Gary Bettman directly asked Connor McDavid for help
The NHL's All Star Game and Skill Competition has been on a steep decline in the last few years. Recently in an article for the Athletic, Chris Johnston reported that the NHL watched last year's all-star game go horribly wrong, and immediately reached out to McDavid to help correct the course.
[The 2023 All-Star Skills Competition] was still fresh in Gary Bettman's mind when he traveled to Edmonton late last February. Fresh enough that the NHL commissioner made a point of pulling aside Connor McDavid for a chat.
Bettman wanted to know what the league's most skilled player thought could be done to fix the competition.
Bettman wanted to know what the league's most skilled player thought could be done to fix the competition.
According to Johnson, Gary Bettman and other senior league officials knew the Florida All Star Game was a disaster while they watched it, and immediately knew they needed to take action to save the event from becoming entirely irrelevant.
It quite frankly jumped the shark last February in Fort Lauderdale, with pretaped segments that saw players firing pucks on a golf course and triggering dunk tanks on the beach.
Senior league officials knew as they watched at Amerant Bank Arena that the concept was broken.
Senior league officials knew as they watched at Amerant Bank Arena that the concept was broken.
In February of last year, Bettman flew to Edmonton and discussed with McDavid how to fix the NHL All Star Game and Skills competition. Specifically for the skills competition, McDavid served as a primary consultant on how to run the event.
�I was excited about it,' McDavid told the Athletic. �I think the previous skills competitions were going a little gimmicky, a little out there, but I'm excited that it's going to be normal skills that we would use on the ice. I think that's ultimately we want.'
McDavid help pick the actual skills that will be featured in the competition, and came up with idea of a $1M prize being awarded to the winner to incentivize the players to actually try.
Hopefully with these changes and the input coming directly from the best player in the world himself, tonight's All Star Skills Competition will be the best in years.
| POLL | ||
Will you watch the Skills Competition or All Star Game this year? | ||
| Skills Competition | 180 | 23.4 % |
| All Star Game | 92 | 11.9 % |
| Both | 312 | 40.5 % |
| Neither | 186 | 24.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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