The NHL All-Star game has always been a total bore. The best you can say about it is that it resembles a high calibre shinny game. No hitting, no back checking - just some fancy puck handling and lots of scoring. You just can't fix it. But the voting has become a bit of a joke. The NHL has gone to voting over the Internet which as been nothing but a problem.
Last year fans tried to write in journeyman defenceman Rory Fitzpatrick. Some people suggest he may have actually been voted to the 2008 All-Star game but the NHL fudged the numbers. Although the NHL has tried to prevent fans from writing programs to automate voting but have been less than successful. Montreal fans had obviously beaten the system and within the first few weeks Canadien players had huge leads before the NHL caught on. Pittsburgh fans tried to pump up their players' numbers. In the end 4 Canadiens and 2 Penguins received the highest amounts. A similar result occured in the West with 3 Chicago players and 3 Anageim players selected by the fans. No one was good enough from the Stanley Cup winning Detriot Red Wings.
Now there are always more deserving players who are overlooked but this year it has made the voting look like a farce. The 2 best defencemen in the NHL finished 4th in the West (Lidstrom) and 5th in the East (Charo). The goal scoring lead has been flipping back and forth all season between Ovechkin, Vanek and Carter. The finished 6th, 11th and 23rd in voting for forwards in the East.
You think the league has a problem?
