Why The Hell Not?

If you may recall, last year some fans got together and set up a grassroots Vote For Rory campaign to get Rory Fitzpatrick, a stay-at-home defenseman on Vancouver, into the All Star Game. They nearly succeeded, which was fun, but of course the league did their best to play it down because they actually take the meaningless, corporate midseason exhibition seriously. That's why they put it in Atlanta this year. Right? Whatever.

Well, as you can see, this season there is a Vote for Boogey to get Minnesota Wild tough guy Derek Boogaard into the game. I think its a fantastic idea, voted for him myself and even may buy a t-shirt! After all, as someone in the East, I don't get to see enough Western hockey to make a fair judgement on the skill players (Hey Bettman and the Board of Governors, you better fix the scheduling for next season!!). So why not vote for a guy who I get to see regularly on HockeyFights.com?

To the best of my memory, the last tough guy who made it to the All Star Game was Bob Probert but he didn't fight. The NHL media guide doesn't have year-by-year box scores but points out that the top three in PIM in the game's history are Gordie Howe (Mr. Hockey leads with 25 minutes), Gus Mortson (who?) and Harry Howell (former Rangers great). Mortson, apparently played in the 40s and 50s for the Leafs and the Hawks. Howell played in the 50s and 60s and Howe played, well, forever. But the common theme is that all played when the Original Six teams legitimately hated each other, so of course there were some battles. Now everyone is afraid to get hurt while playing against golfing buddies and rich corporate sponsors.

So let's bring back a lil edge to the game and get the Boogey Man in! Vote early, and vote often. Also, a little aggravating sidenote - if you look at the write-in list for the East, you can vote for most anyone, aside from Sean Avery. Amazing how he pisses off the league and they 'accidentally' leave him off the ballot. The NHL administration is really a vindictive, bitter bunch who are entirely out of touch with the fans. Its quite pathetic. So screw them and Vote For Boogey!