The NHL made the most boring possible picks in naming the captains for the 2015 All-Star Game.
Blackhawks forward Jonathan Toews will captain “Team Toews” at the All-Star Weekend, held in Columbus January 23 to January 25. The home team will be captained by Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno.
Assistant captains for Team Foligno will be Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, while assistants for Team Toews will be Rick Nash of the New York Rangers and Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks. The two teams will select their teams from the remaining pool of All-Stars in a televised draft on Friday, January 23.
More details from the NHL:
Team Foligno is designated as the home team and will wear the previously unveiled black Reebok NHL All-Star jerseys, helmets, socks and pants. Team Toews is designated as the visiting team and will wear the white jerseys, helmets and socks, along with black pants. Team Foligno will be coached by Los Angeles Kings head coach Darryl Sutter and members of his Los Angeles coaching staff and Team Toews will be coached by Nashville Predators bench boss Peter Laviolette and members of his Nashville coaching staff.
All of these men named captains are fine hockey players. But good god, that’s a snooze fest. The only intrigue from this group are that Kane and Toews will be on different teams and that Nash used to be the face of the franchise in Columbus. That’s really about it. Super dull.
The NHL could’ve made just about any other pick and it would’ve been fine. They could have picked either Ryan Johansen or Sergei Bobrovsky as the Columbus representative, and I mean … come on, how do you not pick Bob? Forget that he barely speaks English. That just makes it more fun. The draft would be appointment viewing.
They could’ve made Nash an actual captain and really turned up the villain factor. Hell, they could’ve picked former Blue Jacket and current NHL leading scorer Jakub Voracek as a captain and turned up the villain factor. But no, we’re stuck with Toews, who has the personality of a cardboard box, and Foligno, who … well, really? Nick Foligno? No offense to him or to Columbus fans, but do we really think Nick Foligno is turning up the energy on this All-Star Game?
Oh well. Let’s just hope Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek are on the same team.
