RSS
Home
Red Wings and others get cyber jilted in fan balloting for All-Star game
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg){kind=logo}
Did the fans select the right players?
Fan balloting for the 2009 NHL All-Star game in Montreal concluded on Friday, January 2nd, and not a single Detroit Red Wing player was voted onto the starting lineup. Nor were any San Jose Sharks, or Calgary Flames, or Boston Bruins, or Washington Capitals, or Philadelphia Flyers either.
In the West, Chicago’s Patrick Kane led all vote getters with 917,551 votes, and joining him on the starting forward line is his teammate and linemate with the Blackhawks Jonathan Toews who received 809,599 votes and Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks with 716,569 votes. On defense, also from the Blackhawks Brian Campbell led all point men with 784,476 votes and Scott Niedermayer, from the Ducks received 637,317 votes. The starting goalie is Jean-Sebastien Giguere, from the Ducks, with 617,241
Now over in the East the starting lineup consists of forwards Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins with a record 1,713,021 votes, Evgeni Malkin, also from Pittsburgh with 1,585,936 votes and Alexei Kovalev of the Montreal Canadiens with 1,343,301. On defense Andrei Markov of Montreal had 1,443,091 votes and Mike Komisarek also from the Canadiens received 1,373,628. Carey Price from Montreal is the starter after receiving 1,515,885.
That’s 12 starters from 4 teams. Four teams that aren’t exactly lighting the league on fire this year. Montreal is fourth and Pittsburgh is ninth in the Eastern Conference, and both were expected to do much better. Chicago has moved up from eighth to fourth in the West after winning nine of their last 11 games and Anaheim is sixth in the conference.
Where were the fans from Detroit, San Jose, Boston and Washington, Calgary and Philadelphia?
Now I wrote an article that six Red Wings on the All-Star ballot were not enough and that some very good players were snubbed by their exclusion, and although I don’t believe that the starting lineup should have all six Red Wings, I do feel they deserve more than zero. And so do the teams I mentioned in the paragraph above.
In the West I like all the players in the starting lineup, some more than others, but I do have issue with three of the starters.
Toews is the third leading scorer, not in the league, or the conference for that matter but on the Blackhawks, and 66th overall in the league. Jarome Iginla, Joe Thornton or Pavel Datsyuk is more deserving. I can already hear the Toews supporters mentioning that he provides so much more than points, well so do the other three who I mentioned and they happen to score more too.
On the blueline, Niedermayer does not deserve to be in the starting lineup. Shea Weber is leading all defenseman in the NHL in goals and is being discussed as the leader for the Norris Trophy. Brian Rafalski in Detroit is tied with Dan Boyle from San Jose in points by defensemen, with 10 points more than Niedermayer. Just to name three of the ten defensemen in the West ahead of him in scoring.
Giguere as the starting goalie for the West is the biggest injustice by the fans, and I don’t even know where to begin to highlight this fact. His 2.96 goals against average ranks 34th in the league. His save percentage is 25th. His 11 wins are tied for 20th in the league, two less than Wings backup goalie Ty Conklin and one fewer than Chris Osgood who has not played well for the past month. Mikka Kiprusoff of Calgary leads the league in wins with 23 in 36 games, or Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks by contrast has won 20 of the 27 games he has played both deserve the honor more than Giguere.
In the East it’s more of the same, there are as many deserving starters as non-deserving. Malkin leads the league in scoring and Crosby is the face of the league, but how about Jeff Carter or Alex Ovechkin from Washington who lead the league in goals? On defense, Mike Komisarek?
Looking for another opinion?
In a poll on nhl.com where the results of the fan voting are revealed they pose the question of whether the fans got the starters correct, the answer from fans is a resounding no when I last checked with 68.07% voting no. To vote and see the latest results click here.
I don’t propose or advocate taking away the voice of the fans, but I do encourage more fans to be heard in the future and to vote for the players they feel are most deserving of the honor of starting an All-Star game.
For more info: www.nhl.com
Related Articles:
Comments
The Hockey News proclaims Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings, the best defenseman in their November 16th "Defenseman Issue." The …
.jpg)
Just when it looked as though the Detroit Red Wings were turning the corner from an inconsistent start, they take a step back in a 5-1 loss to the …
.jpg)
- Anaheim Ducks Examiner - Liz Brownstein
- Atlanta Thrashers Examiner - Phil Foley
- Boston Bruins Examiner - Mark Marino
- Buffalo Sabres Examiner - Richard Carl
- Calgary Flames Examiner - James Duplacey
- Carolina Hurricanes Examiner - Lance Jenkins
- Chicago Black Hawks Examiner - Dieter Kurtenbach
- Colorado Avalanche Examiner - Brian Thompson
- Columbus Blue Jackets Examiner - J. Justin Boggs
- Dallas Stars Examiner - Adam Amick
- Florida Panthers Examiner - Rick Menning
- Los Angeles Kings Examiner - Jonathan Moncrief
- Minnesota Wild Examiner - Charlie Beattie
- Montreal Canadiens Examiner - Heather Engel
- Nashville Predators Examiner - Jim Diamond
- New Jersey Devils Examiner - Joe Rizzo
- New York Islanders Examiner - Lee Forman
- New York Rangers Examiner - Rob Cristino
- Philadelphia Flyers Examiner - Chris Shafer
- Phoenix Coyotes Examiner - Anthony Perez
- Pittsburgh Penguins Examiner - Shawn McCullough
- San Jose Sharks Examiner - Nikolas DeMordaunt
- San Jose Sharks Examiner - Michael Duca
- St. Louis Blues Examiner - Vincent Brennan
- Tampa Bay Lightning Examiner - Althea Pashman
- Toronto Maple Leafs Examiner - Andrew Kavanagh
- Vancouver Canucks Examiner - Daniel Fung
- Washington Capitals Examiner - Michael Hoffman
- Washington Capitals Examiner - Dmitry Chesnokov
- NHL Examiner - Chris Morgan
