Thursday January 26, 2012
It's nearly 80 years since Eddie Shore took down Irvine "Ace" Bailey with a slew foot, ending Bailey's NHL career and nearly ending his life.
And that's how the NHL All-Star Game was born.
The idea was surely already percolating - the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game had been played the previous summer.
But Shore's cheap shot and Bailey's brain surgery quickened the agenda.
Two months after the incident, on February 14, 1934, the NHL staged the Ace Bailey Benefit Game.
The Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs hosted a team of "All-Stars" from the rest of the league, with Bailey in attendance to present the jerseys and shake hands with everyone - including Eddie Shore.
Other benefit games followed, in the wake of other tragedies, before the All-Star showcase was adopted as an annual event in 1947.
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Photo: Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were linemates at the 1997 NHL All Star Game in San Jose. (Glenn Cratty/Getty Images).
Monday January 23, 2012
The hockey calendar continues to unfold, with all eyes now turning to the NHL Trade Deadline.
(The trade deadline is often characterized as "Christmas for hockey fans," though the offerings under the tree can be very meager in some years.)
February 27 is the big day, the final chance for disappointed non-playoff teams to dump the excess baggage, and for optimistic playoff-bound teams to take it on.
So Tim Gleason, Hal Gill, Teemu Selanne, Drew Stafford, Sam Gagner, Marek Zidlicky, Ales Hemsky, Bobby Ryan, Josh Harding, Ryan Suter, and many others are advised to avoid major purchases and keep an overnight bag packed for the next few weeks.
Photo: Will Bobby Ryan (L) and Ryan Suter have new homes by the end of February? (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
Sunday January 15, 2012
Google "NHL All Star snub" and you'll find much debate over who does or doesn't deserve to be in Ottawa on the last weekend in January.
It's an obligatory, empty talking point in every hockey season.
Almost nobody cares who suits up for the NHL All Star Game, and nobody expects to see the 40 or 50 top players based on a half-season of performance.
But it's big media event, with reporters flocking to All Star weekend like birds to a wire.
So for a few days in January, everyone has to keep up the pretense that it's about hockey.
It's not. It's a party. Here's the complete list of who's invited this year.
2012 NHL All Star Game Roster and Voting Results
Schedule of events:
- Thursday, January 26, 8:00 PM ET: All Star Player Fantasy Draft
- Saturday, January 28, 7:00 PM ET: All Star Skills Competition (CBC, RDS, NBC Sports Network)
- Sunday, Jan. 29, 4:00 PM ET: 2012 NHL All Star Game (CBC, RDS, NBC Sports Network)
Photo: Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks at the 2011 NHL All Star Game (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images).
Tuesday January 10, 2012
If hockey's chattering classes are to be believed, last week marks the beginning of a new NHL labor war.
The NHL Players' Association wouldn't sign off on the league's conference realignment plan. So the league shelved the scheme, and got a bit snippy about it.
The first step to an inevitable shutdown when the collective agreement expires in September?
Or just another ordinary episode in what has always been a testy relationship?
Unless one side or the other is hellbent on breaking the entire system, the next NHL CBA will come down to five major issues.
If they can find compromise in those areas, NHL hockey will begin on time in the fall of 2012.
See Also:
Photo: Could the next NHL collective agreement seal the fate of Shane Doan and his Phoenix Coyotes? (Christian Petersen/Getty Images.)
