NHL players express discontent with All-Star format
Hockey fans are mostly united in their disappointment with recent NHL All-Star formats but this season's edition brought criticism from some of the league's players, including Trevor Zegras, who tweeted a snooze emoji during the game.
Video Transcript
SAM CHANG: It's such a chicken and egg thing. Everyone's like, who cares about the All-Star game. It's like, OK, but the whole point is you don't care about it because they've made it such an unappealing format, an unappealing event. Like, and you know what? I would rather have the players straight up be like Kirill Kaprizov and be like, I don't care about being here. Like, he fully just owned it instead of not even committing to not wanting to be there.
JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's true. He legit switched out of an event, right?
SAM CHANG: That was so funny.
JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's crazy.
AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: Oh my God.
JULIAN MCKENZIE: Like, he didn't-- he generally just did not care. Could you imagine if he were like watching like the NBA All-Star weekend. And like some like dunker we're all waiting to see, he was like, I don't want to do the dunk contest and just switched out like minutes before he's supposed to go. That would be insane.
AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: But those are-- the NBA, they make those events appealing. They make it fun. Like, the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl game's in Vegas this week. And the players who've taken part were all laughing, and enjoying it, and having a good time. They wanted to be there. They had fun.
JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, they looled like they were having a lot of fun
- The NHL can't-- the NHL can't touch anything that the-- they're not even close. Even as we speak, there are trades-- trade events happening all over the NBA and people are going nuts. Every year, NBA fans look for the big trade. Stars are moved every single year. And what do we get in the NHL? Oh, we get a conditional seventh. We get some salary retention, right? There's nothing. No one can do anything.
SAM CHANG: The Canucks traded their captain.
JULIAN MCKENZIE: Bo Horvat.
SAM CHANG: What else do you want?
