re: Unofficial NHL Season-Long Thread: Puckheads Unite!

Capitals smacking the Wings around, they just went up 3-0. I am gonna watch some Pens/Habs Hockey Night in Canada instead (burned out on football after the last game).

Glad I turned away when it was 1-1

Someone fricking score. Post, Price, shite PP...Ugh.

PK must be pissed that was all you can ask for.

Damn nothing CP31 could do there.

Tough to stop a 4 v 2 PP basically.

The whole Metro won again, pending the Rangers game. Caps, Isles, and Pens all get 2 points. The Caps broadcast took the Wings game as an opportunity to be outraged on behalf of Nick Backstrom for not getting an All Star bid again. Which, let's face it, is absurd. He's 8th in the NHL in assists (tied with Malkin and both Sedins) and 12th in points (tied with Stamkos and Nash)

But here's the major source of outrage: Backstrom has more assists than any other Swedish born players over the past four seasons (which includes the Sedin twins and Zetteberg). He has NEVER been selected for the All Star Game. Which begs the question, is Backstrom the single most underrated player not just in hockey, but all pro sports? Can you imagine a player as accomplished as Backstrom has never been an All Star?

Rinne with the Preds finally got his first All-Star appearance. Backstrom's continued snubbing is really incredible. He definitely has earned he right by his play almost every year, yet gets left off the roster.

quote:

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The whole Metro won again, pending the Rangers game. Caps, Isles, and Pens all get 2 points. The Caps broadcast took the Wings game as an opportunity to be outraged on behalf of Nick Backstrom for not getting an All Star bid again. Which, let's face it, is absurd. He's 8th in the NHL in assists (tied with Malkin and both Sedins) and 12th in points (tied with Stamkos and Nash)

But here's the major source of outrage: Backstrom has more assists than any other Swedish born players over the past four seasons (which includes the Sedin twins and Zetteberg). He has NEVER been selected for the All Star Game. Which begs the question, is Backstrom the single most underrated player not just in hockey, but all pro sports? Can you imagine a player as accomplished as Backstrom has never been an All Star?

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Well part of that is there hasn't been an All-Star Game since 2012, due to the lockout in 2013 and the Olympics last year.

It seems like it's mostly about only this season. (Note: I feel there are basically two exceptions to this rule: Crosby and Ovechkin, who will always be there unless they are basically having a downright horrible [by their standards] season, since those two are the key to NHL marketing [don't get me started on this]). That's why Tyler Johnson is there. That's why Voracek is there. That's why Rask and Ludqvist and Chara and Perry and Zetterberg, etc., are not there. I'm not sure if that's quite the way to go about it. I think it should be a sort of combo of both season and appeal (both throughout the U.S./Canada and in the host city in particular), and that "appeal" is largely from past success of course.

So you factor in that each team needs a representative, plus Chicago had two forwards voted in (Kane would have made it regardless, Toews would have been borderline with only 36 points, but he's known for elite defense, so he definitely could have) and they chose two forwards for Columbus as the host city (I think it would have been just Foligno if the game was played elsewhere). Whether you agree (I do, since it's an exhibition) there should be fan voting and if the host city should get the benefit of the doubt, that's the way it worked out. Other than Chicago and Columbus, the following teams have two players AND at least one of them is a forward:

Los Angeles (Kopitar)
Philadelphia (Giroux, Voracek)
Pittsburgh (Crosby, Malkin)
St. Louis (Tarasenko)
Tampa Bay (Johnson, Stamkos)

The name that jumps out as not belonging out of all of those is Kopitar. He only has 32 points, but I'm guessing his elite defensive play got him in, plus it'd be a little weird if the defending champs only had one representative.

Basically, factoring in the fan voting, host city bump, each team having at least one representative, Ovie basically always being chosen for the Caps and the NHL's seemingly primary importance of this season, I see two ways to get Backstrom in (both involving the Kings, which, again, the NHL probably wouldn't want to do with LA's market size and being the defending champs):

1) Replace Kopitar with Backstrom

2) Make Karlsson the Ottawa rep instead of Bobby Ryan. Ryan only has 28 points this year. Karlsson as a DEFENSEMAN has more with 29 points. He's also sixth in the NHL among defensemen in points. Put in Karlsson in place of Doughty, who has three less points and is tied for 12th. Then put in Backstrom in Ryan's spot at forward (although, in this case, you're replacing a winger with a center, but don't think that's a huge deal at an ASG).

CBJ has plummeted to a 0.4% playoff chance, only New Jersey, Arizona, Carolina, Buffalo, and Edmonton have worse odds.

Give it a few more weeks and the AS break and CBJ will start making some trades if they have some guys playoff teams will want to acquire.

Also going to the habs game Wednesday I think