expand...

Some are suggesting that with 3-on-3 there will be less room for players to "hide" so they might try to skate a little harder. All depends I guess on if they want to be embarrassed for not skating on national TV.

With the league trying some more radical ideas like this and the two unique teams in the upcoming World Cup, I wonder if a future 3-on-3 ASG tournament might finally give fans something they've been wanting to see for a little while, separate "Team Canada's". Maybe the season after the World Cup the 4 teams for the ASG could be Canada West, Canada East, USA, and Team Europe. They'd have to make sure it makes sense in terms of each team having enough All-Stars on it, but I don't think that would be an issue.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
Some are suggesting that with 3-on-3 there will be less room for players to "hide" so they might try to skate a little harder. All depends I guess on if they want to be embarrassed for not skating on national TV.
Click to expand...

Considering the sloppy nonsense we've seen in regular season 3 on 3 it seems pretty unlikely that people will step their effort up for an all-star game.
 
With the CBC tournament years ago, it was on smaller rinks; 1/2 size I think.

I think a 3-on-3 tournament on the full rink is asking for trouble. As Nik suggested, people aren't stepping up their game for an all-star game. If it's going to be 3-on-3, they've got to cut down the ice area.
 
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