I mean no disrespect to the NHL or hockey in general. In fact, hockey is one of my favorite sports. I watch at least a couple of games a week, and come playoff time I hardly ever leave the couch. But the NHL All-Star Game is so freakin lame, you just can’t get excited about it. If a serious fan like me had no idea the game would be on January 29 until about January 22, how earth does the NHL think they’re going to attract any casual fans?

And the thing is, the NHL doesn’t need this silly nonsense. Take it away, and I guarantee no one would miss it. So I think it’s time they put an end to the whole thing and let us all move on with our lives.

But just in case you’re not sold yet on the idea of scrapping the NHL All-Star Game, here are 9 reasons why the league needs to pull the plug.

Perhaps the most interesting part about this All-Star format is seeing which players are considered the best among their peers and were chosen early on in the draft, and which have yet to establish a name for themselves and were therefore left to wait until the later rounds to be selected.  Another interesting aspect of the show was listening in on the mic’d up players, as they discuss everything, from the players being selected to the blonde smokeshow handing out the jerseys.

Patrick Kane took a moment to discuss the latter while sitting alongside Florida Panthers’ defenseman Brian Campbell.  You can listen to that and many other sounds bytes from last night’s festivities in the video below (Kane’s approval of the blonde comes at the 1:42 mark).

Total Pro Sports – Team Canada captured its fifth straight gold medal at last night’s World Junior Hockey Championship against the said to be and experts pick to win it all, The Swedes.  Canada won 5-1 in a convincing victory in front of a record crowd on Monday night.

The city of Ottawa generated $51 million during the World Junior Hockey Championship.  This is not surprising considering tickets were selling for $700 a pop last night.  There was 20,380 tickets sold, a single game record for the WJHC, we’ll let you do the math.

All of the players for team Canada did their part and contributed any way they could, especially goalie, Dustin Tokarski.  Dustin stopped 39 of 40 shots in the win, saving his best performance for last.  Tokarski was asked about coming up big during the championship game, he had this to say.

It’s all about battling, people can put you down and say you’re not good enough but if you believe in yourself you can do anything,” said the 2008 Memorial Cup MVP.

John Tavares had another stellar game, proving that he is worthy of the 1st overall selection in this year’s NHL entry draft.  His counter part, Victor Hedman, had a not so stellar game.  Inevitably, he will be picked second to Tavares because of his poor performance.  Experts say that he was playing at only 75 percent, while others believe that he was perfectly healthy.

With Canada’s dominance in this tournament over the last 10 years (10 finals appearances, 5 golds), it will be interesting to see how other National Programs respond in building stronger junior teams.