All star games in general do not generally impress the fans of a particular sport, nor are a good TV product. The only 
exceptions to this general rule would be the MLB All Star Game and the NASCAR all star race. I think that is true because those two events most closely resemble the regular contests we tune in to watch.
The NFL, NHL, and NBA versions of the All Star game do not resemble the actual product of those leagues, and therefore the fans at home generally are high critical of them, and rightly so.
No All star game or Skills competition is hated more by traditional sports fans then the NHL version. Their skills competition is so far removed from what I thought Hockey was that I could not stand to watch it. Even my wife, who pretty much hates all sports anyways, was highly critical of this clowned up NHL farce.
With that being said Sports Business Journal is reporting that the NHL All Star Game had about 1.1 million viewers, which is an increase of 27.6% over the 852,000 viewers this event drew in 2008.
The Skills competition drew in 875,000 viewers up 44.6% over the 605,000 viewers it drew one year ago.
These numbers should be very encouraging to the NHL. Not only are people starting to care about this league again they are tuning in to watch even though the games are nearly impossible to find on the Versus cable network.
As I see it the NHL has two fundamental problems. First The regular season is far too long, and the playoffs are so long that it makes the regular season meaningless. The second being that this is a sport that’s not all that TV friendly
Casual hockey fans do not start caring about this league until April. Even finding a sports show on ESPN that deals with it day to day is tuff. The simple fact here playoff hockey is great, regular season hockey isn’t and really that is the bottom line.
Hockey is about impossible to follow on a TV broadcast. The puck moves so fast it is difficult to follow and since so much of the action takes place away from the puck the TV cameras never seem to catch it. It turns fans off to it, me included. I like to go to live games were I am in control of what I watch, but on TV hockey is sub par at best.
Still a sports still suffering from debilitating strike, a bad TV contract, and probably the worst Commissioner in the sporting world a strong showing for the All Star game is at least encouraging.
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