One of the stranger news stories to come down the pike in a while was in a report from TSN that there will be a full scale overhaul of the All-Star Game at this year's game in Carolina.
According to the report, the team selection methods used in the past will be scraped. Fan's will still vote for the starting line-ups, but the remaining 36 players will be selected by a group from the NHL hockey operations staff.
Once this is done, Captains and Alternates will be chosen from the teams. Then, a "draft" or a "pick 'em" a la backyard pick-up games will be done to choose sides.
On the surface, this sounds like something that you would read from Intent To Blow or Down Goes Brown but this appears to be a legitimate proposal that should be confirmed soon.
It appears that the NHL has finally recognized that the All-Star game has lost its luster in recent years, being over shadowed by the Winter Classic.
This is basically a gimmick to bring attention back to a game that many folks avoid as being irrelevant in the big picture of NHL Hockey.
Will it be a success? Probably this year it will draw more folks to the pregame programming and many will watch to see how the games turn out.
I will reserve final thoughts until the actual format is revealed but it will be interesting to see if the captains actually studiously try to put a team together or pick players that they know or have played with before.
Finally, it appears that the one thing that everyone has zeroed in on is not who will be picked first, but who will be last. You have to be a top player to be selected to the event, but there will still be the stigma of the last pick that many kids experienced in every school yard sport for the last hundred years.
You have to give the NHL credit for trying something different if nothing else. We will see how it turns out.
In Pred Nation...
Jim Diamond chatted with Barry Trotz at Tuesday's practice and Trotz is not displeased with the teams effort in the recent losing streak.
Bryan Mullen looks at Ryan Suter's return to the ice and has a notes column that included words from a reflective Barry Trotz.
David Boclair has reactions from Ryan Suter and Mary Erat after their non-contact skate on Tuesday.
Ryan Porth calls for a quick rebound for the Preds starting with this week's games.
Paul McCann previews his special edition of SlapShot radio tonight at 6 p.m. on WNSR where he will discuss the movie "SlapShot" with a couple of cast members from the movie.
The Preds really need to do something worth reviewing so Chris Burton can break down a Preds goal. He takes a look at Paul Mara's game winner here. It is a really good analysis.
Dirk Hoag looks at who would sit when Suter and Erat return. Dirk also has the audio of Terry Crisp on the new noon-3:00 show on WNSR.
Robby at Hockey Night in Nashville takes an early look at Thursday's game against the Blues.
Around the NHL...
Kevin Allen has a good summary of topics from the NHL GM Meeting in Toronto yesterday. It appears to have been a lot of discussion with everything tabled to the next meeting in March.
Launy "The" Schwartz has new videos up from the Hall of Fame weekend events in Toronto. Pat Quinn, Paul Coffey, and Al Iafrate are up so far at Hockey 54.
Versus is starting a new show on November 15 called NHL Overtime. It will be a one hour show that will run at 10 p.m. Central in the time slot previously occupied by the defunct "The Daily Line."
Tom Reed from the Columbus Dispatch has an argument from a few Blue Jackets that keeping your head up is the best way to avoid injury in the current NHL.
Michelle Kenneth has the latest update on the New Jersey Devils. For all the hoopla about how bad the Devils have been, they are still close enough to the pack that putting together a few wins would move them back into the thick of the division race.
From the Rink has five reasons why the St Louis Blues are not a surprise. I still feel like the long season will bring them back to earth sooner than later.
Adrian Dater has a nice story about Peter Budaj's Christian faith and how it has helped him throughout his career.
Dan Ellis is aware of the "Fake Dan Ellis" Twitter account and discusses his social media experience at the National Post. Dan also had a shutout against the Leafs in Tampa last night.
Kevin Allen looks at the potential HHOF class for 2011. He also discusses the social media aspect of the GM's meeting and that the GM's don't know enough about it to come up with a policy.
Per The Fourth Period, Gary Bettman really wants to be the MLB Commish. Also, he's not going to get it.
Sports Business Daily has the latest on the competition for the next NHL TV deal. NBC/Versus wants to submit a joint bid but ESPN also appears to want back in the picture.
Finally, it can't go without mention when the most over paid player in hockey scores a goal. RLD has a video of Derek Boogaard's goal against the Caps. Unofficially, per Sean Leahy, that leaves Wade Belak as the player with the longest non-goal steak at 121 games.
Odds and Ends...
For Wheel of Fortune fans, this woman solved a seven word phrase with one letter.
More Later...
Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass
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