Wednesday, January 21, 2009

My opinion of the Eastern All-Star Roster


FORWARDS

Starting three forwards: Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Alex Kovalev. The fans voted these three into the game so I’m not going to criticize their choices, although Alex Kovalev’s play this year doesn’t really deserve an all-star spot. Andrei Kostitsyn is a more deserving Canadiens forward if the fans had to vote another one in.

League selected forwards:

Jeff Carter, Vinny Lecavalier, Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Ovechkin, Zach Parise, Marc Savard, Eric Staal, Thomas Vanek.

Out of the league selected forwards, you could make a case that Ilya Kovalchuk(20 goals), Vinny Lecavalier(44 points) and Eric Staal(35 points) got there because of their names, not necessarily cause they were the most deserving forwards on their teams. Bryan Little(Atlanta-21 goals), Marty St.Louis(46 points) and Ray Whitney(39 points) are more deserving.

DEFENSE

Starting 2 defensemen: Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek. Andrei Markov is a starter for the second year in a row and definitely deserves to be in this spot. Mike Komisarek being a started in the All-Star game however was the product of fandom. This will be his first and last All-Star game.

League selected defensemen:

Jay Bouwmeester, Zdeno Chara, Tomas Kaberle and Mark Streit.

While I’m not going to argue that Chara shouldn’t be here, his teammate Dennis Wideman(Boston-31 points) is equally as deserving. Tomas Kaberle is a product of the “one player from every team must go” rule, while he’s Toronto’s leading scorer on D he’s also -11. As much as the Islanders suck, Streit does deserve this.

GOALTENDERS

Starter: Carey Price. Tim Thomas probably should have been the starter but Price does deserve to be in the game in my opinion. He’s one of the top 5 goalies in the east and with Mary Brodeur out with injury he takes a spot.

League selected goalies:
Henrik Lundqvist, Tim Thomas.

No qualms with either player.

Friday I’ll cover the Western All-Star team.

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