2016 NHL All Star Game Gameday Thread

Yesterday was, let's all admit it, what fans tune in to watch. Brent Burns and his kids? Adorable. P.K. Jagr? Priceless. John Scott laughing his ass off at Patrick Kane? Greatest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Usually the All Star Game is approached in one of two ways. Either people enter it with inflated expectations - "this year, we'll see great hockey and the skill level will be through the roof! THE PLAYERS MAY ACTUALLY CARE!" - or they enter it with none. It has been, in my experience, a better plan to do the latter. People bitch and moan every year about how boring the All Star Game is.

Expect nothing, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Today's 3-on-3 format should open things up. It'll be a shooting gallery, because no goalie is stupid enough to get themselves hurt trying to block a shot in an exhibition game. Penalties are just a minute long - if they happen at all - to accommodate the twenty minute format for each period. The rules are the same for this as they are for regular season 3-on-3 overtime; an additional player will hit the ice for the team on the man advantage.

The Eastern Conference won the Skills Competition yesterday, so their two divisions will go at each other first. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Western Conference matchup. Hopefully Dierks Bentley is a good coach, because he's heading up the Central Division bench. Vince Gill will coach the Metro, Amy Grant (!) will be coaching the Atlantic, and Chris Young will be behind the bench for the Pacific.

Grab a beer or two, put your feet up, and kill a Sunday afternoon with me at the ASG in Smashville.