No Red Wings Playing in the All-Star Game—Should We Be Surprised?

The NHL All-Star Game has been decreasing in importance for about the last decade. It's long been a meaningless exhibition reduced to a spectacle that avid hockey fans would find unfamiliar to the game they know and love.

However, in light of recent events, the 2009 NHL All-Star Game will surely be the most insignificant of all. It has finally turned into the joke that hockey fans have long talked about.

This year, the game will be completely devoid of Detroit Red Wings. In a roster that is supposed to represent the best players in the game—stars if you will—not a single player from the defending Stanley Cup Champion team will be present, not even on the bench.

It all started when the final fan tally came out. Although Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom were both selected, neither one would be starting. That was insult enough.

Lidstrom is a six-time Norris Trophy winner and the best defenseman of his generation. Nothing against Scott Niedermayer, who is also a Norris trophy winner, but their roles obviously should have been reversed, with Niedermayer on the bench and Lidstrom starting.

And Datsyuk? I challenge anyone to find me a better center than Datsyuk in the Western Conference. Not that Ryan Getzlaf isn't a hell of a hockey player himself, but Datsyuk has set the bar higher for himself each season, and his point production from year to year has reflected that.

Today, word has come out that Datsyuk will miss the All-Star Game due to a hip-pointer, and Lidstrom will also sit out with an undisclosed injury. To replace the injured players, Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks and Stephane Robidas of the Dallas Stars will substitute for them.

Maybe it's just me, but if fan-voted-in Red Wings are unable to play, shouldn't other deserving Red Wings players replace them?

Marian Hossa, who is averaging a point per game, or Johan Franzen, on pace for a 40-goal season, were both deserving enough to replace Datsyuk. Brian Rafalski logically should have replaced Lidstrom.

Like I said—this is some kind of sick joke. Not one player from the defending Stanley Cup Champion team, currently holding the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, will represent Detroit in the NHL All-Star Game.

You might say this article is nothing but the ranting and whining of another "spoiled" Wings fan. You're damn right I'm complaining.

For Detroit, who has long been stepped on by the league's front office and marginalized by the commissioner, this is something we should have seen coming.

Gary Bettman has "promised" for over a decade that Detroit would be moved to their rightful place in the Eastern Conference. But it still hasn't happened.

Then came the induction of the salary cap, looked at by many as a way to force a more competitive league, and reportedly "caused" by teams like Detroit and New York.

Lidstrom was made captain of the team and instead of the media celebrating another European captain and promoting diversity, we only heard, "They'll never win with a Euro-captain."

The Winter Classic came along, and although the defending Stanley Cup champs were playing in the game, it was Chicago who received top billing and most of the media attention.

Red Wings fans were blocked from initial ticket sales and were left with the unwanted seats, which they likely overpaid for.

Now this.

This from a league that doesn't seem to think it needs the Detroit Red Wings.

Perhaps Bettman and his cronies should look around the arenas. Wherever the Wings play, whether it's in Phoenix or Tampa, Chicago or San Jose, you will surely find clusters of Detroit jerseys.

Detroit kept hockey alive in the United States during the tough years before and after the lockout, and the league thanks Detroit by putting on an All-"Star" Game devoid of the team’s players?

Even the New York Islanders have an All-Star representative.

That's Okay, though. After all, like I said, the game is a meaningless exhibition reduced to a spectacle that avid hockey fans don't even recognize as hockey.

Detroit doesn't need to take part in that joke of a game, just like the league likes to pretend they don't need Detroit.

Besides, Wings fans know our team will eventually stick it to them the best way they know how anyway.

See you in the playoffs.