The NHL All Star game will be in town here in Raleigh, this weekend and I am severely stoked. I will be at both events and likely lurking around the convention center on Friday and Saturday afternoon as well. The hope is to score a wristband to get in and watch the fantasy draft for the teams on friday and possibly score some pics with a player or two. I consider myself a huge hockey fan as a whole, but even I don’t watch the whole All Star game each year. Instead like most I tend to look forward to the skills competition on Saturday night like everyone else. Each of the big four sports have all star games and every one of them suck. No one cares one bit. Sure, the MLB AS game has home field attached to it for the winners side in the World Series, but still no one really cares out there. I think they want to be named MVP for prizes or win the game for the bonus money a bit more. The skills competition however, is the real deal. It’s the most fun to watch of all the all star weekends of all the sports. MLB has the home run derby which I rank a close second but it’s a one trick pony. Have these guys hit a HR then try and have some accuracy throwing to home plate from CF then we will talk. The NBA has some skills competition which has digressed down more to just showing the slam dunk competition. This thing has become a huge joke. Back when Jordan, Spud Webb, or even Dominique were doing their thing it was new and exciting. Now it’s apparent that there is no creativity left in the world as everyone has to resort to props to try and get some high marks. Sorry this isn’t going to make the casual or non-fan care one bit.

The NHL skill competition has everything. Fastest skater,  hardest shot, stick-handling  relays, shootouts, one year they even had goalies compete at shooting the puck down the ice (I am not sure if that’s in this years competition but a full report after it occurs). Hockey players are also easily the most approachable of all sports athletes, and typically on the night of the skills competition they have a bunch of guys miked up. To hear how they banter and just have a great time amongst themselves is just old time fun.

Sure, I will enjoy the game and my home town Canes, along with the NHL, will be trying each and every minute of the weekend to prove that Raleigh was a perfect place for the All Star game, and to show we should get it again in a regular rotation. But I truely cannot wait to sit in my seats ( about 5 rows behind one of the benches ) and see the stars show what makes them stars the perfection of the fundamentals of hockey.

The Guardian Project (Thanks to Yahoo’s Puck daddy, and the Guardian project from facbook for the images) 

That brings me to the next NHL inspired gimmick of the weekend. The Guardian Project 30. From the mind of one of the greatest comic book writers of all time, Stan Lee, comes 30 super heroes. One unique hero from each NHL team. The reveal of these characters has been coming around one a day throughout this month on facebook, and naturally the artwork is superb. And naturally people, including those so-called “hockey purists” of the world, are bitching as always. I happen to like the idea. It would be fun to see my 4 year old son watching a cartoon with these heroes and getting into it rather then Spongebob for the 10000000th time.

Granted this DOES have a chance to be real bad and could end up being shitty. If we get people running around during the 2nd intermission on Sunday in tights with a smoke and light show that would make even Stormy (The Canes normal Mascot) sigh, then it’s going to be epic fail. But not a whole lot is known about how this event will go. The big reveal is supposed to include a hologram and on ice projections show, where the heroes save the RBC center crowd from a dastardly villain who has taken over the arena. I can see them having the on ice show basically being a cartoon or CG movie, and holograms like you get in some amusement park rides being projected around the arena. That, I would be all for. Sure it’s got it’s own little bit of cheese but hey it beats sitting on your ass for 15 mins watching the Zamboni’s drive in circles. It has also been hinted that this could lead to a bunch of marketing opportunities for the NHL. We could get things like a graphic novel or a comic book series, both would have to be a bit long to have back stories of all 30 heros in it as well as making them all relevant in a story. Also hinted at is having this extend to in arena entertainment on jumbo trons in the league. I can definitely see the heroes doing battle on the screens during the game and depending on the flow of the game and scoring/momentum seeing some animations which makes the fight come to life on the screen. It’s not too likely that it will detract at all from the game. It would get a tad repetitive after a few games between the same teams or if the animations are all the same cept for plug in hero X or Y into it, but it could have a fun effect in the end. After all how many times can we REALLLLYYY watch Rick Flair or some of the corney animations they already use? I don’t care if Guitar Hero is popular, Gene Simmons’ representation telling me to get loud and cheer for the Canes just seems idiotic. Now give me a super hero on the screen and not only will I cheer like always but hey, maybe my 4 year old son gets up and screams, and all other boys and girls in that 4-15 year old range will be interested as well. Now take that 3 days later when we are trying to get people excited about going to the next game, remind them of the heros on the big screen and they might see a new one, and I bet they get excited.

Supposedly all of the heros have been derived from going to each and every NHL city and taking in the games, talking to fans, and talking to front office brass. Finding out what makes their city “SUPER” and seeing what their team and it’s history means to them. Then they came up with back stories and powers for each one. Sure the heros look a bit like they took all the known powers and looks from comics in the past 50 years, threw them in a hat and pulled them out at random. Look at the Penguin. He is a cross between Cyclops and Ice Man. The Canadian, a cross between Iron Man and something out of GI Joe. My take? Well, besides being cautiously optimistic, I am kinda excited to see how they do it. See what comes after the game. They are so tight lipped about everything that there HAS TO be a ton more after the game. If the game was it we would have been bombarded with a ton of info already. Ok Stan, make us GeekJocks of the world happy with a good presentation and then a series of comic books, graphic novels or TV shows so we can see something new out there and get more new hockey fans in the buildings. Hockey is the greatest sport in the world, let’s get more people in the buildings to show them it’s true.

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