I don't know what I hate more, pre-season games or all-star games. Crazy how much money people paid for tickets to watch that garbage.
At least in pre-season games, you might see someone put in some effort.
The all-star game used to have a purpose. You could not see all the top players all the time. You might not even get all that many highlights. You might have to wait for that one guy on that one team to come to your town. Today, every game is available, no matter where you are. Highlights, available 24 hours a day. There used to be a certain level of mystery with a guy like Gretzky. You knew he was great, but who gets to see him? That same mystery doesn't exist for McDavid.
The all-star game was a concentration of talent that you didn't get to see on an average day. That went out the door a while ago, and they've been trying to change the all-star game ever since. The conferences don't matter as much, since free agency has made player movement much more fluid, so let's try North America vs the World, or whatever the second version of the traditional all-star game was.
That's the case with every league. Every all-star game is nothing today. They're all awful. They were probably always awful, but the game did have a purpose once. That purpose no longer exists, so it's a zombie event. They keep trying to change things, to give the game meaning, and it's never going to happen again. At least not as long as the media world we live in today exists.
Same with the Gretzky trade. Back in 88, it shocked the hockey world. That same trade happens in the media landscape of today, and they're talking about it for months, if not years ahead of time. Then by the time it happens, you're so thrilled that the endless speculation finally comes to and end, that the trade is just meh. You might disagree with the return, but the trade itself, has no shock value.
