Having produced a marvelous first half of the 2008-09 season that has him fifth in the League with 24 goals, San Jose center Patrick Marleau now has a spot in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game to show for it. Having been named to the 2008 All-Rookie Team, Montreal goaltender Carey Price has chosen to do double-duty by coming to the aid of his class and will play goal for the sophomores in the 2009 NHL YoungStars Game presented by Upper Deck in addition to starting for the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game.

Marleau and Dallas Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas have been named to the Western Conference team to replace injured Detroit Red Wings Pavel Datsyuk and Nicklas Lidstrom, respectively, in the 57th NHL All-Star Game in Montreal’s Bell Centre on Sunday.

>> league release

There are a ton of changes to the lineup here if you include the YoungStars game, with Price stepping in for the injured Erik Ersberg, Nashville's Pekka Rinne playing in place of Steve Mason on the rookie team, and Dave Bolland and David Perron of the Blackhawks and Blues playing on the sophomore team in place of Milan Lucic and Nicklas Backstrom.

UPDATE This means there'll be no Red Wings at the game. No word on what Datsyuk and Lidstrom are suffering from but they did play last night.

UPDATE Datsyuk left last night's game with a hip pointer in the third period.

UPDATE Backstrom, meanwhile, says he's not hurt at all and just doesn't want to go. Which is fair enough given he should be in the all-star game rather than the goofy/stupid YoungStars for a second year in a row:

"I am grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in the YoungStars Game last year ... This year I felt like it made more sense for me to give someone else that opportunity and use this time to rest and prepare for the second half of the season with the Washington Capitals. I can assure Caps fans that I'm not injured and will be ready to go Tuesday in Boston."

UPDATE I talked to beat writer Bruce MacLeod on email and he said Lidstrom's been battling an issue with his elbow this season and that's why he's sitting out. Fair enough.

It's unfortunate so many of the stars choose to sit every year, but what can you do?

The press release also had this note about where the game's being broadcast:

North American broadcast will be "on CBC and RDS in Canada and VERSUS in the United States. NASN, ASN, J Sports, Sky Mexico, Fox Sports Australia and other NHL international broadcast partners will provide live coverage of both the Honda/NHL SuperSkills event and the NHL All-Star Game to more than 150 countries and territories in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Mexico and the Caribbean."

The one game the league shows Mexico and Australia is the all-star game? Go figure.