Hard to disagree with them being a better fan base, at least right now. It looks like they actually care about getting their guys there.

Give up guys...
You can't beat the power of a Pensblog's call to arms
And anyone who doubt Fleury > Price should watch their series against the Cryers last year

I have no problem in seeing you guys vote Malkin and Crosby as they deserve to start. Fair game as far as I'm concerned.

But I do find it cheap when guys vote in Fleury. Price is not the best in the east, we can all agree on that, so yes we're homer since the game is going to be played here, but Fleury is not close to being the best in the east this year. If people voted in Lunquist or Thomas I'd have no problem with it. If the game was in Pittsburgh I wouldn't have a problem with Fleury starting but that's the thing, it's in Montreal. So I find it a bit cheap. It makes less sense to see Fleury start than Price, even though both shouldn't start.

montreal fans vs the rest. its obvious it isnt just penguins fans voting for crosby and malkin, its a case of people being jealous of montreal so they band together to bring down their common enemy.....us.

as for me, il keep voting everyday. its our centennial, its our all star game.

I don't think it's the whole NHL as then Ovechkin would be in for sure. I think Penguins fans are just insane. Of course Malkin and Crosby probably desearve to be there. So does Ovechkin for that matter. I wouldn't have a problem with that as the start line. It's going to be silly that Komisarek gets in. He is the least desearving even though he is a good defenseman.

where are all the habs fans then? it seems that everyone has stopped.

VOTE FOR ALL MONTREAL CANADIENS NOW

GOGOGOGOGOGO

VOTE VOTE VOTE

....I think someone walked into Gary Bettman's office to report it, but he was busy texting more votes for Crobsy....

Actually that is incorrect, until Ovechkin's injury last season the league was purely marketing Crosby as their "Michael Jordan" of the hockey world. It is not unfathomable they are not only allowing the cheating to continue from the Pittsburgh fans but activity rigging the results themselves. If it was purely a fan voting then Ovechkin, who is arguably loved as much as Crosby would have smoked us as well.

Regardless I could care less as I find the Allstar games a pointless waste of time. They are immensely boring to watch considering either teams try, they are told not to hit whatsoever and it counts for absolutely nothing other then one conference being able to say, "We gave a slight bit more of a damn then you did!" Last year quite a few players refused to go and I frankly cannot blame them, I would much rather spent time with my family then waste it playing a game that has no meaning.

I will say one thing however, how about we settle the score with Pittsburgh by eliminating the whiny bunch in the Eastern Conference finals? I am certain that will have more of a lasting affect especially since we can never allow them to forget it.

Does it cost to text votes?

Meh. I ve already voiced my opinion in this thread. The "call to arms" and "fan base challenges" are the musings of bloggers and people who spend too much time on this forum. I realize the NHL has made a joke of the all star game by allowing limitless online voting, but I refuse to sink to the level that apparently the NHL condones.

The All Star game has never been a symbol to honor the team who is hosting it. Montreal, the city, the team, and the fans, should all know....that is if they are true fans just how great a franchise we have. We dont need to put our players out there to start the All star game as proof that we are some sort of monster franchise with a monster fanbase. It reeks of childishness and attention whoring and if anything it shows us that we care less about the authenticity of the league and more about crowning our own undeserving players. I dont care about the fact that other cities could have done this in previous years and havent due to lack of hometown voting. That is not a winning argument. Certainly a few Habs - Markov, Koivu, and Price come to mind - could legitimately start when you factor in their seasons and the homefan bias. But this challenge to Hab fans to vote for your players to show that you are a real fan is sophmoric and stupid.

VOTE

It doesn't bother me that the Habs forwards may not be in the all-star game. For one they shouldn't really be there in the starting lineup and it's also a waste of some of the olders players energy like Koivu and Kovalev who need to save all their energy for the playoffs. Markov is enough to represent the Habs IMO. He desearves to go with the point totals hes putting up. I also think the Habs can beat the Pens because the Habs have more depth even though the Pens have two superstars.



I think only Markov and price really could be in the all-star starting lineup. No offense to Koivu who is playing really well, but he is somewhere around 54 in the league in points. I don't think you get into the all-star game based on effort and +/-. You get in based on ability to put up a lot of points.

In my opinion Koivu deserves to be invited. He is the captain and leader of the host city's team, and he has been playing very well in the early part of this season. He is our number 1 center, our most committed team player, and our shootout champion! He should be there, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I also believe Price deserves to be there over someone like Fleury, who isn't have a solid year. Honestly though, Tim Thomas deserves to be there more than anyone since he is having a spectacular start to the season and boasts the best numbers in the NHL, I do believe.

Markov will obviously be there.

You are welcome to your own opinion. I don't agree with it though. It would probably be better for Koivu to rest anyway. He is a small player and small players are more easily worn down over the course of a long season.

Why r small players more worn down by the end of the season?

Common we should be voting hard for Koivu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is our leader!!!!!!!
Lets get him in!

Physical play usually wears them down more so then larger players.

Rest?

Come on, it's the All-star game. It's one weekend stuck between 82 actual challenging games that is played for fun. I don't think it's going to make Koivu anymore tired than playing with his kids for the afternoon. Players who mention that they would rather, "Rest," than attend the game are just excusing themselves becuase they don't want to play!

I respect your opinion too, but I want Koivu there!

Normally I would agree that I would rather have my stars rest but considering the game is going to be played basically down the street from his home I think he'll be able to rest and play.

Rest is more to do with family and with mind. Certainly the game is not much of a physical strain (not based on the period or two (total) of All-Star play I've watched over the past 5 years).

http://fanballoting.nhl.com/leaders !!!!!!11

VOTE!!!!

WE ARE NO LONGER IN THE LEAD

Having 3 players in the all star isn't bad.

Does it cost to text your votes?

I think it's just standard text rates, so basically whatever it costs you to send a normal text (if anything).

Although it's weird, I've been texting a ton, and the other day I decided to text a bunch of votes to Mcardle and none of them have counted, so today I tried with Sestito and again, none of them counted, I even had someone else try to vote and it doesn't look like those will count either?

votes are updated every 8 hours or something

it appears mcardle has 9 votes and sestito has 7. Did they have any before you voted?

Clearly Koivu is always tired at the end of seasons. I guess that's why he's always our best player in the playoffs.

he just had his foot broken a week before

Every year we made the playoffs? Hum.




Just noticed something. Fleury only has played 14 games. He needs to play 20 before January 2nd. Pens have 10 games left until then, and Sabourin and Fleury have split half and half so far... with Sabourin having better stats. Maybe Fleury won't even have enough games to start even if he catches up to Price.

again, the 20 games rule will not count for established NHL'ers

Thanks for the into. I knew there probably be some sort of rule I didn't know about. By curiosity, what do they consider "established"? One full season?

I checked this afternoon before I voted and Sestito had 7 votes. I have since voted 100 times for him, yet none of my votes have been registered. He is still at 7.
There is OBVIOUSLY something screwy going on.

weird. i wonder if they are 'weighting' votes by country? I have no reason to suspect this but something is definitely up. Crosby has been averaging like 20,000 votes a day.

Mcardle has sat at 9 for like a week now.

Now i'm just irritated even though I didn't care a week ago.
Well as they say, the house always wins.

I also tried and you're right. There is something going on there.

Ummm, the NHL seriously can't say scipts aren't being used for Crosby and malkin. Honestly, cheaters

If I were a betting man, I'd bet that the NHL is rigging this to get the results they want. They obviously want Crosby and Malkin in the starting lineup and they are putting them there. Do you expect anything different from a loser like Bettman.

Canadian teams generate over 60% of the league revenues and have to share their profits with all these low market teams and in our Centennial year we are once again shown no respect from Bettman and Company.

I've read a lot of posts in here about some of the Habs not being deserving and who cares. Give the Habs their starting lineup in the all star game because this team, Les Canadiens have been the face of the the NHL for 100 years.

Instead they want some whiny kid like Crosby starting in Montreal while better players like Ovechkin are no where in sight. Real fair, isn't it?

The thing is though, I doubt they want Gonchar, Whitney and Fleury there (or even close) and it looks like they'll catch up. Something fishy is going on and I don't know what it is.

Probably a small group of people hacked the phones to txt next stop

Or they found a website where they are able to txt using a webpage and then using the autoscript on that

Well they must be counting some text votes, and not counting others because I've been texting a lot of votes for a lot of no name guys and their vote totals haven't changed the last few days.

Oops, i bet 1/2 the things i type dont make any sense,

replace next for none

So i bet the've hacked there phones to vote none stop..

Or that webpage txtnig..

I bet there is a way, just gotto find out how..

it still doesn't account for the perfectly legel votes roy wwas speaking of.
there is nothing much more that i dislike than an unfair fight.

If there is only one hab on the all star team then I'm done with the all-star game. I thought this year they might give us more then one but it looks like there going to have a all Pittsburgh team. Yeah that's much better NHL. I say take out the voting rule you stupid morons.

Boys we need to keep Koivu, Markov, Komisarek, and Price in the all star game. I think we should get Kovalev in the all-star game considering he was ripped off last year and left off the team but I think we would all rather our captain on the East squad. We need to keep Ovechkin, Gonchar, Whitney, and Fleury where they are.

It's very disappointing because something funny is going on and there's basically nothing we can do about it.

Hey I have no qualms if they wanted Crosby and Ovechkin at any other time, any other year. However this is our Centennial, the 100th year anniversary of the Canadiens and the all star game is being hosted in our city. Fans voting for the Habs to start is supporting the Centennial, of course Bettman is pro United States to a frightening extent...

Carbo commented at the very end about all this, http://www.gazblogs.com/habsinsideout-file...s/carbo%20e.mp3