Keep up the fine work, NHL

Thanks to an impressive ballot stuffing effort from Chicago, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, and Montreal, the NHL is sending a grand total of 12 players from 4 teams as starters for the all-star team. Pavel Datsyuk, Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg, and Nick Lidstrom -- at one point all in the running for starting spots, lost by hundreds of thousands of votes, most of which came late in ballot season after fans had figured out the latest glitch to exploit this stupid system.

Among these starters are Brian Campbell, who in the mind of many hardcore fans has done nothing but hurt his stock this year after being outplayed night in and night out by other Western Conference top defensemen, Alexei Kovalev, who went something like 19 games between goals, Andrei Markov, who has probably never made a good defensive play, and Mike Komisarek. Yes, Mike Komisarek is not only an all-star, but he's a starter. I'm confident that Komisarek would probably compete with Lilja for ice time on Detroit. At least everyone else is somewhat deserving, just not as much as a starter. The highlight of ballot season was the fact that Sergei Gonchar was actually 2nd in voting, not Komisarek, and Gonchar hasn't played a game this season and probably won't even be ready even if he was eligible to play.

Futhermore, the NHL chose to make things worse by actually implementing the rule (the rule that they haven't followed the past few years) of making sure every team got a representative. Which is so Roberto Luongo could be named to the all-star team despite the fact that he hasn't played in two months and might miss two more. Because of this, the Dustin Browns (26 points in 39 games, -7), Milan Hejduks (29 in 40, -6), Keith Tkachuks (27 in 39), and Mike Modanoes (26 in 38) are all-stars and top 30 scorers Henrik Zetterberg and Marian Hossa will be watching on the couch. That's right, Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstroms are Detroit's lone representatives.

I see the point in putting the Mike Modanoes and Keith Tkachuks of the world on the roster; the NHL is still convinced its 1998. Then the game was big in the late 90s, these were the players who were marketed the most, so the lone few dozen fans who still watch from those days will remember them. And then they'll see how washed up they've become. Tkachuk and Modano are having respectable years -- you gotta repect a Mike Modano who's a 'plus' (+1 to be exact) player on Dallas -- but instead of marketing the skill and speed of the new youngsters in the league, the NHL has chosen to market... well, I'm not sure exactly what it is they're marketing, but clearly it's not working. The NHL is great at shooting itself in the foot like this, other sports should take notice.

I'm not just bitching because Detroit got snubbed -- I could care less at who starts -- I just want to see the most deserving players at the game so that the NHL can actually have a respectable All-STAR game, not a a Whole-Lotta-Mediocrity-Game. San Jose was snubbed moreso than Detroit, as they also got two in (Thornton, Boyle) while top 25 scorers Patrick Marleau and Devin Setoguchi didn't make it, the re-surgent Rob Blake was left off (there's an idea, old players who are actually not washed up), and Evgeni Nabokov, nor Miikka Kiprusoff, will be going despite leading the league in wins.

And this is just the Western Conference. Eastern Conference is tomorrow.

I wrote last year about how spectacular that weekend was, so this one is definitely not off to a good start. Possibly the only bright spot is the NHL announced they're getting rid of that ridiculous relay (I think, because it wasn't on the list of returning events) and that "skill shot" thing that Ovechkin won by flipping the puck in the air and swinging and missing with vigor, and are replacing it with an elimination shootout -- everyone takes as many shots as needed until there is a winner. Hopefully at least one good thing will come out of that.

In other news, Jakub Kindl was announced a starter for PlanetUSA in the AHL All-Star Game, and Daniel Larsson will see a period in goal. Finishing up briefly on prospects, Brendan Smith broke his wrist and is out a while, Johan Ryno scored twice over the weekend after coming back from his broken leg he achieved in the 4th game of the year, and Thomas McCollum may actually stay in Guelph after Windsor traded for Josh Unice instead.