Let's make NHL All-Star Weekend fun again

I’m not going to bore you with a long intro this time around. We’re going to get right into it. NHL All-Star Weekend sort of sucks, and I’m going to fix it. Here’s how.

1. Keep the 3V3 mini tournament

Keep the 3-on-3 mini-tournament, with the four teams. The worst thing about all-star games, especially in a contact sport like hockey, is when they try to look like actual games. This isn’t ana actual game. So admit it's more of a scrimmage that’s really just meant to be fun and clown for a bit. It’s hockey, it’s okay to have fun and not take things too seriously.

2. Bring back the draft

I loved the fantasy draft the NHL used for a short time. Let’s go back to that. Captains can be voted on by fans, as is the status quo, and then those captains snake-draft a team based on who of the four captains received the most votes. There were who people thought Ovechkin begging to be drafted last so he could win a car like Phil Kessel wasn’t fun. Those people were wrong because it was hilarious television watching one of the greatest goal scorers of all time, on national television going “DON’T PICK ME, I WANT THE CAR!” Things like that make the crafting of a team a bit of a spectacle, which is another reason to tune in. Maybe a player picks someone he played junior hockey with. Maybe someone passes over his teammate. The possibilities are endless.

3. Allow specialists to participate

This is another thig the NBA does well. Even if players aren’t selected to the actual All-Star game, they can still participate in the skill competitions if they choose. Which is great, because even though Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon didn’t make their All-Star teams in 2016, they gave us the greatest slam dunk contest of all humankind. The NHL should adopt this concept. I want to see if Zdeno Chara still has the hardest shot or not, I want to see who the real fastest skater in the whole league is, not just out of whoever gets invited to play in the All-Star game. I want a little more chaos.

4. Improve on the entertainment

Let’s be honest, the NHL’s choice of entertainment for the All-Star weekend festivities has borderline sucked. We had Drake one time, some people complained, and we were never allowed a nice thing again. Instead, we got stuck with Kid Rock, Green Day, and others. This is of no offense to those artists, but they aren’t exactly, current. The league needs to step slightly outside of their comfort zone and make an effort to get bands or artists that are more relevant by today’s standards. Green Day has some bangers. They just haven’t had a ton of hits for about 10 years (to my knowledge anyways, and again, apologies to any Green Day fans out there).