It's just about time for everyone's favourite all-star game! Well, not really. It's one of my least favourite all-star games (the best in my opinion is the NBA's, followed by Major League Baseball. Fortunately for the NHL, the Pro Bowl is the worst of the bunch). We are just past the midway point in the season and the all-star teams have been announced, so I figured why not name mine? Well I did.
What a sweet logo by the way. The NHL really went out of their way to change things from last year.I created a new formula and took hours of time to figure out these teams. There I go lying again. I didn't include a player from each team, the way the NHL does. The best players are therefore not included. I know that pro sports league's do it this way so fans from each city have one of their own in the game, but do fans in Chicago really care if Duncan Keith is in the game? No, they don't. Duncan Keith is a solid defenseman, but not an all-star. Host teams should have at least one representative however, I understand that philosophy. Someone decided Atlanta should have two and thus included Marian Hossa as well as the deserving Ilya Kovalchuk. Hossa is having his slowest year since his early Senator days and should be nowhere near this team.
I won't keep you in suspense any longer, here they are.
EastForwards
Daniel Alfredsson –
Sidney Crosby – 
Dany Heatley –
Ilya Kovalchuk –
Vincent Lecavalier –
Alexander Ovechkin –
Evgeni Malkin –
Mike Richards –
Jason Spezza –
Martin St. Louis –
Eric Staal –
Mats Sundin –
Defence
Brian Campbell –
Zdeno Chara –
Sergei Gonchar –
Mike Green –
Andrei Markov –
Michal Roszival –
Goalies
Martin Brodeur – 
Rick DiPietro –
Tomas Voukoun –
West
Forwards
Brad Boyes –
Pavel Datsyuk –
Marian Gaborik –
Ryan Getzlaf –
Shawn Horcoff – 
Jarome Iginla –
Rick Nash –
Mike Ribeiro –
Paul Statsny –
Daniel Sedin –
Joe Thornton –
Henrik Zetterberg –
Defence
Brent Burns – 
Nicklas Lidstrom –
Dion Phaneuf –
Chris Pronger –
Brian Rafalski –
Sergei Zubov –
Goalies
Pascal Leclaire – Columbus Blue Jackets
Robert Luongo –
Evgeni Nabokov –
Some notes on some of the omissions. Some very good players are obviously left off, especially two goaltenders having sensational years in the Western Conference. While I sung the praises of Chris Osgood a few days ago, I ultimately had to leave him off because I felt both Pascal Leclaire and Evgeni Nabokov are more crucial parts of their teams right now. While Osgood has been fantastic this season losing only two games, he has split playing time with Dominik Hasek right down the middle. Nabokov on the other hand has started every game for the Sharks this season. Leclaire meanwhile has been phenomenal and has kept a below average Blue Jackets team in the playoff hunt. It was really a coin flip between Leclaire and Manny Legace of St. Louis. Both have carried their teams all season and have kept their teams in the playoff picture. I give the edge to Leclaire because of seven outstanding shutout performances (Legace has three in case you were wondering).A few deserving forwards in the East were left off as well. Olli Jokinen, Alexei Kovalev, Daniel Briere, Marc Savard and Zach Parise were all tough omissions. I went with Mike Richards over
this bunch because of strong two way play. He's quickly becoming one of the best two way centres in the league and will soon enough become captain of the Flyers. Ask anyone around this team and they'll tell you Richards is the team's best player. Eric Staal got the nod just barely because while the Canes haven't been anything special lately, they still lead their division and need a bit of representation. Staal's defensive play is improving and he's been used sufficiently on the PK for the first time in his career. Staal and explosive, exciting player who's a bit more interesting to watch than the other forwards that were omitted. Plus, the Staal family needed some representation as well.
One dark horse I strongly considered was Chris Phillips of Ottawa. He's not flashy and doesn't put up big numbers, but he might be the top stay at home defenseman in hockey. He and Anton Volchenkov make up the best shut down defensive pairing in the league right now. The defensive defensemen never get their due and ultimately I didn't give Phillips' his. I couldn't leave off Mike Green and his 11 goals. He's given the Capitals a whole new dimension with his pucking moving ability.
I took Daniel instead of Henrik Sedin. Who can tell the difference anyway? One scores, the other sets up. Look at the pictures (Daniel on the left, Henrik on the right - Daniel the left winger, Henrik the centreman...didn't want to confuse them). Now one might think they would shave different goatees or something, but no. They are identical. Makes you wonder whether they sit in front of the mirror and shave together. They must love to mess with their Canuck teammates. If they ever smile in real life, something I have never seen either of them do outside of these posed team photos. I took the goal scorer who also plays the wing because I felt I had too many centres.Anze Kopitar was another tough one to leave off. It was between he and Shawn Horcoff for the last forward spot. Their numbers are nearly identical (both have 18 goals, Kopitar has one more assist but Horcoff has played one more game). But Horcoff's defensive play gets him the nod over the Slovenian (although the fact that he's Slovenian was a major consideration.) Horcoff is one of the better two way centres in the NHL. He's a valuable leader to the Oilers as well.
The Maple Leafs Are Not A Good Hockey Team
The Leafs are bad, very bad. Cross your fingers Leaf fans, maybe management will get the picture. On the other hand, they probably won't.
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