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Dallas and Montreal Take NHL By Storm
by Alanah McGinley on 11/13/08 at 03:15 PM ET
Comments (8)
It’s an All Star Throwdown: The Canadien-Stars versus everyone else. And I’ll echo Mother Pucker’s thoughts this morning, who said:
I’m no rocket appliance when it comes to figuring out how someone may have hacked this voting system, but I will declare right now that something is up.
Indeed. First, let’s look at the Eastern Conference, where the current All Star fan voting indicates that those Canadiens fans have got this internet-voting-thingy down to a fine art form:
No disrespect to Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev and Alex Tanguay, but to echo the well-chosen words of the fans of 29 other NHL teams, their dogs, and the entire nation of Russia: Wtf??
Dear Canadiens’ fans: stuffing the ballot box with one name is a pardonable offense; but stuff your entire roster in there and you start to get obnoxious.
Another thing that gives one pause is Alexander Semin‘s high standing. Does he deserve a whole lot of votes? Certainly. But he’s got roughly the same number of votes as Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin combined. So I guess there’s some Semin Campaign in affect out there somewhere, although it seems a bit weird that a Semin vote isn’t pushing up the AO vote at the same time.
(*And something else weird is how many “Alex"s feature in on this entire situation. What are the odds?)
Off to the Western Conference where hockey in Texas is apparently so incredibly compelling that the massive fan base of 1 billion+ are taking the internet by storm:
Okay, not the same insane numbers as the Canadiens situation, but you can still smell the B.S. in the air. And the easiest way to tell that this Dallas thing is total crap is if we just make a quick comparison to the Red Wings votes—those Detroit fans are waaaaaaay too obnoxious, pushy and (admittedly) organized not to be overtaking this whole damn list, and without any cheating. 
But Dallas? They’re up to something sinister, I tell ya.
The same story carries on down throughout the Defensemen and the Goalie voting categories in the Eastern Conference, though in the west it seems to be a bit less of an issue. For instance, Roberto Luongo is dominating those goalie votes, but his disproportionate representation can be a little easier explained. For one thing, he gets a ridiculous amount of PR all across the league. (I love the guy to death—and I know he’s a killer goalie—but geezus, he could make a save on a blind 5-year old and people would be screaming “Greaaaaat save Luongo!"). And for another, it doesn’t hurt that he’s just come off a well-publicized shutout streak.
But guess who’s in second place on that list? Marty Turco.
So, yes, those Texans do know how to rig an election…
Is all this a huge problem? Maybe, maybe not. I think people worry too much, really—it’s all for fun. But at the same time there are a few things to be mildly concerned about, and on that note I’ll leave the final word to James Mirtle at From the Rink:
How could this become a true disaster? Imagine for a moment if the movement from Stars fans to vote in Morrow, Ribeiro, Modano, Robidas, Zubov and Turco succeeds — the NHL would then have a 42-player all-star game with almost 30 per cent of its representatives from two teams.
And one would be Marty Turco.
*shiver*
We should all be afraid. Very very afraid…
P.S. For bonus points, Mirtle also asks the single funniest poll question I’ve read on a hockey site, ever: “Is it a problem if the Canadiens have six representatives at the 2009 all-star game?”
And the response amused me even more: 30% of the respondents actually said “No”.
Gotta love hockey fans. You people really are a kick.
Filed in: nhl general | Canucks and Beyond | Permalink
Tags: all+star+game, dallas+stars, hockey+fans, montreal+canadiens,
Comments
That’s a good point about Montreal. But still… 300,000+ votes for the top 3 Canadiens is nearly double the voting for the rest of the top-10 forwards. That’s a bit too big of a statistical blip to be down to the location of the game, isn’t it?
I guess I should look for the voting tallies in previous years, see how it compares.
As for Dallas, Jennifer Engel is always a joy. I wonder if she’s had anything to say about Turco this year… that could be fun to listen to.
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 11/13/08 at 04:14 PM ET
The Habs fans (at least some) are using a Firefox script to vote multiple times (earlier today/yesterday at least). A few of those included the Dallas players apparently, which explains their showing.
Posted by TheTick from Buffalo on 11/13/08 at 06:16 PM ET
And the response amused me even more: 30% of the respondents actually said “No”.
Hm, I’m actually a person who voted “No”, there, but basically because I couldn’t really care less who was voted into the game.
Had the question been about six Ducks players, though, I would have been outraged. “Those guys need a weekend off!”
But if they want to have an 83rd regular season game between the Stars and Canadiens, please, be my guest.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 11/13/08 at 06:53 PM ET
The Tick -- I wonder if I can convince someone to make a Firefox plugin to automate write-in votes for Kyle Wellwood. Anyone??
Earl --Ha! You make a good point; a weekend of rest is always a good thing. Although Luongo politely declined the invite to the All Star game last year, and that was followed by some pretty bad games for him if I recall correctly.
So this year I’m hoping his All Star trip (assuming he takes it, which I expect he will) has the opposite effect: that he tears up the league for the rest of the season after that weekend.
I live in hope…
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 11/13/08 at 07:21 PM ET
I don’t reckon it’s the fans at all - it’s the Koivu brothers’ mum, pressing refresh every 2 seconds
(as an aside - your “capcha” word for my comment today is 44justice - a nice little coincidence given that the Bertuzzi court case is still ongoing!)
Posted by Sarah from England on 11/14/08 at 05:44 AM ET
Apparently the news today is that the NHL is starting an investigation into this. About time!!
And thanks for the “rocket appliance” thing… recognize where that comes from?
Posted by Mother Pucker Hockey on 11/15/08 at 12:37 PM ET
Sarah - Those captcha things get spooky sometimes. I recommend staying logged in on the site so you don’t have to see them anymore…
Mother Pucker - Trailer Park Boys!
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 11/15/08 at 08:05 PM ET
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About Canucks & Beyond
Alanah McGinley has been blogging hockey since 2003, sharing opinions, rants and not-so-deep thoughts with anyone who will listen. In addition to writing Canucks & Beyond and helping manage Kukla’s Korner, Alanah is one of the founders and co-hosts of The Crazy Canucks Podcast, as featured at Canucks.com.
She has contributed pieces to FoxSports.com and the New York Times Slapshot blog, as well as other stray destinations in cyberspace.
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I’d say if the all star game was in Vancouver then we’d have a whole heap of votes so no suprise that the host city is up there.
As for the Dallas phenomena I can’t explain it. They have fans? Well besides that crazy lady on the radio - she’s a gas.
http://www.andrewsstarspage.com/engel-rant.mp3
Posted by TriniD on 11/13/08 at 04:03 PM ET