First off, as you may have noticed (unless you’re using a feed reader), there’s been a little bit of a facelift around these parts this week. I’m a designer in the real world and find myself incapable of sticking with one design on my personal websites for more than about 6 months. I hope you like the new look!
I had planned on posting about the newly-released All-Star rosters (and the endless debate surrounding them) a few days ago, but after a few in-depth discussions with some of the more hockey-inclined people in my life (stick taps to my father and my good friend Candida), the post sort of took on a mind of its own.
For starters, let’s take a look at the rosters:
Eastern Conference
Forwards: Sidney Crosby*, Evgeni Malkin*, Alexei Kovalev*, Jeff Carter, Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vincent Lecavlier, Alex Ovechkin, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Thomas Vanek, Marc Savard
Defense: Andrei Markov*, Mike Komisarek*, Zdeno Chara, Jay Bouwmeester, Tomas Kaberle, Mark Streit
Goalies: Carey Price*, Henrik Lundqvist, Tim Thomas*indicates starter
Western Conference:
Forwards: Jonathan Toews*, Patrick Kane*, Ryan Getzlaf*, Keith Tkachuk, Joe Thornton, Rick Nash, Mike Modano, Jarome Iginla, Milan Hejduk, Shane Doan, Pavel Datsyuk, Dustin Brown
Defense: Brian Campbell*, Scott Niedermayer*, Dan Boyle, Shea Weber, Nicklas Lidstrom, Sheldon Souray,
Goalies: Jean-Sebastian Giguere*, Niklas Backstrom, Roberto Luongo*indicates starter
The first big problem here is obviously the starting lineup, as voted on by the fans. I’ve mentioned the flaws in the system here in passing, but the results say it all – representatives from a grand total of 4 teams, and arguably only 6 players actually deserving of spots on the all-star team, let alone the in the starting lineup (Malkin and Crosby clearly deserving of spots as starters; Kane, Getzlaf, Markov, Price likely all-star candidates but not necessarily starters).
So coming into this week, we had the starting-lineup, and the league had to round out the team with at least one player from each of the remaining NHL squads. At that point, with 4 Canadiens and 3 Blackhawks already in the Eastern and Western Conference lineups, it was clear there would be some snubs. All of the Bruins who deserved to be at the game couldn’t make it. Detroit and San Jose cannot be properly represented, despite both teams’ remarkable talent level.
My question is this – is the fan involvement in determining the lineups worth it? I think the issues with the voting this year should (but probably won’t) push the NHL to change up the system. From what I’ve read around the internet (check the comments), the general consensus from the fans is that the game is a joke this year – it seems in their efforts to include the fans, the NHL has instead alienated many of them. If they insist on keeping fan voting as a part of all-star weekend, I think they need to consider making fan vote only a percentage of what determines the lineup. The other change the NHL could make to the fan voting process that I think would prevent a repeat of this year’s debacle is changing the ballot. This year (and in past years), the ballot appeared to be based on the best players at the end of the previous season. Come the all-star voting period, many of these players many not be relevant – whether it be due to injury or a bad start to the season. If the ballot were compiled based on player statistics at the 15 game mark, I think we’d see a much less skewed vote – for instance, Sergei Gonchar would not have been the 3rd place defenseman in the Eastern Conference voting this year despite the fact that he has yet to play a game. This would ensure players like Tim Thomas, Thomas Vanek, and Jeff Carter, who were not key players last season but have been at the top of the NHL this year, would make the ballot.
Another thing I would consider changing, and I seriously doubt the NHL would do this, is the requirement for representation from every team. Honestly, do any of the Senators deserve to be All-Stars this year? I don’t particularly think so. I’m not saying there aren’t certain cases of all-star caliber players on terrible teams (see: Ilya Kovalchuk, although he hasn’t been very good this season), but that doesn’t happen often and shouldn’t be forced. Let the real talent have the spots, and the quality of the game will improve. Send one player from each team to the skills competition instead. That’s always the more fun event, anyway.
I, for one, have always enjoyed the skills competition and watching the players goof off and enjoy themselves for the weekend. The game itself may not be a typical hard fought game, but the pure skill level of those involved always leads to some astounding plays. The way things have gone down the past season or two, I think the potential showcase of the game has been ruined. Unlike many in both the hockey blogosphere and the mainstream media, I don’t want to see the game done away with or all-star weekend combined with the Winter Classic. The NHL has one great event in the Winter Classic that can appeal to both hockey fans and non-fans. The All-Star Game has the potential to be a great event for fans if the NHL takes the time to work with the game and the way teams are picked.
I’ll get off my soapbox now. 
Just for shits and giggles, here are my all-star rosters, going by the changes I just laid out!
Eastern Conference
Forwards: Sidney Crosby*, Evgeni Malkin*, Alexander Ovechkin*, Jeff Carter, Phil Kessel, Mike Richards, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Zach Parise, Simon Gagne, Thomas Vanek, Marc Savard
Defense: Mike Green*, Zdeno Chara*, Andrei Markov, Jay Bouwmeester, Dennis Wideman, Kimmo Timmonen
Goalies: Tim Thomas*, Henrik Lundqvist, Carey Price*indicates starter
Honorable Mentions: Patrik Elias, Ryan Miller, Alex Semin, Martin St. Louis, Mark Streit
Western Conference:
Forwards: Patrick Marleau*, Joe Thornton*, Pavel Datysuk*, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Daniel Sedin, Devin Setoguchi, Jarome Iginla, Ryan Getzlaf, Shane Doan, Henrik Zetterberg, Rick Nash
Defense: Dan Boyle*, Nick Lidstrom*, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Shea Weber, Brian Rafalski, Sheldon Souray
Goalies: Niklas Backstrom*, Evgeni Nabokov, Nikolai Khabibulin*indicates starter
Honarable mentions: Steve Mason (I wanted to pick him, I really did, but I have trouble putting a kid who’s only played for 2 months in the game), Henrik Sedin, Rob Blake
How would you fix the all-star game?
