i cannot wait to see kovy in the skills competition. that should be spectacular! i hope they put him in the breakaway competition (if it still exists)

poor komisarek. not sure what they'll use him for if blocking shots and throwing hits aren't events in the skills. it'll be good for a laugh at least.

edit: and props to the habs fans who got our boys in. they may not all be the stars of the east but the league put them on the ballot and we did right by them. i'm just hoping the media/coaches (whoever chooses the teams) consider koivu at least.

Holmes on homes I dont even think mike could rebuild the mildewy,leaking,asbestos poorly constructed team that are the leafs lol

That may be true, but the Habs also recently went through about 8 years where there really wasn't a deserving member of the team to be in the Allstar game.

I agree with you, except that the freedom the league has given the fans can also turn out to be a joke as we saw with all the Vancouver fans trying to vote in that 4th line player last year.
If that guy had have taken away Kovalev or Komisarek's spot, I'm not sure you would still see things the same way.

Really? Markov didn't deserv it last year? or Huet the year before when he cam off leading the league in Save %?

Theodore didn't deserve it as league MVP?

or Souray leading defencmen in scoring and domaniting the PP?

maybe you might want to revist those 8 years.

In the end no one will remember. Who really cares? The all-star game is meaningless for everyone except the fans of the team hosting the game. Ove desearves to be there above Kovy, but I doubt Ove Cares that much. He will get a spot on the all - start team and he will probably get more ice time then Kovy and play on the top line after the first shift. After the game is over no one will likely ever remember. All that matters is the playoffs. I do think the NHL should remove fan voting though and come up with a better system where only the NHL players and coaches vote.

Got a phone bill back with close to 11,000 texts sent lol, and I think there will be some spillover onto my next bill (unlimited texting)

Super happy that 4 of our Habs made it into the All-star game. I would, however, be happier if the other starting positions were given to Ovechkin and Lecavalier instead of Squid the Kid and Malkin. I hate Pittsburgh!

Mike Komisarek definitely throws, at least, one hit during the All-star game!

Carey Price will showcase the future of the NHL!

Alexei Kovalev should impress mightily in the skills competition!

Andrei Markov! What else can you say? Batman!

I wasnt excluding any bad team ( although we did have some quality players on ours). I was simply pointing out the biggest problem with an Allstar selection process.

They should limit the voting to paying ticket holder fans (i.e. not corporate) of the actual all star game and season ticket holders of all the clubs. You buy a ticket/season ticket, you prove it's not for corporate purposes/scallping, you get a single digital ballot per ticket.

well, for my money, i thought what those guys dd re: rory fitspatrick was very clever, and very entertaining.
check out the series of you tube ads they did, vote for rory, he'd vote for you !. they did ads comparing rory to chelios, neidermier, ect.
totally tounge in cheek and very funny in my opinion. and it did generate a lot of interest in the league. prob. from younger veiwers of you tube.
wouldn't have bothered me if he'd have gotten in. thats the whole point of voting for who YOU want to see in the allstar game,
as we have been pointing out here this year.imo, those guys were brilliant, b/c they could have just done it totally with voting bots and kept it quiet as to who was doing it,
but they directed an awsome publicity campaign to go along with it !!

I'm sending my phone bill to the Habs front office for reimbursement, I suggest you do the same.

You don't think Tim Thomas is an All-Star? He's easily one of the best in the conference.

Tim Thomas is good, but IMO Pricey is better and deserving to be at this all star game at the young age of 21.

Lol i got mine back from koodo with about 350 sent, but it only counted as one text per the 17 i repeatedly sent, so 350 multiplied by 17 = the number of tiems i voted.

Lookin' good

Those jerseys are actually quite snazzy.

Indeed they are but the look tiny on the guys...Couldn't have gotten them a bigger size lol.

Huh, what does snazzy mean?

Stylish and flashy

The only person who can - and probably will - beat Kovalev in a skills competition -is Kovalev.

How many times have we seen him in a shoot out, beat the goalie completely & ring it off the post or just over the crossbar. The guy has all world skill but sometimes overthinks things/tries to do too much.

Those jersey look sweet but small.

I'm not much of a fan of the All-Star game. To me, it's more of a popularity contest rather than the players who really deserve to be in the All-Star game. I didn't even bother to vote. However, I do injoy the skills competition. Maybe I'll watch the All-Star game this year because it's in Montreal.

Ah1 thanks


That's because they're replicas to wear without equipement. The jerseys will be the same size as the clubs' jerseys

very nice.

I love this pic. If you could read their minds:

Kovalev: Yeah, its the allstar game. Its cool, been there before...maybe I should fly my jet to the Bell Centre...

Komi: Im an All-star? Tee hee

Markov: I am an all star two years in a row. FINALLY people outside of Montreal and Alex Ovechkin are noticing my play.

Price: You mean I dont get a weekend off? Ok.



Seriously though, the pic looks great. I always forget that both Kovalev & Markov have decent size (both height & mass) - i mean we know Komisarus Rex is massive & Price is as tall & lank as they come - but its interesting to see Markov & Kovy not looking out of place. If Koivu had gotten Kovalev's spot we might not have seen the # on his jersey!

It is funny that it looks like Komi can barely contain his enthusiasm & Price looks as if he just woke up.

I wonder if kovalev will take part in the trick-shot shootout. I mean the guy can dangle and headfake pretty well but I don't think I've ever seen him pull any tricks with maybe a spinorama around a d being exception.

Too bad deserving players didn't get voting in. Markov and Price are the only ones that should have been voted in. Chara and Alex Oveckin should be there too.

I call that million dollar hands and a 25 cent head.

I didn't say the last 8 years in particular. I said they recently went through about an 8 year period. If you want specifics I would say about 96 - 03.
How's that?

And Komisarek They showed his breakaway, Bryan McClutts pass, goal during the Leafs/Panthers game tonight.

96 - Pierre Turgeon - 96pts
97 - Mark Rechhi - 80pts plus a hattrick in the allstar game (Damphousse put up a point per game that year and DIDNT make the cut)
98 - Mark Rechhi - 74pts (World Vs. North America)
99 - Couldnt Seem to Find...
00 - Martin Ruchinsky - 49pts (World Vs. North America) - First weak pic.
01 - No Habs on the roster. (And none deserving to be)
02 - Theodore (During his Vezina year of course)
03 - No Habs on the roster. (Koivu with decent numbers but only 56 games played)

So basically the only year that a player prolly shouldnt have made it was in 2000 after Damphousse got traded leaving Ruchinsky as our uh go to guy... Not that this takes away from the indirect meaning of your original post anyways. I was just curious and bored.

Thanks for looking that up.
I wasn't motivated enough to search any of it out. I was just going on memory of bad years with some pretty bad talent on the team.

Chara and Ovechkin will still be there. Komisarek bumps the likes of a Kaberle or a Kuba. Kovalev may end up being the most entertaining guy in the game, but if you think he doesn't deserve to be there, he's only bumping out the likes of a Kozlov or a Gionta. I expect most non-Washington, non-NJD fans would prefer to see Kovalev do his thing is such a game. This game is primarily a "fans entertainment" thing, as opposed to a "reward" for top players.

A lot of times you get recoginized for your previous years work. Kovy probably should have been at the all - start game last year, but he got bumped for guys who were not having better seasons then he was. I guess you could say it's a reward for what he accomplished last season. On the bright side for the rest of the NHL Kovy wont get as much rest as he did last year so maybe it will help them out as well.

They will be there anyway. They lost the popularity contest, there isn't any argument about they having more skill than our players who made the starting lineup in their place.

I don't knoiw where to post this, but I am SO HAPPY Souray will be going (coming) to the ALL STAR GAME!!!!!!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our national hockey league.

Five score weeks ago, a great Bettman, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed 6 names from the Canadiens roster to the NHL All Star ballot. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Canadiens fans who had been seared in the flames of the withering injustice that was Kovalev's previous all-star snub. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Canadiens fan still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Canadiens fan is still sadly crippled by the manacles of unlimited text voting and the chains of discrimination by fans of every other team in the league. One hundred years later, the Canadiens fan lives on a lonely island of poverty with limited text messaging in the midst of a vast ocean of unlimited text plans. One hundred years later, the Canadiens fan is still languished in the corners of Canadian society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our virtual ballot box to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the All-Star ballot, they were signing a promissory note to which every NHL player was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, even Mike Komisarek as well as Zdeno Chara, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the chance to start an all star game." Up until a few days ago it was clear that the NHL had defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her fans of the Canadiens are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, the NHL had given the Canadiens fans a bad check, a check which had come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refused to believe that the bank of justice was bankrupt. We refused to believe that there were insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this hockey league. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of starting a full lineup of Canadiens players in their Centennial year All Star game.

It would be fatal for the NHL to overlook the urgency of the moment. This swelteringly cold winter of the Habs fan's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating spring of freedom and equality. Two thousand and nine is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Habs fan needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the league returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in the NHL all star process until the Habs fan is granted his full starting lineup. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our league until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for a full lineup by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into flaming the pens message board. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting flaming by fans in the TSN comments section with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Canadiens community must not lead us to a distrust of all NHL fans, for many of our NHL brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their chance at an all star selection is inextricably bound to our chance at an all star selection.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of the ballot box stuffing, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Habs fan is the victim of the unspeakable horrors on HF boards. We can never be satisfied as long as the Leafs message board asks the question, "Pogge or Price?". We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by fans stating: "Stop living in the past." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Habs fan in Montreal cannot vote multiple times per second and a Coyotes fan in Phoenix believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.


I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come with callus' on your texting fingers. Some of you have come with carpul tunnel syndrome from clicking once per minute. Every minute on a site designed to keep the Habs fan down. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of phone bills from Rogers, Bell and Telus. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Saint Laurent, go back to Mont Royale, go back to De La Gauchetiere, go back to Sainte Catherine, go back to Sherbrooke, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the All Star dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all players are created equal... except for Jarkko Ruutu. Geez, I hate that guy."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Mount Royal, the sons of Habs fan and the sons of Pens fans will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the city of Toronto, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice as long as the Canadiens beat them eight point five times out of nine.

I have a dream that my four little children, if I had any, will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their jersey but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Atlanta, with its vicious Exelby's, with its coach having his lips dripping with the words of "Ilya" and "Kovalchuk" -- one day right there in Atlanta little Habs boys and Habs girls will be able to join hands with little Thrasher boys and Thrasher girls as sisters and brothers, after Kovalchuk starts an all star game as a member of the Canadiens.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day Penguins fan shall quit fooling themselves and shall wear blue, blanc et rouge, and every leafs team shall be kicked out of the league, and every Bruins team lost in space; and the glory of the St. Flannel shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the my couch with.

With this faith, we have been able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we were be able to transform the jangling discords of our hockey league into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we were be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to text together, to online vote togeter and yes, to script together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we are free this day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My hockey 'tis of thee, sweet game of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my LaFleur's scored, land of the Rocket's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if the NHL is to be a great league, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of Chr ist Church Cathedral.

Let freedom ring from the mighty Big O of Pierre-De Coubertin Avenue.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped beers of La Cage aux Sports.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of Wanda's.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Centennial Plaza.

Let freedom ring from Percival-Molson Memorial Stadium of McGill U.

Let freedom ring from every Forum and Bell Centre alike.

From every Montreal Biosphere, let freedom ring.

And now that this has happened, that we have elected 4 Canadiens to the starting lineup, we will let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, that we are and have always been the greatest. And come June we will be able to speed up that day with a 25th Stanley cup victory, when all of God's children, Sharks fans and Ducks fans, Gonchars and Fleurys, roy_133s and graemes, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Canadiens spiritual:

OLEOLEOLEOLE! OLEEEEEEE!OLEEEEEEEEE!

Thank God Almighty, we are the greatest!

mark is coming!

I am soooo happy!! STREIT!!!!

What surprises:

Kessel 24 goals 40 points
Gagne 18 goals 40 points
Elias 18 goals 46 points
Backstrom 12 goals 45 points

all snubbed

It sucks, but how many players do you want at the all star game? 195?

I guess we could all produce list's like this every year.
Kovy comes immediately to mind from last season.

Well I bet people are calling for Kovalevs head now from those respective fanbases.

Part of it is the aim of getting players from every team there, if possible. Heatley and Lecavalier aren't having banner years either, and yet the NHL has selected them to go -- I'm not sure they "deserve" it any more than Kovalev does this season.

The East has most of the top scorers, and the same number of All-Star roster spots as the West:
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=402847

And in goal, The King sure hasn't looked or played like an All-Star this season. There's a few that he's bumping that deserve it more than him. But the NHL wanted a Ranger to be there, and they thought they may as well make it a 'marquee' player.

I really don't think there is any 'volume' re: fans 'upset' about certain players being missing.

.......

Go back about 20 pages when people thought the NHL was manipulating the votes to keep Price out.

"Lots" of 'people' care about their favourites, but lots is more a few dozen. By "volume", I meant real big numbers like 6-7 figures.

NHL.com is on and on about 1.3MM voters selected so-and-so. I would guess that a few dozen, or a few hundred people cast 80-90% of the votes. It's assinine for the NHL say or imply that 1.3MM people voted for a certain player because his vote count was there. Total individual voters wouldn't have reached any substantial number, and the one's that voted once out of some token interest were entirely inconsequential to the result.

I wouldn't doubt for a minute that the NHL didn't do (or push along) some rigging: for example, I expect they'd a preferred Gonchar didn't get voted in since he hasn't even played a game (kinda like Rory Part Deux ). Don't know for sure, though.

I've stated many times the point of tha fan balloting is for the majority of fans to get their favs in. However this is a 30 team league, do you really believe that fans of other teams were voting for Habs back when it all started, before it basically became a Habs vs Pens battle.

It may not be to the degree of how many Habs fans there are, but I'm sure a great amount of people are still frustrated by what happened in this fan vote.

I doubt it too, but I was pointing out how angry people got when they thought their favorite player wasn't getting it, and using it as a point.

I am happy to see that Tim Thomas made it. It was shameful that he wasn't on the starting lineup ballot, and he really deserves a spot on the Eastern roster. I despise Boston with a passion, but Thomas deserved recognition for his efforts this season.