Carter Makes All-Star Team; Richards Snubbed

Mike Richards puts one of his non-All Star worthy 44 points past Toronto's Vesa Toskala in Saturday's 4-1 Flyers win.

Although he did not appear on the ballot, Flyers center Jeff Carter was named to the NHL Eastern Conference All-Star Team.  Carter is having a breakthrough year and is leading the League in goals.  Although Carter certainly deserves this honor, it’s unbelievable that Mike Richards did not make it.  He has been the Flyers best all around player and has 44 points as of January 11 with a +16 rating.  Unfortunately, many deserving players were left off the team this year thanks to a system that allows fans to vote for the six starters.  Montreal fans shamelessly stuffed the virtual ballot box on NHL.com, and voted in four starters from the Canadiens.  So, for example, Alexei Kovalev (11 goals, 32 points) is starting while Boston’s Phil Kessel (24 goals, 41 points) and New Jersey’s Patrick Elias (19 goals, 48 points) will remain at home with Richards.

Looks like there’s three things that have caused these All-Star injustices to occur.  First, the fans’ disregard for the idea that they should objectively vote for the best players rather than their home team players.  You would expect Montreal fans especially to have respect for the ideals of the game.  Second, every team must have at least one representative.  Someone not as deserving as someone else could make it because of this stipulation.  Third, there’s more teams now than ever in the NHL but virtually the same number of players (18 skaters, 3 goalies) are chosen as when there were fewer teams. 

It’s nice to involve the fans, but if they’re not going to respect the ideal of the All-Star Game then maybe a new system needs to be devised.  Thanks, Le Quebecois!

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.