Ryan Miller had it half right this week.
"This is going to be remembered as their first game," the Buffalo Sabres goaltender, who started for the Eastern Conference All-Stars, said in reference to Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.
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| Alex Ovechkin (right) had one goal in the All-Star Game, while Sidney Crosby was shut out. (AP) |
While Crosby, the 19-year-old Pittsburgh Penguins star, and Ovechkin, the 21-year-old Washington Capitals franchise, are the horses the NHL has been trying to ride back to relevance since the lockout ended, the league took its hype of the dynamic young duo to new levels during the All-Star festivities, in effect making the entire show all about them.
It was a logical approach, considering the on-ice events were expected to be, and in fact became, duds. The All-Star Game itself was only slightly more watchable than the skills competition and the Young Stars contest that took place the night before, thanks to half-hearted efforts by players either too overwhelmed by the new experience of being there or too jaded to really care.
But there were Crosby and Ovechkin for the league to peddle. And the two were front and center at everything from a splashy Reebok presentation to introduce its much-hyped re-designed uniforms to media day, where they were the only players to be distinguished from the pack by getting podium press conference treatment.
They were even a central part of the scheduling issue that was contentiously debated at the league's Board of Governors meeting. In fact, it was virtually impossible to read or hear anything about the event in Dallas -- which was the biggest sports story in town until Bill Parcells packed it in -- without one or both of their names being brought up.
Crosby and Ovechkin handled it well, which isn't surprising considering both have received more than their fair share of attention since arriving in the NHL. But neither has subjected to the kind of crunch players face late in the playoffs, when much of the national media converges in one place. That's what happened in Dallas.
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What made it interesting was seeing them face the hordes at the same time. It highlighted their distinctive personalities and made one wonder whether they will spend their careers providing a Magic and Bird effect for the NHL, or whether one will emerge as the Michael Jordan type to singularly stand out above everyone.
Right now, it would be hard to choose one or the other on the ice because both have displayed rare excellence and flair. But off the ice, Crosby has a built-in advantage because of language, and he has moved ahead as a spokesman and commercial endorser, even if he has a bland Pete Sampras-like quality to his personality.
Crosby is polite, well-spoken, photogenic and polished well beyond his years, but ask him a softball question such as who has been this season's MVP, and he'll launch into a vanilla response about how there are so many guys, it's so long a season, it depends on who makes the playoffs, and yada, yada, yada.
Ask Ovechkin the same question a moment earlier, and you get a big laugh when he responds simply: "Crosby." His English is still a work in progress, but his efforts to answer questions seem to charm audiences as much as his child-like enthusiasm and give him a star quality.
So take your pick. Right now, everybody, including the players, seems pretty excited by them.
"I think it's a great thing the league has got right now and they've got to make the best of it," New Jersey's Martin Brodeur said. "This is the future of the NHL. You've got to promote these guys as much as you can. We've done our duties. We've been everywhere. To see those young superstars willing to do what they're doing, more power to them."
You say something too, Dubya?
It was sheer coincidence, no doubt, that commissioner Gary Bettman delivered his annual state of the union address on the same day the president of the United States did his.
Presumably there was no attempt at message coordination among their speech writers, but Bettman did paint a fairly rosy picture about the situation on the ground and did ask the public to be patient with a strategy most believe is not working.
Hmmm.
OK, so the stakes aren't nearly as high when Bettman rattled off glowing attendance figures that belie what is visible in many arenas around the league and trumpeted the value of a television deal that effectively keeps games away from too many potential viewers. But what stood out most about his remarks was when he told people to step back and allow the three-year scheduling cycle to run its course.
"I'm a big believer that in a competitive business, when you have expectations, you need to fulfill those," Bettman said. "There was a three-year expectation that was laid out."
In other words, we're moving according to plan, folks, regardless of what people want. The imbalanced schedule, which is heavily weighted toward divisional and conference play, has been a bone of contention since it was introduced following the lockout. Veterans like Joe Sakic and Olaf Kolzig have said publicly there are many players sick of facing the same teams so often, and many organizations complain it shafts them from a travel cost and convenience perspective because of their geography.
But Bettman admitted he doesn't have quite the pull of some other chief executives when it comes to making changes. The commissioner said there was a tweaked schedule he would have been comfortable with, but not enough of the governors would go along.
"While some of you think I throw lightning bolts, the fact is I do report to a board," Bettman said.
Star from the Stars
If they gave out an award for best overall performance at the All-Star festivities, Dallas goalie Marty Turco would win hands down.
He was the master of the one-liner all week, starting with the press conference to introduce the new Reebok uniforms when he turned to the mannequins and wondering whether "anybody going to ask a question of the Staal brothers?"
But he did his best work on the ice, when he wore a microphone for his third-period appearance and communicated regularly with the Versus broadcast crew. At one point during a conversation he asked to "hang on, I've got to play this," as a puck went behind the net, and then a little later, he mused out about getting the win should he allow the East's Sheldon Souray to score.
Souray did and Turco, for the record, won the game. Call it his consolation prize.
They said it
• "We don't do things that way, what would be the margin? If he got elected, he got elected. The fans would have spoken. The reason you have fans involved is you want fans to have fun with it. My guess is the "Elect Rory" campaign was probably a catalyst for lots of voting. The fact is we had 27 million votes cast in six weeks. I think the fans and Rory had fun with it. That's a good thing, and it probably ran out of steam." -– Bettman on suggestions the league might have rigged the voting to prevent journeyman Rory Fitzpatrick from being elected.
• "We made a mistake in the third period because there were three guys (Brian Rolston, Yanic Perreault and Rick Nash ) with opportunities for hat tricks, and we only put them together in the last four minutes. We should have done that quicker." -- West coach Randy Carlyle.
• "My kids aren't here, and I will probably get more sleep. When you have kids, you realize the best part of being on the road is uninterrupted sleep." -- New York Rangers forward Brendan Shanahan on why he was looking forward to his eighth All-Star Game.
• "Brendan Shanahan was in his eighth All-Star Game, but admitted he might enjoy this the most. I don't know. We'll see how hard my center is going." -- Martin St. Louis on whether he would be playing at the clichéd 110 percent.
