NHL reveals all-star ballots

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 1:21 PM CST Comment 29 comments

In a first for all major professional sports leagues, the NHL will provide real-time All-Star fan balloting results online at NHL.com. From Nov. 12 through Jan. 2, NHL fans will be able to vote as often as they like to select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.

Fans around the world can vote online via interactive English and French ballots at Vote.NHL.com. Those in the U.S. and Canada also will be able to cast their votes via text message using any wireless carrier. During the voting period, real-time results will be available exclusively on Vote.NHL.com/results. This marks the third consecutive year the All-Star Balloting process is entirely digital.

>> league release

And we all know how well this exercise has gone in the past. It's interesting that they've made the results come out in real time, however, something that lends a bit of transparency to the whole thing.

The ballots for the all-star game are always ludicrous, and this year's — while improved — is really no exception. I'll post the entire list of 104 players below and offer some analysis below that:

EASTERN CONFERENCE	WESTERN CONFERENCE

Goaltenders	Goaltenders
Martin Biron, Philadelphia Flyers	Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota Wild
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils	Ilya Bryzgalov, Phoenix Coyotes
Rick DiPietro, New York Islanders	J.S. Giguere, Anaheim Ducks
Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins	Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames
Kari Lehtonen, Atlanta Thrashers	Pascal Leclaire, Columbus Blue Jackets
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers	Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks
Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres	Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose Sharks
Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens	Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings
Vesa Toskala, Toronto Maple Leafs	Marty Turco, Dallas Stars
Tomas Vokoun, Florida Panthers

Defencemen	Defencemen
Jay Bouwmeester, Florida Panthers	Rob Blake, San Jose Sharks
Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins	Dan Boyle, San Jose Sharks
Sergei Gonchar, Pittsburgh Penguins	Brent Burns, Minnesota Wild
Mike Green, Washington Capitals	Brian Campbell, Chicago Blackhawks
Tomas Kaberle, Toronto Maple Leafs	Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
Mike Komisarek, Montreal Canadiens	Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim Ducks
Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens	Dion Phaneuf, Calgary Flames
Teppo Numminen, Buffalo Sabres	Chris Pronger, Anaheim Ducks
Chris Phillips, Ottawa Senators	Brian Rafalski, Detroit Red Wings
Wade Redden, New York Rangers	Robyn Regehr, Calgary Flames
Kimmo Timonen, Philadelphia Flyers	Sheldon Souray, Edmonton Oilers
Ryan Whitney, Pittsburgh Penguins	Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

Forwards	Forwards
Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa Senators	Jason Arnott, Nashville Predators
Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins	Brad Boyes, St. Louis Blues
Daniel Briere, Philadelphia Flyers	Dustin Brown, Los Angeles Kings
Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina Hurricanes	Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins	Shane Doan, Phoenix Coyotes
Chris Drury, New York Rangers	Marian Gaborik, Minnesota Wild
Patrik Elias, New Jersey Devils	Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks
Simon Gagne, Philadelphia Flyers	Milan Hejduk, Colorado Avalanche
Scott Gomez, New York Rangers	Ales Hemsky, Edmonton Oilers
Dany Heatley, Ottawa Senators	Shawn Horcoff, Edmonton Oilers
Trent Hunter, New York Islanders	Marian Hossa, Detroit Red Wings
Saku Koivu, Montreal Canadiens	Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
Ilya Kovalchuk, Atlanta Thrashers	Olli Jokinen, Phoenix Coyotes
Alex Kovalev, Montreal Canadiens	Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning	Paul Kariya, St. Louis Blues
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins	Mikko Koivu, Minnesota Wild
Markus Naslund, New York Rangers	Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals	Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks
Zach Parise, New Jersey Devils	Mike Modano, Dallas Stars
Mike Richards, Philadelphia Flyers	Brenden Morrow, Dallas Stars
Brian Rolston, New Jersey Devils	Rick Nash, Columbus Blue Jackets
Derek Roy, Buffalo Sabres	Mike Ribeiro, Dallas Stars
Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning	Brad Richards, Dallas Stars
Marc Savard, Boston Bruins	Joe Sakic, Colorado Avalanche
Alexander Semin, Washington Capitals	Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks
Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators	Henrik Sedin, Vancouver Canucks
Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes	Paul Stastny, Colorado Avalanche
Alex Tanguay, Montreal Canadiens	Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks
Thomas Vanek, Buffalo Sabres	Keith Tkachuk, St. Louis Blues
Ray Whitney, Carolina Hurricanes	Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
	Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit Red Wings

There are a lot of goofy ones in there, starting with Rick DiPietro, Marty Biron and Marty Turco, none of whom should be anywhere near the all-star game this season. If someone wanted to start another Vote For Rory campaign, they could start right there.

Ryan Whitney and Sergei Gonchar have yet to play a game, but are on the list. Trent Hunter from the Islanders sneaks in on the ballot after a hot start, and is joined by a number of forwards having a tough time to this point in the season. Brian Rolston, Martin Brodeur and Marian Gaborik are listed despite being out with injurires.

Who's missing? No Teemu Selanne, no Duncan Keith, no Tim Thomas or Mike Smith, and no Jeff Carter. Filip Kuba has 12 points in 11 games and isn't among the defencemen, nor are Christian Ehrhoff or Keith Ballard. Nikolai Khabibulin should also probably get some consideration in goal.

Patrick Sharp, with 16 points, Corey Perry, with 15, and J.P. Dumont, with 14, are the highest-scoring players not on the list.

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No Toronto forwards? This is rigged.

Pension Plan Puppets*
* Blog contains less than 2% puppet content by weight.

by Chemmy on Nov 4, 2008 1:26 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Relax, Brad Boyes is on there. :) [ducks]

SBN now has a NY Islanders blog at LighthouseHockey.com.

by Dominik on Nov 4, 2008 1:29 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

well done.

Old Guys in Blue and White

by koopa kid on Nov 4, 2008 3:24 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

NO LUKE SCHENN?

How can the league have such a huge anti-Toronto bias?

Pension Plan Puppets: A Toronto Maple Leafs blog and a group therapy session.

by PPP on Nov 4, 2008 1:28 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Wow. No Keith or Sharpy. But there’s Gaborik, D. Brown, B. Richards, Modano, Burns, Blake and Regehr.

Wow.

Don't be afraid to take a few steps back, but you better keep moving forward.

by wlittle on Nov 4, 2008 1:35 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Eastern starting lineup

Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev
Markov-Komisarek
Price

I can’t believe they did put a full Habs lineup on the list this year. This could be just a regular game at the Bell Centre.

Hockey blogging can't get any flatter.

by saskhab on Nov 4, 2008 1:37 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I would pay an unreasonable amount of money to see a Canadiens vs The NHL matchup.

I would also pay an unreasonable amount to the Leafs vs The NHL, but for different reasons.

by TheGateToTheGroinForYannickBertrand on Nov 4, 2008 3:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Patrick Sharp, with 16 points, and J.P. Dumont, with 14, are the highest-scoring players not on the list.

Corey Perry’s got 15 points, no?

http://battleofcalifornia.blogspot.com/

by Earl Sleek on Nov 4, 2008 1:39 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Added him in there… put this together rather quickly.

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 1:41 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m with ya on the Whitney/Gonchar ballot. Why are they even on there? They combine for 0 points in 0 games. That says a lot.

Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com

by FrankD on Nov 4, 2008 1:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

No Jason Pominville?

Roy’s had just as bad of a start, but he makes it and Pominville doesn’t?

by Afino on Nov 4, 2008 2:03 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

And equally laughable is the inclusion of Teppo Numminen.

We love you, Teppo. But you have no business near an all-star roster.

by Afino on Nov 4, 2008 2:05 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Of all the Sabres defense Teppo would not be the choice…

Tallinder and Rivet deserve to be canidates for the all star game

Blue and Gold (of Buffalo)

by Ebscer on Nov 4, 2008 6:52 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

J.P. Dumont has been a consistent contributor since last season, hence that awesome extension they tossed at him last year. He was also (or may still be) inside a point-streak right now and it’s just amazing that he is excluded.

Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com

by FrankD on Nov 4, 2008 2:07 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

NHL Web FAIL

http://vote.NHL.com is now returning a 404 error for me.
Meanwhile http://www.nhl.com/allstar still hypes the “upcoming” All Star game in Dallas and warns that voting ends Jan. 2, 2007.

Nice.

by pwnicholson on Nov 4, 2008 2:52 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

The voting starts Nov. 12.

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 2:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

But that’s marketing and website design 101. Why would you hype a website in a press release that doesn’t exist yet? They are missing out on thousands of people trying to visit a page that isn’t set up yet. Even if voting isn’t active, there should at least be a placeholder page that says “coming soon”.

And no reason for the 2007 site to still be up at all.

by pwnicholson on Nov 4, 2008 2:57 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It’s up to remind people about Vote For Rory… ;-)

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 2:59 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

simple solution

let all players be eligible, let the fans vote the starting line up, the coaches flesh out the rest of the roster.

problem solved.

Anybody throws me against the boards I'm gonna piss all over myself.
The Left Coast Lock

by blurr1974 on Nov 4, 2008 3:00 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Because

that would be way too logical.
Plus, this is probably some sort of attempt to limit who exactly can go to the game. If we could vote from every player, we would be guaranteed that one year, a Rory Fitzpatrick would be in the starting lineup.

by Karina on Nov 4, 2008 3:30 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

As opposed to a Trent Hunter? :-)

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 3:52 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

ESPN Fantasy Hockey

…projected before the season that Hunter would score 40 goals this year.

I’m not kidding. I did stop looking at their projections

I've been looking at the sky

by Back In Black on Nov 4, 2008 4:02 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

If

the people want Rory, give them Rory.

I would be a good king.

by TheGateToTheGroinForYannickBertrand on Nov 4, 2008 3:59 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

But the League

doesn’t think so.
Although I don’t know why. Favourite players don’t have to be the most skilled, and you can be an all-star because you work hard, too.

by Karina on Nov 4, 2008 4:32 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Vote for Rob?

Trent Hunter is a good player. Rob Blake, on the other hand, is no better a defenseman right now than Rory was 2 years ago.

by MattF on Nov 4, 2008 5:18 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Guess I am picking on Hunter a bit too much given how well he’s played so far…

by James Mirtle on Nov 4, 2008 5:38 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The game is for the fans ...

So I agree they should get whoever they want – even if it’s strange to the league. As long as no one gets the baseball idea to make an exhibition game “count.” Anyone starts talking about that, and I will kick them into singing soprano as the price for their stupidity. :)

"A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with." -- Tennessee Williams

by Baroque on Nov 4, 2008 5:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Popularity Contest taken too far...

From the press release: “To vote using any wireless carrier, fans should text their favorite player’s last name to the shortcode 81812. Fans interested in voting for all of their favorite team’s balloted players can text the team nickname (e.g., Bruins) to 81812.”

With one fell swoop you can destroy any respectability that the All-Star game ever had by texting in your favorite team name. I wonder if I can text “Spartak” and be able to vote for Emery as well?

by SDWingNut on Nov 6, 2008 3:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs