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ASG Voting is Tightening in the Eastern Conference
by Alanah McGinley on 12/16/08 at 12:43 PM ET
Comments (3)
New York (December 16, 2008) – Sidney Crosby has won a Hart Trophy and an Art Ross Trophy. He has won a Winter Classic with a shootout goal and captained his team to a Stanley Cup Final. Now, he is threatening to break Jaromir Jagr’s all-time record for the most votes received in one year of NHL All-Star fan balloting.
As of 7 a.m. today, Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin were running 1-2 among Eastern Conference forwards in the XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports that will select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game Jan. 25 in Montreal. With a little more than two weeks remaining until voting ends Jan. 2, Crosby had received a League-high 793,995 votes – with Malkin in hot pursuit with 715,663.
That put both within striking distance of the record 1,020,736 votes cast for Jagr in 2000.
While Penguins were the front-runners up front, Montreal Canadiens continued to dominate the voting on the blue line and in goal. But the races are tightening.
As they have since balloting began, Montreal’s Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek maintained their lead in the balloting to select the starting defensemen for the Eastern Conference.
Similarly, Montreal’s Carey Price held onto the top spot among Eastern Conference goaltenders as of this morning’s update. But Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury had closed to within just 68,300 votes.
The vote totals, as of 7 a.m. ET, in the fan balloting for the Eastern Conference starters are detailed below. A Western Conference update will be issued tomorrow.
Through Jan. 2, NHL fans can vote as often as they like in the XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports 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 are able to cast their votes via text message using any wireless carrier. Real-time results are available exclusively at http://Vote.NHL.com/results.
Fans can vote for up to six Eastern Conference players and six Western Conference players—three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender. Fans are permitted to select as few as one player—a balloted player or write-in—per online ballot at Vote.NHL.com or via text message.
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. Standard text messaging charges will apply.
Eastern Conference
(as of 12/16/08, 7 a.m. ET)
Player NHL Club Votes
Forwards
Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh 793,995
Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh 715,663
Alex Kovalev Montreal 628,797
Saku Koivu Montreal 628,637
Alex Tanguay Montreal 618,262
Alex Ovechkin Washington 300,189
Marc Savard Boston 181,745
Patrice Bergeron Boston 167,681
Alexander Semin Washington 138521
Thomas Vanek Buffalo 113,228
Simon Gagne Philadelphia 101,713
Mike Richards Philadelphia 80,910
Danny Briere Philadelphia 72,328
Derek Roy Buffalo 63,691
Vincent Lecavalier Tampa Bay 63,520
Dany Heatley Ottawa 43,478
Ilya Kovalchuk Atlanta 43,188
Daniel Alfredsson Ottawa 40,059
Chris Drury NY Rangers 39,352
Eric Staal Carolina 35,352
Zach Parise New Jersey 30,425
Markus Naslund NY Rangers 28,769
Scott Gomez NY Rangers 27,639
*Jordan Staal Pittsburgh 25,666
Martin St. Louis Tampa Bay 23,892
Jason Spezza Ottawa 23,788
Rod Brind’Amour Carolina 18,531
Patrik Elias New Jersey 16,777
Brian Rolston New Jersey 15,836
*Jeff Carter Philadelphia 15,375
Ray Whitney Carolina 14,045
*Philip Kessel Boston 11,650
*Milan Lucic Boston 11,409
Trent Hunter NY Islanders 7,167
Defensemen
Andrei Markov Montreal 694,906
Mike Komisarek Montreal 634,389
Sergei Gonchar Pittsburgh 564,044
Ryan Whitney Pittsburgh 531,327
Zdeno Chara Boston 332,586
Mike Green Washington 223,055
Kimmo Timonen Philadelphia 112,921
Teppo Numminen Buffalo 97,866
Tomas Kaberle Toronto 81,417
Wade Redden NY Rangers 61,295
Jay Bouwmeester Florida 56,586
Chris Phillips Ottawa 23,756
Goaltenders
Carey Price Montreal 679,944
Marc-Andre Fleury Pittsburgh 611,692
Henrik Lundqvist NY Rangers 120,020
Ryan Miller Buffalo 104,521
*Tim Thomas Boston 70,423
Martin Biron Philadelphia 69,693
Martin Brodeur New Jersey 49,622
Vesa Toskala Toronto 32,813
Kari Lehtonen Atlanta 14,019
Tomas Vokoun Florida 10,395
Rick DiPietro NY Islanders 9,680
Note: Write-in candidates are denoted by an asterisk (*)
Filed in: NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: all+star+game, asg,
Comments
I doubt it considering there seem to be no Caps fans on earth. Pens fans even opted to help the caps fans, and the Caps fans still didn’t show up. And you can’t cheat any more like the Habs fans did, so they can’t do it that way.
But by the “sound of you’re voice” I’m guessing you’re talking about some kind of crazy gary bettman conspiracy BS. Well, it is just BS, so I also doubt that.
Posted by Kevin from Pittsburgh on 12/16/08 at 06:29 PM ET
Kevin, you must not have come by the phone booth recently. There are plenty of Caps fans rockin’ the red. 
Posted by GregAnnapolis on 12/16/08 at 06:33 PM ET
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Hockey Links
$100 says that ovechkin will “magically” get 400,000 and move ahead of kovalev in the coming weeks
Posted by ThinkinPink on 12/16/08 at 05:21 PM ET