Snub No. 1: Ales Hemsky over Henrik Zetterberg. [NB: ESPN's Pierre LeBrun speculated that Zetterberg asked out of the All-Star selection.] It's not that Hemsky has been horrible -- 24 points in 27 games, one of the few Oilers that's a plus player -- but he missed 13 games to injury and didn't exactly man up when Edmonton needed him most: During that awful November stretch when the Oil lost seven of eight, Hemsky had a whopping three points. You can't even argue this was an "equal representation" pick to include an Oiler because four teams -- Buffalo, Florida, Phoenix and the New York Islanders -- don't have an All-Star. Which brings us to number two on the list...
Snub No. 2: Patrik Elias over....anybody, really. The line on Elias: 9G-21A-30PTS, tied for 56th amongst all NHL forwards. Minus-11 rating puts him in the league's bottom 700 players. Plays for the worst team in hockey (If the weekend had to include a Devil, couldn't NHL brass have thrown Mattias Tedenby in the rookie superskills?) Yet that jam-packed resume was enough to get Elias an All-Star gig ahead of more worthy players, like Mike Richards. Even if you make the argument that Elias is in because he plays left wing, Andrew Ladd, Alex Semin, James Neal and Ryane Clowe would've been better choices.
Snub No. 3: Phil Kessel over Clarke MacArthur. You could argue Kessel isn't even the best forward on his own team. MacArthur is Toronto's leading scorer (34 points); Kessel is tied for fourth. MacArthur is one of three Toronto regulars with a plus rating; Kessel is minus-15, second-worst. MacArthur is one of the few positive acquisitions of the Brian Burke regime; Kessel (rightly or wrongly) is known as the guy that cost the Leafs Tyler Seguin and (assuming Toronto stays the course) another top-five pick this year. You could even make the case that MacArthur and Mikhail Grabovski deserved the nod ahead of Kessel.
Snub No. 4: Mike Green over John-Michael Liles. Instead of picking an offensive defenceman on pace for a career year (Liles through 43 games: 5G-25A-30PTS, on pace for 10-48-58), the NHL opted for an offensive defenceman on pace for his lowest output in four years (Green through 35 games: 8G-12A-20PTS, on pace for 16-23-39). But what if Liles was prominently featured on HBO wearing moccasins while zipping around on his orange Vespa? Would he have gotten the nod then?
Snub No. 5: Erik Karlsson over Lubomir Visnovsky. Visnovsky is fifth amongst all defencemen in scoring (7G-26A-33PTS) and has been an absolute rock for Anaheim this year. He leads the team in ice time and is the only Ducks defenceman to suit up for all 44 games. Remember, their blueline was absolutely ravaged at the beginning of the year (Anaheim's dressed 11 different blueliners already); Visnovsky was the one constant as the Ducks rallied from a horrible start to sixth place in the West . As for Karlsson...he was a healthy scratch twice this year and is minus-11 for one of the worst teams in the league. | 