National Hockey League tries to fix its All-Star Game

According to multiple reports, the league will scrap a traditional 60-minute, 5-on-5, three-period format – a format which the league has long tinkered with in efforts to ramp up interest in the game – and instead hold three 20-minute mini-tournaments during its showcase event on the final day of January in Nashville, Tenn.

Yeah, the All-Star Game will actually be a series of three games.

Players from the two divisions in the Eastern Conference – the Atlantic and Metropolitan – will face each other in one game, and players from the two divisions in the Western Conference – the Central and Pacific – will meet in the other game. The Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions will compete against the Pacific and Central divisions in 20 minute, three on three games.

The players’ union has reportedly agreed to the changes and, according to McKenzie, an announcement could be made as early as Wednesday.

McKenzie reported that there could be as much as $1 million on the line for the winners, which with divisional rosters of 11 players (nine skaters and two goaltender) would be close to a $100,000 payday for the all-stars. Who could forget Phil Kessel being selected last in 2011, the first year there was a fantasy draft, and Alex Ovechkin gleefully snapping his photo (or, for that matter, Ovechkin angling to be chosen last in 2015 so he could get a car)? Or when Nick Foligno, a team captain, traded Tyler Seguin for Kessel previous year, a nod to the real-life trade that took place involving those players?

The all-star game has been deemed by many as nearly unwatchable. Time will tell if the new format carries on the tradition.