Nobody Has Ever Hated Making An All-Star Team More Than Oliver Bjorkstrand, Who Now Has To Cancel His Vacation To San Diego
Christopher Mast. Getty Images.Oliver Bjorkstrand might not be one of the first names you think of when it comes to stars in the National Hockey League. Admittedly, I don't watch a ton of Seattle Kraken hockey games outside of when they play the Flyers and the Winter Classic. Bjorkstrand has been a solid player in the league for a few years now, no doubt about that. But always one of those guys who you watch and think to yourself, "man, I would love if my favorite team could add him to our middle 6".
None of that is meant to be any offense to Oliver Bjorkstrand. He's a really, really solid player in the NHL. That's pretty sick. I just don't know if he'd necessarily be a guy who people would expect to see at an All Star Game. In fact, he didn't even think he'd be there himself. Because originally, he booked a sweet little vacation for he and his family to head to San Diego during the All Star break. And now he has to go through the hassle of cancelling everything just to head to Toronto to play in a glorified fuck around scrimmage.
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Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say buddy would rather be in San Diego for a few days.
And if I had to guess, I'd say that all 32 guys who were announced to the All-Star Game yesterday would rather go to San Diego for a few days than have to attend that shit in Toronto. Over the years, All-Star Games have just become a chore. That's across all sports, but especially in the NHL. If you put the ASG in Vegas, at least the boys can have a little fun and it's a great week for the younger guys to really get after it. But having to go to Toronto in February? Just to play in a game that nobody even cares about anymore? You're almost better off playing like shit the first half of the season just to avoid any potential of making the ASG.
Or what you could do is what Artemi Panarin and his wife did, and try your best to schedule the birth of your child around the same time.
Look at how happy Panarin is to announce he can't play in the game. He'd rather have sleepless nights and change a bunch of shitty diapers than have to spend his few days off playing pretend hockey in Toronto. That's a savvy move, right there. I don't know what Oliver Bjorkstrand and his wife's plans are for their family, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out he has another baby on the way come next February.
Anyway, I know the NHL is never going to get rid of the All-Star Game because it's an easy money grab. And I know these guys all make a shit ton of money playing hockey, so this is just part of the deal. But when everybody in the league would rather go on vacation than play in the ASG, maybe it's time to find a fix. Go back to North America vs World or something like that to give the game some actual juice.
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P.S. -- Seattle's social team couldn't do any sort of deep fake here to help him out?