2011 All-Star Game rumblings

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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It's long been a dream of many in this area, and now it finally appears to be coming true.

The National Hockey League is expected to award the 2011 All-Star Game within the next week, and multiple sources confirm to ncsportstalk.com that the Hurricanes are on the very short list of teams still in the running for the game. There are rumblings that a press conference has been tentatively scheduled, but the Hurricanes are not commenting on any potential dates or topics, and are not saying anything at all about the potential game.

That said, it would be an absolute stunner if the Canes are not hosting the 2011 All-Star Game. When the NHL announced a few weeks ago that Pittsburgh would host the 2011 Winter Classic, presumably against Washington at Heinz Field on January 1, 2011, the writing was essentially on the wall. The Penguins' new Consol Energy Center was considered the co-front runner for the All-Star Game, with the RBC Center right there at the top of the race as well, but it's highly unlikely the NHL will award both the Winter Classic and the All-Star Game, which are held just over a month apart, to the same city.

Working against the Hurricanes is the fact that, if true, the '11 ASG will be the third straight held in the Eastern Conference (Atlanta '08, Montreal '09, no game in '10 due to the Olympics), so it's possible that the NHL will wait and award the 2011 game to a Western Conference team then come back east in 2012. However, one would think that if the NHL was going to award the game to a Western team it would have done so already, as we're already well past the usual date for an All-Star Game announcement.

The theory is that the NHL told the Hurricanes that in order to receive an All-Star Game, certain benchmarks (hotels, restaurants, activities, etc.) must be met, and since the NHL realizes that it risks serious humiliation for promising an All-Star Game in 2000 but not delivering, they kept extending the deadline for the team's ability to meet the benchmarks. Jim Rutherford hand-delivered an application to the NHL office in New York in late January, so we know the Canes have officially thrown their hat into the ring for the 2011 game, and ironically the longer the process has dragged on the more the likelihood has increased that the Canes would be awarded the game.

It would be great if the team could announce the game before the last home game of the season on Thursday against Montreal to give the fans one last big piece of excitement in a disappointing season, but as of now there is no indication that any announcement is imminent. The announcement, however, will be made at some point soon, and we'll let you know as soon as we receive official word from the NHL, whenever that may be.