The whole thing is a circus. I’m sure if they had a choice of attending, without punishment, most would bail

The fact that the NHL has to put 1.1M on the line to get them moving is speaking for itself.

Pastrnak had the best chirp when asked what he thought about the Toronto fans booing him “Well it’s ok. their team needed some wins right” LMAO that was epic burn

Michael Buble on shrooms was amazing

It all started goin down hill when they changed from the classic East vs west

McDavid is known for his speed but his accuracy is under appreciated. He's had to shoot in the accuracy competition 3 times in the last couple of years; he's taken 12 shots and hit all 12 targets. Not one missed shot! His slowest clocked time was 9.497 seconds. That's impressive.

i found when the guy who was interviewing mcdavid at the end said “how’s it feel to be a millionaire now” funny

Should've been a million dollars to the player's pre-chosen charity of their choice.

Kuch's lack of interest sums up what most fans think of the state of the current All-Star event......

ESPN looking like a bunch of amateurs that they are.

Kucherov was surprised he even had to show up... He usually only does Playoffs

These all-star events are NOT for the kids. This is just a money grab by the NHL and the owners.

Where's John Scott when you need him?! 😂

Kucherov not caring is hilarious

You know each goalie did one minute of work. That’s it. One efffing minute. The whole skills comp. let that sink in.

Overall I liked this, with a few quibbles. 1. If they're all on a leaderboard, you can't have events only 5 of them do. I guess you can argue the 8th guy wasn't gonna get a point anyway, but still, its weird that Makar and McDavid basically start off +5 in competitions others weren't even playing. 2. Stop making the shot accuracy time based, make it........accuracy based. ESPECIALLY if you've got "guest passers" who are the ones determining how fast you get passes. 3. I thought the One-timer thing was cool, but the guys who really one-timed it properly did worse, the guys who kinda cheated it did well...maybe add some rule here where you really have to one time it? 4. Judging goalies on the number of saves instead of percentage of saves or Lowest Score which is the most obvious metric since its how you're judging players makes no sense, the player's speed determines the number of shots they get so having a goalie allow only 1 point, then not winning is stupid because he had no control over that. 5. Just wanted more goalie stuff, only a minute each of each goalie sucks. People do like real shootouts, so just making it a speed scramble only is a bit lame. I liked things like 2 on 0 in the past too, see some interaction with the players. 6. The Skills competition was completely divorced from the '4 Teams' concept. 7. I was a bit unclear on why are these the 12 guys? Some of them aren't exactly what you think of as your skill guys, and some like obviously Kucherov didn't even want to be there... Meanwhile Crosby is sitting there the whole time like he's a retired hall of famer... he woulda finished like 3rd-5th in this... so what was the logic here? They may have explained and i missed it. But all that said, 1000x better than last year and probably the past 5 years or so.

they need to get rid off all star weekend, give the players their needed rest and focus on the season

What's embarrassing is that the NHL has Rielly there instead of Hedman. No wonder Kucherov treats it like the joke it is.

I wasn’t alive yet, but looking back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the All-Star Game was actually fun to play in. Remember Owen Nolan calling his shot and scoring on Dominik Hasek? The All-Star Game needs to be 3, minute periods like a regular NHL game. I’m not watching the All-Star Game today because i doesn’t excite me anymore. The NHL needs to do better

Love how all the small market teams were represented this year(Not at all)

You said, "no one really want's to be there". No, they probably don't. Kucherov gave up after he lost the puck in the stick handling. After that he was out.

I liked it this year. The passing comp could have been explained to the players a little more though, but I hope to see it again.

From a euro perspective the idea of an all star weekend as a whole is corporate cringe. Even the players know it's a clown show

Kuch has been the best player in the league and hates Toronto. Makes sense

Not surprised one bit that Kuch could care less about the ASG. Fans and players feel the same way, it's dumb. It would be better to take those days and shorten the regular season by a week.

Kuch felt how we all feel, the ASG and the entire break is stupid

Kucherov should have flipped off all the TO fans

Of course mcdavid won he literally designed the competition to his workouts in the offseason.

WOW!! Not a single member from the Stanley Cup Champions at the All-Star event. Good job NHL.

I can see both sides of the argument. But the All Star games are a joke and too commercialized. Kuch wasnt buying into it. He also knew with Mcdavid and Matthews etc. he didnt have to try. People would focus more on them

Keep up the work man I love watching ur vids!

Just what McDavid needs, another million dollars

I def liked it more than previous years the only thing i disliked was how little players there was doing skills. so much other skaters that made it but are only there for the game was is L 😭

Can’t remember the last time I sat through an all star event. I just can’t do it. Lol.

Was he drunk? Kinda seemed like it. But kind of a joke, the guy clearly didn't wanna do it, why not just put someone else in there.

Kuch giving no effort was the best part of this🤣🤣 He was outwardly expressing what the players think about being paraded around during All Star break.

NHL punishes players if they don't show up to a meaningless stupid game, so do not expect anybody to enjoy being pressured to show up. NHL's own mistake. F Bettman.

I can relate to Kuch. I also wish I made millions of dollars to play a game and go sit on a beach instead of being selected to represent my team as one of the best players in the world.

I feel like McDavid could be like Larry Bird, walk in, and be like "So who is coming in second?" LOL.

Good for Kuch, Toronto cares more about a frilly ASG than winning in the playoffs, not a surprise

I was there for it it was my first skill compatison I loved it all

Matthews nailing that wrister from the blue line was cold. 😊

i don't blame him for not taking in it serious. He clearly didn't want to be there as most players don't either. If the all star weekend is for the fans then don't price the tickets in the hundreds. The cheapest is around 400$ and rinkside is close to a grand. That's not really for the fans.

This years All Star skill competition was awesome, they can sometimes be massively cringe and big snooze fests, this one felt refreshing to watch especially after attempting to rewatch last years skills comp earlier in the day... this years was a good palate cleanser, to last years disaster. I think the format change proved a massive success, you could tell most of the players were in it to win it... dispite knowing there odds were slim to none against McDavid, cash incentives for the top player/goalie has gotta be the new norm moving forward. Personally I enjoyed every single one of the new events... even the passing skills comp, I think with a little refinement/better player understanding it will become as classic as any. The one timer comp I thought was super impressive, the obstacle course and stick handling comps were lots of fun to watch. Overall It was quite entertaining to watch and ill be excited to see how they look to improve upon the comp next year around.

I‘d pay 5% extra on my NHL subscription if they cancel the all star break and don‘t have to wait for meaningfull games a whole week in february. looking at you, Gary.

Kucherov is the man, he couldnt give 2 shits 😂

Glad I miss this EVERY YEAR

I don't blame him. I would rather be on vacation instead of being forced to be there.

Kuch knew it was rigged for McDavid to take it all & be the "hero"... so why bother? I mean, they actually had McDavid tell them what he does for practice & applied it to this year's skills challenges! A blind person could have seen that coming, so I don't blame Kuch one bit.

Kuch was the best part, it was f'ing hilarious.

Better format than last year. Going back to giving individual competition awards from the sponsors. Like a skins game earn money for each event won. Have another goalie competition with a rapid fire. A player stationed at each face-off cicle with 10 pucks each. Alternate shots. Once it goes in, gets stopped or misses other player shoots.

There's something not right about punishing all-Stars with the obligated presence at the event while others take a nice vacation with their families. Kutchirov's attitude only reflects what his mates are probably thinking, as well.

Man this season is gonna end in an insane way

Thank god they are switching to the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament next year. The best part of the all star weekend is the mascot game.

The allstar game is embarrassing itself, the entire thing was extreme cringe.

never liked the all star weekend, id rather watch real games. Also on Kuch dude has had to carry his team till the rest remembered how to play, he is probably tired and would rather have been at home drinking a beer and sleeping.

Kuch is leading the league in points. You can pull what he did when you’re that good. He doesn’t take too many shifts off when it really matters.

I think doing a collaboration with one of the guys in the tournament was a little silly lol McDavid was literally doing his own drills so logically he's going to win right? Lol pair that with the fact he took it the most serious and he's the fastest skater other than maybe Barzal it was pretty obvious who was going to win 😆

I live in Tampa and try to go to as many games as I can but Kuch just doesn’t have the personality for these events I think Brayden point or even stamkos are way better for a all star event

You can tell Mackinnon and Kuch only really care about real games.

Professional hockey players don't need to share the ice with music celebrities. Turning the All Star game into a 'gong show' does nothing to highlight this skilled players.

I don't blame Kuch one bit the whole thing sucked big time.

This was the best skills competition I've seen in quite some time. Glad they got rid of the shootout challenge and replaced it with the one on one challenge. Was a much more entertaining experience compared to the circus side show look it's had recently. I would replace the passing challenge with something else though, maybe another goalie related challenge? Even the allstar game format was solid. I liked the changes that were made.

My idea for the all star game : 3 vs 3 by nationality. Either 6-7 countries or 4 if you match them (Canada, USA, Scandinavia, Rest of Europe) The skills competition by nationality as well, points are collective, gives the winning team a starting lead for the 3 v 3.

Just pointing out that Aho should've been in the skills comp amd McDavid STILL didn't beat Aho's record time. NHL doesn't like Carolina. It's official.

It’s unfortunate that most NHL player have no personality. This makes the all star game super cringey and hard to watch. Didn’t even bother this year

Full disclosure, I haven't watched a NBA all-star weekend in many years. I'll watch the NFL pro-bowl skills challenges if they are on, but I don't make a day out of it. None of these leagues are doing well with their all-star weekends. For me personally, I only care about skills challenges. I don't care about weird mini-games or the all-star game itself. I want to see the best test their skills. Even then, the NHL finds a way to have weird mic malfunctions, cameras cutting to the wrong spot, and timers not starting or stopping. Throw in you need 1 million dollars and even THAT can't motivate the players is kinda crazy. I don't watch these for celebrity guests or musical performances. I'm not a fan of every team getting an all-star be default, that feels like it cheapens it to me. It's probably a lose lose no matter what they do. As much as I enjoy the skills stuff, I wonder if all the pro sports would just be better off naming all-stars and not doing events.

now a person who loves hockey, i watched the all stars. i’m sorry. it was just bad. nobody was doing that well, half the people they selected were just random players and i didn’t even know them. mackinnon didn’t do that well, neither did matthews, or crosby. mcdavid did really well. everyone was just messing up and it was just painful to watch

Beautiful trolling my Kuch. He wants to play real games 😂

I was just happy it wasn't another circus

That’s an attitude that will hopefully cost him millions if future contract negotiations due to teams not wanting that toxic attitude on their bench.

They needed Pavel Barber to come out and do a 15 min workshop for the fans...

All star weekend is so dumb, I love that Kucherov acted like that. Players hate it and Kucherov didn't even try to hide that fact, so good on him.

Kucherov wants to win. He has always been that way. He is quite dedicated from what I have seen and read. The last thing he needs to do is get injured partaking in some Gary Bettman theater when Tampa is on a heater......The players don't want it. The fans barely want it. The only ones who want it are the 6-11 year old children.

I liked Messier commentating, that guy cares. He knows it’s an honor to be an all-star.

I have seen the last two years all star weekends and this was by far the best. I think there are way too many people complaining and nitpicking.

This was one of the best skills competitions I've seen in year, but yeah the Kuch was definitely phoning it in. Too cool for school kind of thing. But I think it was that reason why the skills competition had become so gimmicky, because the players really didn't want to do it. I remember an interview with a pro ball player a few years ago about the MLB All-Star break and he pretty much said that he'd rather have the time off than participate. I suspect that's a sentiment shared throughout all pro-sports leagues with these kinds of skills competitions/all-star games. I've always liked the idea of having these exhibition events held at the end of the season or even pre-season rather than smack in the middle. The NFL has the right idea I think.

He said he wanted to spend time with his family, the NHL threatened suspension, so he came half assed no real TBL fan is gonna be embarrassed by that

Its an event that gives back to the fans, plus its a couple of nights for the players to hang loose, goof around with each other, go out to dinner, bars etc & just have a good time

Here's a good idea that will get many on board. Have the all star game after a Winter Classic event. Bring back the childhood feeling for the players and you can get more fans in the seats.

As a Leafs fan, I didn't care much about the ASG until this one... Absolute beauty (save for Kucherov).

This was my first time watching the skills challenge, as a new fan. I thought it was a great time. I'm a Seattle fan so nobody from my team but it was great to see the modern greats battle it out. Cool to see Syd and Bedsy out there helping too. I wish the players had a bit more personality though. I've been watching the NBA for years and those guys really bring the entertainment factor. These hockey guys just love their one sentence answers, it's almost just copy paste from one guy to the next.

Good review... I felt the same way

Matthew's doing as well as he did at 44 years of age is also impressive. He almost smiled once, it was quite heartwarming.

I’m a lightning fan for over 20 years could not be more proud of Kucherov, no one cares about the all star game, and it’s just dumb. We all knew mcdavid was going to win either way. I agree it was nice to go back to retro. I love Kucherov he did whatever one was thinking, and wanted to do. He is my hero!

Maybe I’m cynical but as a Bolts fan I kinda find it hilarious Kuch didn’t care at all

It’d be cool if they had regular guys out there trying to play defense or do some kind of pros vs joes events. Super fans trying to score on their favorite goalies, kids setting up their favorite stars for a one timer or visa versa. Maybe get the tough guys in the comp with a punch machine like at Dave and Busters. Set up some crash test dummies and blow them up with a big hit. Demonstrate the guys crazy skill and strength. I think the fastest slap shot is a good one. Fastest skater is also a classic.

"not here to do a full recap of the all star event" ummmm your are doing EXACTLY THAT with this video LMAO

I've had to attend many work events where I was expected to participate meaningfully despite not wanting to be there, and I make a lot less than Kucherov.

You know they had that cheque made up for McDavid last week. I hope he donates that money, maybe to get Kuch some therapy for his crushing apathy.

I remember when it used to be an Honor to play in the All-Star game. I know the league doesn’t have Gretzky, Messier, Roy, Yzerman or Brodeur anymore, but McDavid, Crosby and Ovechkin have been great replacements for those Hall of Famers and this game is an appreciation game for those players. Maybe we should cancel the All-Star game for a few years to see if the players miss the yearly recognition.

WHat does Kuch have to worry about? Think the coach will bench him ?

Kucherov owned the All Star game and had more fun than anyone else out there. The boos were because of Toronto fans hating on him, like they do every season. Kucherov is the top player in the league, he knows it, the fans know it, and that is all that matters.

Good for Kucherov if he didn't want to be there and thinks it's a joke (which it is) then good for him treating it as what it really is.

What every Toronto hockey fan is dying to find out- which all stars ended up getting a free lap dance at The Fillmore? 😂

Kucherov might be last in the skills competition that doesnt really matter, but as of the time of this video he is the #1 points scorer in the NHL which does matter

From a Tampa fan, I understand his decision, and he’s left such an insane legacy here he doesn’t owe us anything

Anybody think that kuch is potentially hurt and trying to heal up for the break? Potentially a possibility I dont know. Sometimes people are quick to jump to conclusions when we don't know the full story

I'm not a fan of any allstar games . Like one commenter stated "It's a money grab for the league". I totally agree .

They should have done a matching charity, where the NHL gave the players 1MM and matched the charity of their choice.