from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Seriously. The only reason three-on-three overtime works is the frenetic, exhausting pace at which it is played for up to five minutes.

Now, somehow, the bright minds of hockey are trying to sell the concept that six forwards and three defensemen (plus two goaltenders) per team are going to be able to play at a reasonably similar pace for 20 minutes, and then, for the athletes selected to play in this All-Star Jamboree (it’s not a game) whose division teams advance to the championship third period, for another 20 minutes.

Seriously?

Because I’ll tell you what, three-on-three played at half-speed will be become more of a fiasco than the cavalcade of recent All-Star Games that managed to throw the event into disrepute. The games didn’t suffer because they were five-on-five.

The games suffered because somewhere along the line the players decided not to care and not to try. They played half-speed at best, and with an overriding disdain for the integrity of the product. I don’t know, I never saw Mike Bossy act that way at an All-Star Game, or Raymond Bourque, or anyone before a plague spread somewhere around the late 1990s.

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