Current format of NHL All-Star Game losing its luster, despite enthusiastic hosts in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — This year’s NHL All-Star Game marked the first time the defending Stanley Cup champions had hosted since the Edmonton Oilers in 1989, and that fortunate (yet coincidental) timing made a clear impact.

The Blues’ fast-growing fan base came out eagerly and in droves for all of the weekend events, holding steady in their enthusiasm from media-day interviews Thursday to the actual game(s) Saturday. In the hours before puck drop Saturday, the cheapest tickets on the secondary market were well over $200.

Unfortunately, their excitement was not matched by the product on the ice.

In the fifth year of the current format, with the All-Stars divided into four divisional teams playing a 3-on-3 tournament, the idea that once brought emotion back into these annual festivities has lost its luster.

In 2016, when 3-on-3 fever was brand new, John Scott was a viral sensation, and the players actually tried for the only time in a long time, this format seemed brilliant.

Now, 3-on-3 overtimes in the regular season have calmed down a lot, and 3-on-3 All-Star Games are once again motivating the All-Stars about as much as the Presidents’ Trophy does — in other words, hardly at all.

Even attempts to spice up the skills competition Friday were hit or miss.

The United States vs. Canada women’s game was a great addition — because the players actually were trying. The targets during the accuracy-shooting contest are virtual now which took all the explosive fun out of an old favorite.

And the shooting-stars event, in which players shot at illogically weighted targets from a platform high in the stands, was creative but ultimately bewildering. Just ask winner Patrick Kane, who admitted the participants didn’t even follow the rules.

“I think it’s a little gimmicky, but at the same time, [I] tried to have fun with it,” he said. “I’m a fan of the original skill stuff like the puck-control relay and the actual foam targets that blow up.

“We kind of had a pact, we were not just going to sauce them into the three-pointers or go for the ones in front. We were all going to go for the arch and, uh, [it was] a little bit of luck.”

Fortunately, the NHL seems to have realized the time has come to again reimagine the All-Star weekend. That’s likely going to be evident in all aspects of next year’s festivities.

The league announced last week that the Florida Panthers will be the hosts in 2021, and commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday that the event will have a “distinct international flavor.”

First off, the league will need to market the game as more of a destination event than a celebration of a local fan base. The weather certainly will be better — St. Louis has been almost as cold and slushy this weekend as Chicago — but the Panthers and Blues could hardly be more different in terms of relevance in their local markets.

The truly interesting aspect to monitor, however, will be what the NHL decides to do with the game itself.

With 31 of this year’s 41 All-Stars hailing from either the United States or Canada, there’s certainly a lot of room to add more international representation. But whether the 2021 event’s international flavors will trace only to countries with deep hockey traditions — most of which are located in Europe — or also incorporate the Latino roots that the Miami area is flush with has yet to be made clear.

Regardless of the exact strategy, this weekend has proven that the NHL needs something new.