NHL All-Star Starters: Why They Make the All-Star Game Even More Meaningless

Honestly, I really didn't think this was possible.

The idea that the NHL All-Star Game—that utterly restrained, bland, scoring-fest that is supposed to promote the game of hockey by somehow stripping it of nearly everything that makes it great—could be made even less meaningful than it was already seemed, to my mind, impossible.

Nevertheless, the announcement of the 2011 NHL All-Star Game Starters has made what was a virtually meaningless game, absolutely so.

What would constitute a meaningful game you might ask?

After all, there are no points on the line in an All-Star game, no success for one side or the other beyond the ridiculously inflated score at the end of the tilt.

But given that, traditionally, an "All-Star" game was billed as a collection of a sports league's best and brightest stars in a given year, including the NHL's best and brightest stars in the starting lineup would at least make the game true to its intention.

Fan balloting has destroyed this feature of the game.

Sidney Crosby is having a phenomenal year and is hands-down the very best player in the league.

His inclusion not only makes sense, but should be automatic based on performance alone.

However, after Crosby the selections make little sense, beyond pure popularity.

As the Chicago Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup champions, it would stand to reason that they would be well-represented in the NHL All-Star game.

However, the inclusion of Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith is head-scratching inasmuch as they are not only not at the top of the NHL stat sheets, but not even at the top of that of their own roster.

Patrick Sharp, not Jonathan Toews, leads the 'Hawks in scoring.

And, while Duncan Keith is leading all 'Hawks defenders in points, his minus-seven rating is the worst among the same group.

Even if including a couple Blackhawks in the the starting five was a given, it seems more sensible that players having better seasons in Chicago than Towes and Keith would make the cut.

As for the rest of the All-Star starters, clearly, Crosby's aura extends far beyond himself.

Kris Letang is having a great season in Pittsburgh, no doubt.

However, Dustin Byfuglien and Nicklas Lidstrom are having better and even more surprising seasons for Atlanta and Detroit, respectively.

Considered one of the more expendable parts of Chicago's Cup-winning team, Byfuglien was traded to the Thrashers with the expectation that his break-out playoff performance was more than likely a fluke occurrence.

So much for expectations.

Byfuglien leads all defenders in scoring with 41 points, has a plus-eight rating, and is forcing his way into Norris Trophy consideration by being Atlanta's most important player.

Nicklas Lidstrom, though long established as a living legend, is simply defying his age and time itself by not only remaining the Red Wings' top blue-liner at 40-years-old, but putting himself on pace for 77 points to end the year.

Were he to reach that mark, it would be the second-best performance of his 19-year career.

On performance and talent alone, either of Byfuglien or Lidstrom are more deserving of All-Star starter status than Letang.

Then there's Marc-Andre Fleury.

After coming out to a disastrous start to the year, Fleury has recovered his game in Pittsburgh and has been an extremely solid goalie over the second quarter of the season.

Regardless, Tim Thomas has barely loosened his grip on the top spots in goals-against average, save-percentage and shutouts the entire season.

He is unquestionably the NHL's very best goalie this season and, in what is supposed to be a showcase of the NHL's best and brightest, should by all rights be the All-Star game's starting netminder.

Instead, Fleury, who ranks fifth in goals-against average, eighth in wins, twelfth in save percentage and has the same number of shutouts as 13 other NHL goalies (one) will be the top man between the pipes on January 30.

Then, there's the most perplexing selection of all: Evgeni Malkin.

Not only is he 37th overall in league scoring, he's on pace to end the season with 71 points which would be his personal career-worst regular season performance.

He is not, at least this season, an All-Star player—let alone starter—yet, the fans seem to think otherwise.

All of this brings us to the principle problem with the NHL All-Star Game: the selection process.

Fan balloting is neat. However, allowing fans to not only nominate, but elect All-Star starters by voting as many times as they possibly can reduces the All-Star game to a popularity contest which may or may not have anything to do with performance.

If the NHL wants to continue with this format, that's fine, however, they should rename the All-Star Game to something more appropriate like, "The Fan Favorites Game."

Being selected as an All-Star used to mean something to the players. 

Now, they very often elect to take a vacation rather than play in the game, even at the cost of a one-game suspension.

If the All-Star Game is to have any legitimacy at all, fan balloting should either be eliminated or severely curtailed to ensure the integrity of the selections.

As it stands, we'll have a starting lineup(s) that includes six players from just two teams.

Two teams that not only don't lead their respective conferences but aren't even first in their divisions.

The NHL All-Star game has very little to do with excellence anymore.

As such, there appears to be even less of an incentive to watch it.

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