NHL All-Star Game Balloting

Evidently, fans of the Montreal Canadiens are intent upon engineering an All-Star Game opening lineup that is entirely made up of Les Habitants.   In the fan voting for the Eastern Conference starters as of December 4, five of the six were Canadiens as a result of Montreal fans stuffing the virtual ballot box at http://vote.nhl.com.  Now, I expected better from Canadiens’ fans, who certainly know their hockey.  I would expect them to use that knowledge to vote for the best players as one would expect to see in an all-star game rather than just vote for the home team.  I mean, Carey Price is the goalie right now even though his goals-against average puts him about 15th in the league.

Adding to the impending injustice is that Flyers’ forward Jeff Carter isn’t even on the ballot.  Let’s see, who leads the league in goals?  Um, oh imagine that, it’s Jeff Carter. (Actually he’s tied for the lead with 18).  Simon Gagne, the fourth leading scorer in the league with 31 points, is another Flyer who could merit a starting spot.  Fortunately, there is the capability to write in a player on the voting form and fans can vote as often as they like.  Go to http://vote.nhl.com, put aside homerism, and vote for those who you think are the best players.  I would argue that Carter deserves a write-in vote for his excellent play and scoring this year.  See an earlier post for more information.