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Behind the NHL's Kid Rock debacle

The NHL Weekly Reader publishes every Friday. Seen something worth highlighting here? Hit me at greg.wyshynski@espn.com.

I want to write about Kid Rock about as much as I want to listen to Kid Rock. I think he lost me about 10 years ago when, in a true moment of musical indolence, he took "Werewolves of London" and added lyrics about drinking by a lake and called it a new song. It was like if I put my byline on a Wright Thompson column because I changed every third word to "hockey."

A week out from the National Hockey League's All-Star Game in Tampa, I'm writing about Kid Rock because he's performing at said All-Star Game, in a decision that managed to create a perfect storm of criticism from the politically offended, the musically offended and those of us who cringe whenever a famous-for-the-NHL celebrity drops by an event.