I really have no idea what in the world the NHL is thinking. The league named the full roster for the Eastern Conference just now and the lone Rangers representative is ...
*drum roll*
Scott Gomez???
Simply said, the league screwed up. No, not because they didn't name Henrik Lundqvist - the King played himself out of a spot after his torrid start. The Rangers representative in the corporate, I mean, midseason classic should have been Michal Rozsival. Instead they have a defensive corps of Andre Markov, Zdeno Chara, Brian Campbell, Sergei Gonchar, Tomas Kaberle and Kimmo Timonen.
Markov and Chara are the starters, no argument there. Campbell has one more point in one less game and has been probably the best player on the Sabres so he is fine. Gonchar plays with Cindy and, of course, has a ton of points, the most among Eastern defensemen. Kaberle has almost the same numbers as Rozy but was the only Toronto player to make it, which is puzzling (I'll get to that later). But Timonen doesn't belong in the ASG. Having watched several Flyer games - including last night - he has been solid, but utterly unspectacular. Plus, Mike Richards was named as one of the forwards so he is already representing Philly. Timonen has seven less points than Rozy (albeit in four less games), is the same -2, has no shorthanded points to Rozy's two and averages 10 seconds less ice time per game. So the two are comparable but Rozy has the edge.
In his place, the league named Gomez to the team ... over Evgeni Malkin, Marc Savard, Danny Briere, Ray Whitney, Corey Stillman, Zach Parise and Alex Kovalev - all of whom have more points on teams higher than the Rangers in the standings. Not to mention the omission of Mats Sundin, which is a mistake as such a respected veteran of the game should have gotten waved in at this point in his career - especially since he has 48 points in 44 games and is +10 on the horrid compost heap of the Leafs. I imagine Toronto talk radio decrying the injustice and for once they would be right. But, considering that the game is at 6 p.m. on Versus on January 27th, not a lot of people (at least in the States) will be watching so it really doesn't matter now, does it?
2 comments:
I'm no expert, but don't the folks in charge of the ASG make sure that there's at least one plyer from every team? I remember hearing about people thinking that a member of the Lightning (can't remember who is was + too lazy to look it up) was cheated out of the ASG since Lecavalier and St. Louis were already sent in. Like I said, I'm not an expert.
Aso, doesn't the "fan voting" play a large factor in the decision making process, making it more of a popularity contest than an actual abilities based decision?
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