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Bizarro All-Stars
by Mike Chen on 01/07/09 at 12:34 PM ET
Comments (3)
Patrick Marleau, Daniel Sedin, Mikku Koivu, Marian Hossa, and Henrik Zetterberg vs. Keith Tkachuk, Mike Modano, and Milan Hejduk. The first five guys are having some of the best seasons in the NHL. The last three guys are not, but they’re apparently All-Stars.
I know the league has to cater to TV networks and sponsors, but doesn’t it seem strange that those last three guys made the Western Conference All-Stars? I mean, Modano is fourth on his team in scoring, Tkachuk’s 27 points aren’t bad but certainly not great, and Hejduk isn’t much better at 29 points. From their own teams, Brad Richards, Brad Boyes, and Paul Stastny (injured) would have easily made better picks. From a league perspective, each of the guys I listed above is far, far more deserving.
Picking guys with name value is understandable but when there are a bunch of guys who are deserving, it seems like the criteria has changed from “Have an outstanding season” to “Have a decent season as an elder statesman on the downside of his career.”
All-Star Games are generally pretty useless to bitch about, so I’m not going to go much further with this. I think we all know that as great of players as Tkachuk, Modano, and Hejduk are, they don’t deserve to be there. In fact, I’m betting that if you asked them, they’d probably say the same thing (that’s why hockey players are such great stand-up guys).
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: All-Star+Game,
Comments
There is a youngstar game for rookies. But I can’t believe that this is considered an all star line-up. Modano makes a little sense because he did take the lead on American born scoring.
Posted by SGTEXPLORER from Covina, CA on 01/07/09 at 06:09 PM ET
1) Do they still have that idiotic requirement to have each team represented? That would account for some of the silly picks
2) Agree that especially with the success of the Winter Classic, the ASG has become superfluous. It will continue as long as there is money to be made from it.
Posted by Faux Rumors from Globally- Here, there, Everywhere on 01/08/09 at 02:16 PM ET
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Just another reason why the ASG is irrelevant and I won’t be watching.
As a Canuck fan, I can’t understand how Luongo was picked in net. Chances are he won’t be ready (or will skip it anyway) for the ASG. Even though he was great in November, I can’t understand why someone like Nabokov who has played more and been pretty good isn’t going to be there, or even rooke Steve Mason who has been great.
Posted by Shabbadoo on 01/07/09 at 12:44 PM ET