CSN’s Russ Thaler calls it “The Futures Game.” The Washington Capitals’ webmaster, Mike Vogel, calls it the “Young Guns Game,” which at least used to be correct. Whatever it’s called, defenseman Mike Green is undoubtedly excited to represent the Capitals in the NHL’s Young Star’s game on January 23rd.
Given that the brightest young stars in the game will be playing in the actual all-star game, Green will play in a watered down version of what is usually an insignificant event anyway. How unimportant is the Young Stars game? Well, they play it three days after the All-Star game, on a Tuesday. The teams are about half the size of real hockey teams, they skate four on four for the entire game, and the players aren’t allowed to hit each other.
Hockey is different from basketball and football because hockey players, once drafted, tend to spend two to four years in minor leagues or European leagues before even starting to play in the NHL, and then often move back and forth several times. The NHL wants to make itself accessible to fans of other sports, so it gives out the same rookie of the year award and hosts the same type of future stars game as sports where players go straight from college to the pros. These contradictions have led the NHL to name a thirty-one year old international superstar as its rookie of the year and, worse, to name Brian Sutherby the MVP of its 2004 Young Stars game. Sutherby has yet to equal his three point output from that farce in any single game of his five NHL seasons.
Photo of Mites on Ice by Eli Resnick
