The Martlet

The 2012 National Hockey League All-Star Weekend is upon us, as the league takes a break to put on a light-hearted, fun weekend of festivities in Ottawa, Ont. This year is the second iteration of the all-star draft format, where two captains pick their teams from a preselected group of players, as opposed to the traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference All-Stars (and some might even remember the North America vs. World experiment of the early 2000s).

This year’s captains are Ottawa’s Daniel Alfredsson and Boston’s Zdeno Chara, who has already been rumoured to have no interest in selecting any Vancouver Canucks onto his team. Alfredsson has selected Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist as his assistant captain, while Chara has opted for Toronto winger Joffrey Lupul.

Six all-stars were fan-voted into the game, including four Senators: Alfreddson, young defenseman Erik Karlsson, centre Jason Spezza and winger Milan Michalek. Joining them are Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas and Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf. The remaining players were selected by the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA). Four Canucks will represent Vancouver — both Henrik and Daniel Sedin and Alex Edler will play in the All-Star game, while rookie centre Cody Hodgson will participate in both the skills competition and the YoungStars 3-on-3 game.

The All-Star Weekend serves as a much needed break for NHL players. More importantly, the break serves as the point of the season in which general managers analyze their teams and determine whether or not they are going to make a playoff push, leading to heavy trade speculation and potential deals before the February 27 trade deadline.

Finally, and most importantly, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Donald Fehr are beginning negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). With the current CBA set to expire at the conclusion of this season, fans are faced with the threat of another lockout.

While some fans may not like the stoppage of regular games, this weekend is ultimately for young fans of the game to see their favourite players together at one time. For the rest of you, the gravity of this weekend’s off-ice meetings is surely more than enough to get you through the lull of regular season games.

Thursday, Jan. 26 – Fantasy Draft, 5 p.m. (TSN) Saturday, Jan. 28 – Skills Competition, 4 p.m. (CBC) Sunday, Jan. 29 – All-Star Game, 1 p.m. (CBC)