The 2009 all-star game is a big, big deal for the NHL, given it's being tied in with the Canadiens' centennial season and that there are sure to be plenty of Habs in the lineup.

Not that that's put the brakes on any "Vote For Rory" type campaigns from cropping up.

Voting at vote.nhl.com officially opened within the past hour or so, and as you can see, the website is remarkably different than in previous online outings. Registration is required, and there are a few more screens to click through to get your votes in there. My guess is they've made alterations that will make automated voting impossible, but I suppose we'll see.

You can, however, vote over and over and over again.

There's also a stipulation that reads "To be eligible for the 2009 All-Star team, a player must have played 20 games by January 2, 2009" — which eliminates Rory Fitzpatrick right off the bat.

The two big write-in campaigns that I've seen so far involve one player in the Western Conference and one in the East: Devin Setoguchi for the Sharks, who's having a bangup year, and Niclas Wallin for the Hurricanes, who's been pretty solid on their backend (albeit as the fourth defenceman).

Here's a look at campaign headquarters:

Vote for the Gooch [voteforthegooch.blogspot.com]

The Real Election [The Battle of California]

The Setoguchi Saga Continues [Fear The Fin]

and

Vote Wallin [voteforwallin.com]

Vote in Wallin [red and black hockey]

Vote for Wallin? Vote for Wallin! [Luke DeCock]

Put me on the record as fully behind both camps. I've already submitted my vote, and Mr. Setoguchi and Mr. Wallin were on the ballot.

The results are going to be here, so keep checking back. I'm logged in here right in the very early, early hours of the process, and right now Wallin is listed as eighth in Eastern Conference defencemen voting with 50 votes. Setoguchi's not yet on the radar in the West.

At the moment, Bruins and Habs fans are stuffing the ballot box the best. Tim Thomas, a write-in candidate, leads all players by a long shot with more than 1,000 votes and is certainly a deserving entry given his start. (His campaign, while not quite so wacky, is based on this Facebook page.) The top four defencemen in the East are Bruins or Habs, while the top three forwards in the conference are all from Montreal.

Thomas is getting hundreds of votes every few minutes right now, meaning there are, in fact, hardcore hockey fans in Boston.

Something tells me that this year's starting lineups are going to be the wackiest ever.

UPDATE Twenty minutes later, and all six starting positions in the East are Canadiens players, likely a result of the new "Team Vote" feature whereby fans can automatically vote for only their favourite team's players automatically.

How dominant have Montreal fans been? Jaroslav Halak is the third ranked goalie at the moment, two spots behind No. 1 Carey Price.

The Setoguchi and Wallin campaigns aren't having much luck, but Coyotes defenceman Keith Yandle and Bruins banger Milan Lucic have come on strong. (And I'm sure this will be out of date another 20 minutes from now.)

One more note on automated voting before I turn in for the night. From the rulebook:

13. How many times can I vote?
You can vote as many times as you like via the internet or text message during the Promotion Period (as defined in #3 above). However, the NHL will have in place monitoring procedures designed to prevent individuals from unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting by generating significant blocks of votes using technical enhancements. The NHL reserves the right to disqualify, block or remove any votes from any individual who votes by any electronic, mechanical or automated means, or otherwise tampers with the vote process, or for any other reason that would have the effect of unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting process, as determined by the NHL in their sole discretion.

Call it the Rory clause.

UPDATE It's 2:30 in the morning and the site's crashed, likely due to the volume of traffic they were receiving all at once. Hilarious.