The National Hockey League announced its initial rosters on Thursday for the 2022 All-Star Game in Las Vegas. Why the NHL is even having an all-star game deserves high scrutiny and criticism. The league not only decided to cancel its participation from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing , but has decided to play a meaningless game that has no impact whatsoever to the NHL standings during a time of a pandemic when the league is needing to make up a staggering total of 103 games.
This will be the first NHL All-Star Game in two years. The game did not take place in 2021 in Sunrise, Florida, due to coronavirus.
The game will take place in a state that currently has 104,284 active coronavirus cases. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Nevada has had 572,769 total cases, and had 8,627 deaths.
For those who will take the time to watch this game rather than the much more meaningful Olympic Winter Games, or the equally meaningful 1-2 matchup of the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts from Thunder Bay, Ontario (Canadian women’s curling championship for those who not know), the 2022 NHL All-Star Game will have the same type of format since 2016. Over the last six years, teams are separated by their divisions, and will play a three-on-three single elimination tournament. The captains for each division are Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (the Atlantic Division), Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals (the Metropolitan Division), Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (the Central Division) and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers (the Metropolitan Division).
The majority of players have been selected, however an extra player from each division will be selected by NHL fans through a fan vote from January 13 to 17. There are three glaring omissions at this time. In fact, three of the top 10 players this season in NHL scoring, were not initially selected. They are Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand, and Colorado Avalanche forwards Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen. Kadri is fifth in the NHL in scoring with 48 points. Marchand is seventh with 43 points, and Rantanen is ninth with 41 points.
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