National Hockey League

ATLANTA -- A decent game broke out here Sunday, a surprising turn of events that made the NHL's 56th All-Star game one of its most entertaining in recent years. Competitive All-Star games are rare in hockey because these extravaganzas tend to lack urgency or oomph, and hockey loses much of its attraction when physical play is replaced by the matador defense that usually prevails. Too many goals, and it becomes an exercise in higher math. Too few, and it becomes boring.

Sidney Crosby is the NHL's best hope for retaining loyal fans and attracting casual fans who still wonder what offside means. He reached the Stanley Cup finals in only his third NHL season, one season faster than the great Wayne Gretzky. Crosby is a photogenic, humble kid who is accustomed to attention -- he was singled out in Canada as a phenom while still in grade school -- and he has proved to be a capable leader.

The NHL's Eastern Conference produced many of last season's major award winners, but Western Conference teams have won the last two Stanley Cup championships -- the Ducks in 2007 and Detroit last season. The most prolific teams were from the East: Montreal (262 goals) and Ottawa (261). West teams, however, ranked 1-2-3 in team goals-against and 1-5 in penalty killing. East is east and west is west and the twain will meet more often, thanks to a long-overdue schedule reconfiguration.

As he took the ice Thursday night against the Dallas Stars, goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was already feeling the heat. The league-leading Ducks, whose franchise-record start had turned heads, now were turning over pucks. They had lost key players to injury, including star defenseman Chris Pronger and starting goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. They also had lost five of their last six games and were stumbling toward the All-Star break.

Tonight is the fun part, a gathering of players who have honorably carried their teams for years and youngsters entrusted with carrying the NHL into the next decade. But when the All-Star game concludes and the last in a likely goal barrage is recorded at the American Airlines Center, the hard part will begin for Gary Bettman.

Threat of imminent bodily harm -- even if it was doom shaped in the form of a Bobby Hull slap shot -- didn't make a set-in-his-ways goaltender change his mind and put on a mask. Not until his final season in the NHL. Gump, you see, had it all figured out. "He often said he was already married and had kids, so it didn't matter whether he was ugly or not," said former Minnesota North Stars defenseman Tom Reid, laughing.

Borrowing a component from its contract with the NFL, NBC announced Tuesday a one-year extension of its revenue-sharing deal with the NHL that will include "flex scheduling." Instead of having a set schedule next season, NBC in most cases will pick one game 13 days in advance to televise nationally on Saturday or Sunday over a nine-week period. The network will select from at least three games.

Johan Franzen scored early in the second overtime period, leading the Detroit Red Wings to a series-clinching 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Sunday night in Calgary, Canada. Detroit, the top-seeded team in the Western Conference, won the series, 4-2, and will play either sixth-seeded Dallas or No. 5 San Jose in the second round. Dallas plays at third-seeded Vancouver in Game 7 tonight. The second-seeded Ducks will play either Vancouver or San Jose in the second round.

I have a problem with two recent decisions made by the big brother arms of the NBA and NHL, unnecessarily suspending key players from crucial playoff games. It just does not seem right for the Phoenix Suns to play without Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw and for the Ducks to be missing Chris Pronger at this stage of the postseason. Not for the type of offenses that led to their suspensions.