The Islanders will host an occasion at UBS Area in February 2026.
Whether or not that occasion is an All-Star Recreation, effectively, that’s not fairly so clear anymore.
“We’re reevaluating how we want to do things because I think we’ve raised the bar about as high as you can for an All-Star Game in any sport,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman informed reporters Wednesday on the league’s annual GM conferences in Manalapan, Fla. “So we want to make sure whatever we do is up to the standards that we’ve created.”
In different phrases, this February’s 4 Nations Face-Off was so good that going again to the prior All-Star format — with a abilities competitors adopted the following day by a three-on-three match wherein no person tries — would really feel small by comparability.
That’s solely exacerbated by subsequent yr’s All-Star weekend being a precursor to the Milan Olympics, with NHL gamers going for the primary time since 2014.
The final time the NHL held an All-Star Recreation in the identical yr they despatched gamers to the Olympics was in 2002.
Doing so this time was meant to be a sendoff of types.
Although the weekend features as a tentpole occasion for the league and is popular with sponsors, it was exhausting to not discover the distinction drawn between the 4 Nations and the NBA’s All-Star weekend final month, when the NHL was universally applauded for making a high-level competitors, whereas the NBA placed on a snooze-fest of a standard recreation that included LeBron James pulling out on the final minute.
The Islanders, although, have already got began promoting subsequent yr’s All-Star Recreation, together with to season ticket holders as a purpose to resume.
Attending to host occasions like this was a promoting level behind constructing UBS Area, and it’s a probability to point out off the constructing to your complete league.
It doesn’t sound like canceling the occasion altogether is within the playing cards, although deputy commissioner Invoice Daly repeated to reporters that “Everything’s on the table” — together with shifting it to 2027.
Since gamers are flying into New York earlier than catching charters to Milan, there’s purpose to carry one thing. However the precise particulars of what that one thing could be, if not an All-Star Recreation, are removed from apparent.
One thought could be to someway incorporate nationwide groups into the occasion and attempt to reap the benefits of the hype that may encompass the Olympics.
Given the juice round 4 Nations, a USA-Canada exhibition at UBS would probably draw way more consideration and eyeballs than every other possibility.
“I don’t want to start speculation,” Bettman stated. “We’ve promised the Islanders an event, and Islander fans deserve events that we’ve promised, so we’re focused on what we need to do.”
