Weird how things work….didn’t watch one second of the NHL All-Star Game.  I heard there was a penalty shot because Alexander Ovechkin threw his stick. Or something.  Maybe Ovechkin had exhausted too much energy sending his entire contact list his Blackberry photos of Phil Kessel sitting alone like Geek Row at the dance in Sixteen Candles.  You know, before “The Donger” got there to loosen things up a bit. (Bet’cha you big teaser, huh?).

I also didn’t watch one second of the Pro Bowl.  I heard there was some poor tackling.  I’m trying to think of the last time I did watch more than three minutes of the Pro Bowl — I think I was 10.  I’m quite sure Lee Roy Selmon and Brian Sipe were in the game if it did happen.

I am NOT one of those who hack on the kids of today, I’m really not.  But let’s face it, the reason All-Star games of any kind were unique is because we all simply couldn’t visualize on paper, in a computer game (computer game, like Mattel’s Electronic Quarterback?), or obviously in a “fantasy league” having such unique talents all contributing to a common goal.

Now, your fantasy baseball team can include Roy Halladay, Albert Pujols, and Carl Crawford.  So what’s the big jazz about watching them in an All-Star game?  Your fantasy hockey team (or is it Scott from Accounting’s team?) includes Cam Ward, both Sedins, Eric Staal, and Duncan Keith….so why is it unique that they’re teaming together in a meaningless exhibition game?  They’re busting their asses every day so you can win that $4 trophy from your workplace or so you can get a t-shirt printed up saying: “2011 Radio Shack Yorkdale Location Fantasy Hockey Champion”.

I’ve said it before, and will say it again: these games are for kids in any location and all residents of a city or region where the All-Star game is.  Some of you just want the Pro Bowl to disappear, but that 1-10 year old demo will be crushed, trust me.  So will the good people of Honolulu.  Same story with the NHL All-Star game, despite the “Carrie-esque” festivities of Friday Night, where all the other 45 NHL players did the equivalent of pouring pig’s blood from a bucket over Phil Kessel just after naming him Prom Queen….errr…giving him a flashy Honda, the game will continue and it should.

It goes to Ottawa next year, and if you’re a kid there and your mom or dad is taking you to the game, you simply can’t wait for the day to arrive.  Trust me, I never went to an All-Star game as a kid (come to think of it, despite all the events I’ve attended, I still haven’t been to one – choosing pickup hockey over the 2005 MLB All-Star Game in Detroit), but I always wanted to.

Accept the games for what they are.  For kids and the people who have tickets.  I’m sure no one left the RBC Centre in Raleigh crushed or broken-hearted because of a lack of entertainment.   And no, the Pro Bowl was not meant to substitute for your fantasy football team crashing out of your office league’s quarter-finals because Aaron Rodgers just happened to get banged up against the Lions back in mid-December.

I don’t know what it is, but we ALL could relate to Phil Kessel on Friday night.  Yes, he’s been much-maligned for some things he can control (effort, finishing touch, ability to make other players around him better), and things so far beyond his control (what the Leafs traded for him, what they signed him for, and what they’ve placed around him…which is very little in terms of an impressive talent pool of similar skill).

Having said that, only the coldest of souls didn’t feel sorry for him Friday night in a painful exhibition of rejection by his peers, in which he was the last player taken in the NHL All-Star Game Fantasy Draft.  Timing was, I missed most of it, but joined into TSN’s coverage with five forwards, dressed in business-casual, sitting on chairs, while a live studio audience looks on.

Full credit to TSN and all their talent, because this is NOT easy television to do.  You end up having to serve many masters.  The network needs you to hit marks on time, all the analysts need ample time to either state the obvious or come up with new angles on a night when we’re all told to expect the unexpected.  The players don’t want to look bad, the league doesn’t want to look bad — and sometimes those things are at odds with each other.  Credit the likes of James Duthie, Darren Dreger, Bob McKenzie, and Pierre McGuire for nailing what the event was supposed to be, while not overdoing it in terms of a phony hyping of this new process of selecting the teams.  In addition, and I’ve experienced this before: doing a live broadcast of any sort in front of not only an audience, but the very players you’re critiquing (positively and negatively) is nerve-wracking.

The NFL Draft has become more like this process, and it can make for uncomfortable television, as selections get panned or praised – while the entire time, the players, the parents, the girlfriends, the agents, and obviously the fans, can hear everything you say and jeer you if they disagree.

Either way, the fact so many had predicted Phil Kessel would be the final pick in this extravaganza caught me by surprise in the lead-up to it.  Isn’t Kessel’s game (and I say this without the slightest hint of sarcasm or irony) built for a contest like this.  Free-wheeling, fast-flowing, minimal body contact — so why is he being chosen  behind the likes of Martin Havlat, David Backes, and Patrick Elias?  All three are fine players but do any of the three have the born skill, electricity, or wrist-shot of a Kessel?  Nope – not in the even the most biased and unobjective opinion.

The fact remains, Kessel was chosen last, in part, because he’s a difficult read — and as Damien Cox in the Toronto Star brilliantly put it: “painfully shy at the best of times”.  He isn’t outgoing, he despises doing interviews, and strikes all as a difficult guy for people, even NHL players, to bond with him in a short period of time.  Boston Bruins players on the record hint at a lack of disappointment in the fact he was traded away from the organization.  Boston Bruins players OFF the record will sometimes shake their head and just explain Kessel didn’t fit in, and he had moments of brazen selfishness mixed in with individualistic indifference to team goals.

It reminded me a lot of growing up and wondering exactly where you fit in life.  Those of you raising any boy or girl in your household aged 6-17 knows exactly what I’m talking about.  Life changes and becomes less about perfunctory tasks like making dinner, driving to soccer practice, and changing nappies, as it does becoming a full-time psychologist.

Kids are going to feel isolated, abandoned, let down by peers and adults, just as often as those moments of euphoria will happen.  Your kid may be a fantastic athlete — eventually (way more often than not), he’ll find a team he gets cut from.  Your kid may be a fantastic actor — eventually he’ll find peers more talented and/or more driven.  Your kid may look like the offspring of Brad Pitt and Rachel McAdams (no…they haven’t…not starting rumours), and eventually he’ll find he’s not a prospective girlfriend’s first choice.

We ALL felt bad for Kessel Friday night because we all can relate to it.  A girl you like doesn’t like you.  Check.  A major bantam travel hockey team sees your buddies make it, but not you.  Check.  Rejection hurts.  At any age.  Most of us don’t feel it on the juvenile level anymore, and we’re actually MORE prepared for it as adults than we are as youths.  We know if we lose our job, we must act quickly to find another.  We know if our car doesn’t start in the morning with our kids in the backseat, we HAVE to find an alternative mode of transportation ASAP.  And obviously fringe NHLers or NFLers must be smart with their money, and be ready to do something different career-wise at the drop of a hat.  Some are smart that way, many aren’t.

But the Kessel awkwardness Friday resonated, simply because, the player that would be the LEAST comfortable out of the 40-plus players, seems, outwardly and from people in the know, was left sitting on his own.  The awkwardness of having to do an interview BECAUSE he was the last pick.  The awkwardness of accepting a FREAKING CAR, simply because he was the last pick, reeked of extremely questionable decision-making from the league.

And now, with Maple Leafs President & General Manager Brian Burke noting this weekend that: a) he didn’t like the “negative focus” on Phil Kessel, and b) he theorizes the last five players in a scenario like that should be picked out of a hat, will only serve to make this worse, and highlight Kessel’s verbal and attitudinal shortcomings even further.

Maybe it can be a turning moment for Kessel, in a positive way.  I noted on Friday’s show that we’ve bent over backwards attempting to procure Kessel for a radio interview this season, all to no avail.  I’ve interviewed Phil twice.  Once went quite terribly, and the other I was pleased with, because I felt he lit up emotionally, while asking him about two subjects: 1) hockey video games, and 2) his sister’s efforts to make the USA women’s national team.  Many of us in the media have been accused of “bashing” Phil Kessel.  The notion of “hating on” Phil Kessel is even more laughable.  People shouldn’t confuse hammering the misplaced logic of “The Trade” with not recognizing the skill and hockey sense Kessel has.  Ask yourself this: if Kessel had been a UFA signing on July 1st, 2009, even at a slightly higher ticket than you’d like to pay for a one-dimensional (but it’s such a rare dimension) 35-goal scorer, then doesn’t he gets a lot more rope in Toronto or elsewhere?  Sure he does.  So when people talk about Kessel in negative terms, to these eyes, they hate the trade far more than they despise the player (not as a person, but his maddening inconsistencies and at times, seeming apathy).

I’ve been clear on this: when he plays well, myself and other objective sorts point it out — when he doesn’t, or pulls what even his coach and certain teammates have subtly suggested is a disappearing act, it EQUALLY deserves to be pointed out.  Players don’t trade for themselves, and players certainly don’t sign themselves, as I always say.

But beyond the obvious, I felt Kessel’s embarassment Friday evening, and though I think the new All-Star format, has left me even less interested in watching any of today’s game than it did during East v. West or North America v. World formats (which I didn’t think was possible), I know it’s probably here to stay for a few years.  But as for Burke’s hat idea — I understand picking up for “his guy” and having his back, but the reason we all related to it, is it’s rare that life deals you something “out of a hat”.

That’s not how Brian Burke picks his hockey club.  That’s not how Brian Burke got his current job.  That’s not how Brian Burke got the salary he got, or got to hire the most expensive front office, by far, in the NHL right now.  “Luck of the draw” also isn’t the reason this team hasn’t played a meaningful game past the Super Bowl (this year being no different) since Burke arrived.

That’s also not how we get the job we get, the college we go to, or the girl we end up marrying.  Yes, life’s about fate, but also reacting to the hand you were dealt. I can’t be the only one hoping Phil Kessel turns a painfully awkward moment on its ear and decides he’ll never settle for being “last” at anything again.

Greetings and welcome to 2011.  I hope your holiday season was as wonderful, emotional, and rewarding as mine luckily was this year.  It was nice to get some time off from the shows on the Fan 590, but I’m always excited to get back and will be back tomorrow morning.

In addition to some time off, I was also fortunate enough to fill in for McCown on Prime Time Sports a couple days and had a blast doing it.  Thanks to Bob for leaving the chair warm (custodial staff IS looking into that…), and thanks to his bountiful audience for treating me so nicely….it was nice to be on hearing from folks driving HOME from their jobs instead of driving around aimlessly, or sneaking a call in from their offices.  As much as I’ve loved my new environment at Rogers and The Fan 590, I was thrilled to get asked to fill-in.  I’ve said it before, Bob’s the gold standard — and The Fan 590 really is the house that HE built by being so good at what he does.  You need to believe me when I say that every day I get to mention his show is coming up next, is kind of an exciting moment for me, no question.

Now — this time of year also brings the World Junior Hockey Championships.  I was 5 1/2 years old when they “officially” started in 1977.  Pretty amazing evolution.  The first tourney had eight teams, they all played each other once, and that was pretty much that.  No national (or regional) television, no gold medal game, no ticket scalpers, and umm, Poland was in the tournament.  Nothing against Poland — but…did I mention Poland was in the tournament?  OK, I am now.

Slava Fetisov made that tournament’s All-Star team.  Yes, he was 18, but looked 33.  Danny Almonte thought something was suspicious about “Papa Bear” and his birth certificate.  Dale McCourt and future Leaf John Anderson led the tournament in scoring and Canada finished with a 5-1-1 record.  The Soviets were a perfect 7-0, and many of the core of this team would be with the Soviet National team by the time they walloped the NHL All-Stars in the 1979 Challenge Cup, and the 1981 Canada Cup Final by an 8-1 score.  They even beat the USA squad 15-5.

Canada would only pick up one bronze medal in the next three World Junior Championships, and that was at home the following year, when the tournament was held in Montreal in 1978.

It really hit the radar here in Canada the first time Canada won in January 1982, tying  the final round-robin game in Rochester, Minnesota,  against Czechoslovakia.  That year’s tourney was bizarrely shared by several cities in Minnesota, with some games being played in Winnipeg and Kenora.

I seem to recall the first tourney to get serious TV coverage (on CBC, before TSN or Sportsnet existed, obviously) was the 1986 tournament in Hamilton where the Canadians were led by Jim Sandlak, Shayne Corson, and Joe Murphy.  In fact a few games were played in London that year, and being a massive fan of international hockey at an early age, I have no idea how I didn’t con my dad into taking me to some of the games.  Obviously the Piestany Punchout got a great deal of attention for the tournament itself and once the 1990s hit and Paul Romanuk began calling the games, the World Juniors  really hit their stride and full and awestruck credit to TSN folks at the time, on-air and off-air, who decided it could become an iconic staple of their programming schedule.

But with the tournament almost 40 years old, it’s fair to ask some serious questions about where it is now and where it will go.  Though I’m a big Buffalo supporter and love the Western New York community, I’m not sure the tourney has “worked” there.  Be it slower than usual ticket sales, teams like the Russians and Swedes playing to 30 percent or under capacity at Dwyer Arena in Niagara, or just a general lack of buzz when the extremely talented USA squad plays evening games in its OWN arena, something’s not right.

As an example, I’m writing this ten hours before puckdrop for the Canada/USA semi-final – should be an amazing night, right?  I can buy a $95 ticket online for face value on the Buffalo World Juniors website.  Why is this?  People have dropped $400-$500 in recent years at Canadian venues to scalpers or ticket brokers to get into such an affair, whether it’s the gold medal game or the semi-finals.  Are prices too high?  Is the border-crossing that much of a hassle?  People cross the Peace Bridge from Ontario to go to Target or Dick’s Sporting Goods.  Or 41 Sabres games!  You can’t tell me they won’t do it for an affordably-priced piece of hockey history.

Next year’s tourney is in Alberta — Calgary and Edmonton — it should be a raging success.  In 2013, it’s in Russia, where it WON’T be a raging success.  I maintain the best thing that happened to the tournament last year was Team USA winning.  The more forward-thinking Canadians might have been disappointed not to win a 6th straight gold medal seem to comprehend that the tournament needs: a) to find successful homes outside the Canadian border for hosting it, and b) Canada can’t win every year.  The sports fan loses interest in anything that’s predictable.  Take USA basketball — when Greece 2004 was a total disaster (thank you, Larry Brown), the great players finally decided they ALL (not just a few) wanted to play again.  The World Juniors was and may still be risking becoming a tournament only WE as Canadians care about (I know, I know, many of you think it’s there already but you embrace it nonetheless) and once that fully comes to fruition, it’ll be a tournament only we send our best players too.  Although watching Team USA play, you get the sense they’re here to stay and will start being the more consistent threat than the Russians on the junior level as well as the adult level.

These are all valid questions and concerns but there’s no great solution one way or the other.  I don’t know how you MAKE nations care about a sport or be better at a sport without funding injections or resource-sharing. Similar to men’s soccer, once the United States spent money, improved their NCAA system, and got good on the world stage, they were never coming back to Canada’s level, and they never will.  Same as women’s hockey, which has provided, in my mind, some VERY entertaining and amazing moments on the world stage at the Olympics, but the game will stagnate if countries like Sweden, Russia, and Finland don’t get more women playing hockey at a grassroots level, and developing them (either over there, or through NCAA means) when they become elite.  It’s the only hope the game has.

Lastly, it’s so laughable to see members of the women’s hockey community take shots at this tournament and a few lopsided scores, given their own game internationally is in such jeopardy.  Never mind that an 8-1 Canada/Slovakia score in the World Juniors on an entertainment/value level can’t even be compared to watching the Canadian women wax China 8-1 in an Olympic Women’s tourney or a world championship.  That’s an argument they know they’ll never win.

Canada and Team USA outscored their female counterparts at the Olympics 86-4 in 8 games…an average score of just under 11 goals to, umm, a half-goal.  And they want to trash THIS tournament in terms of competitive balance.  What a joke.

I was in attendance at the USA/Sweden women’s semi-final in Vancouver last February.  Just a dreadfully boring, antiseptic sporting event.  Sweden BEAT USA in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, but this was so lopsided.  You’d never find a quarter-final game in a women’s tournament that had the energy, human drama, or passion that Russia/Finland had last night (the Russians coming from 3-1 down after 56 minutes to win in overtime), not in a million, trillion years.  So honestly, ladies, don’t compare apples and oranges.  Your tournaments aren’t in the same universe in terms of entertainment value — keep working on that “pro league” thing that people like Hayley Wickenheiser feel the women’s hockey community is “owed”.  And no, one isn’t a sexist because the only women’s hockey that matters to them involves either friends, family, or Canada v. USA for a gold medal, they’re simply a discriminating consumer.