NASHVILLE – When you have the hero’s journey of John Scott, Jaromir Jagr wigs, Chewbacca masks and a goalie making saves with a guitar, the actual NHL All-Star Game itself might have been overshadowed a bit.

But the NHL nailed it. It really did. The 3-on-3 format not only worked this season, but showed good potential for being the format that finally figured out how to take a moribund event and inject both excitement and drama into it.

Along with putting the skill of the NHL’s best and brightest on display, of course.

The genesis of the 3-on-3 format was a desire from the NHL and the NHLPA to go in a different direction after last season’s unwatchable game in Columbus; and from Nashville Predators officials to have something new as the hosts of the 2016 game.

“We sat down and we said that we don’t seem to be getting the bang for our buck at All-Star. Let’s reevaluate what we’re trying to do at All-Star,” said Mathieu Schneider, special assistant to the executive director of the NHLPA. “Everyone was in agreement that it needs to be something special and unique. It should be a great weekend for hockey, and it hasn’t seemed to be translating like that for the last few years.”

The Predators had a hefty investment in All-Star Weekend, and the last thing the team wanted was for the lingering bad taste of the previous All-Star Game to dampen the enthusiasm for theirs.

“We felt very strongly that we wanted to make this the best All-Star Game ever. There was negative feedback about the All-Star Game, so why not make a change?” said Predators GM David Poile last November. “And once we saw the 3-on-3 overtime format … for most hockey guys, general mangers or owners of the clubs as well as the players, we thought it was time to try something different and make it special.”

It was different, and it was special. Here are six reasons the new NHL All-Star Game format was a blockbuster success:

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1. It Stopped Trying To Be A Real Hockey Game, And Started Trying To Be A Real Hockey Overtime

Here’s the problem with vegan burgers: They can look like hamburger patties, right down to the fake grill marks, and fit perfectly on a hamburger bun. But take a bite and … well … not a hamburger.

The NHL All-Star Game always looked like an actual hockey game: Same number of players, same length of periods, same rules. But it never actually resembled an actual hockey game because it was a hit-less, methodically paced affair without any semblance of intensity.

So by shifting to the 3-on-3 format, the NHL actually stopped attempting to present a watered-down version of a regular season game and instead presented a slightly-less-intense version of their current overtime format.

Which, it turns out, is more in line with how an All-Star Game should play.

“In the 3-on-3, even in the regular season, there isn’t any hitting. So it felt like we were playing the same kind of game that we were in the regular season,” said Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils.

Don’t underestimate the subtle psychological encouragement that provides: NHL players aren’t motivated to compete in a cheap recreation of a regular-season game. But by playing in a 3-on-3, it almost tricks their brains into competing in something that looks, smells and tastes like overtime.

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