Tommorrow the roster is rounded out for the Western Conference and on Friday it will be for the East. I don't watch enough of the West to offer my picks, but I am very fimiliar with the East and here's my selections.
Starting goalie, as voted by you the fans: Martin Brodeur (NJD)
Reserves: Tim Thomas (BOS), Rick DiPietro (NYI)
Thomas has a 2.23 GAA and a save percentage of .932, that is phemonemal, especially considering he's playing for the Bruins.....It's really hard to leave Henrik Lundqvist off this team but DiPietro has a slightly better save percentage (.912 to .909) and is doing more with less with the Isles. Plus DiPi has 3 assists and is tremendous at moving the puck. Either would be deserving, but I'm giving the ever to slight edge to DiPietro.
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Defensemen named by the fans: Zdeno Chara (BOS), Andrei Markov (MTL)
Reserves: Sergei Gonchar (PIT), Michal Rozsvial (NYR), Brian Campbell (BUF), Mike Green (WSH)
Offensive defensemen are inherently favored, because the all-star game is basically a glorified exhibition. Would the team be better with a more rounded player like David Hale or Wade Redden in the lineup instead of Green? Perhaps. But we don't overlook Green's eye-popping ability on the rush and think that the all-star game should be used to showcase the game's best. An all-star team isn't created with playing this roster for a full season, but just for one night.
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Forwards named by the fans: Sidney Crosby (PIT), Vincent Lecavalier (TB), Daniel Alfredsson (OTT)
Reserves: Ilya Kovalchuk (ATL), Martin St. Louis (TB), Alex Ovechkin (WSH), Dany Heatley (OTT), Jason Spezza (OTT), Mats Sundin (TOR), Alexei Kovalev (MTL), Mike Richards (PHI), Evgeni Malkin (PIT)
We here rank Kovalev and Malkin just over Eric Staal and Marc Savard. Kovalev has had a great year and was even spotted wearing the captain's C while Saku Koivu was out with injury, something that turned many heads. For the rest of the forwards, we feel it's pretty much an open and shut case for guys like Heatley, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, St. Louis, etc.
And after the opening shift, here's how we'd compose the lines:
Alfredsson-Crosby-Ovechkin
Kovalchuk-Lecavalier-St. Louis
Heatley-Spezza-Malkin
Richards-Sundin-Kovalev
Chara/Rozsvial
Markov/Gonchar
Campbell/Green
An all-star lineup indeed!
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