All-Star Stuff...

Let's be honest, the All-Star Game is a joke. From the ballot - where Sergei Gonchar was on it without playing a single game - to the voting process, to the suspensions, to Nicklas Backstrom refusing to take part in an 18-minute game so he can rest, it's all a bunch of crap. (The way to fix it is to make the entire ballot a write-in and not have boxes to check next to pictures of "super stars".)

That said, I do normally look forward to the Skills Competition. Last night, however, was not a shining moment in NHL history as Doc Emerick would have you believe.

There was so much down time during the broadcast that I felt like I was watching an NFL game (I'm pretty sure I could have cooked a steak in the time between the Young Stars game and the accuracy contest). The commercial breaks were so long I felt like I was watching an MTV show. The commercials themselves were so overplayed that I felt like I was watching a Rangers game, where I see the same Bud Light commercial 8 times in 150 minutes. Except last night, it was Chris Berman "going all the way!" and losing 41 pounds.

And if they show that unfunny chump who hosts "Sports Soup" one time during the All-Star Game, I'm going to turn it off. Okay, that's not true, mainly because I won't be watching the game fully (I'll be working so I will catch it in pieces).

They also dropped the ball terribly with the Young Stars game. There were 14 goals scored in it, but they might've shown 8 being scored. Every time a goal went in, they were showing some half-motion replay of a shot hitting the post or one of Carey Price's 4 saves in the game. They spoke in great length about Marc Staal - which I appreciate - but I would have rathered them show me the goal being scored while speaking instead of his babyface. They had Pat LaFontaine speaking throughout the whole third "period" at a low-volume so I couldn't hear half of what he said. The 2nd period started while I was still watching Chris Berman's diet, and when the broadcast returned, we were treated to the sight of a young girl enjoying some food with her little brothers instead of the game. By the time they showed the ice, we were 34 seconds in.

It was just a mess of a broadcast. If the NHL is going to such great lengths (as a one-game suspension!) to get all of it's stars there (look, it's Mike Modano and Stephane Robidas!), you think they wouldn't have hired a high school AV club to do the event and would've shelled out money for a real crew.

All-Star Game Flaws...

For the NHL All-Star Game, the fans vote for the starters. I really have no problem with this, except for the fact that the entire Eastern Conference starting line-up will be made up of Canadiens. Mike Komisarek? Really? I mean, I know there isn't much in Montreal except fantastic strip clubs, legal gamblin, and bilingual hockey games, but if you are already voting for Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov, and Carey Price (aka the guy with the severely unimpressive 2.68 GAA), do you really need to vote for Komisarek, who is having a very bad year? For Christ's sake, Komisarek has over 150,000 votes, nearly 5 times more than 3rd place Mike Green's 36,000.

Anyway, my beef is, as always, with the pre-made ballot.

I remember a few seasons ago (I believe 2002-03), Curtis Joseph was on the ballot. At that point, he was injured, and played in just 1 game with the Red Wings. He had lost that game. Yet, he was still on the ballot.

This year, there are a bunch of curious choices which obviously prove that this ballot was made in the off-season and nobody took the time to update it.

For starters (no pun intended), J.P. Dumont (17 points) isn't on the ballot. While Ryan Getzlaf is on it, his linemates Corey Perry (slow start but absolutely on fire) and Teemu Selanne are not. Pascal "Just Got Off of Injured Reserve" Leclaire is also on the ballot. The forwards don't bother me as much though, because there are a ton on the ballot and 3 write-in spots.

In the East, there are atrocities galore. Ryan Whitney AND Sergei Gonchar are both on the list. Combined games: 0. Combined injuries: 2, both in preseason. Why even waste the room on the ballot on them? Second overall Wade Redden is the sexy Ranger offseason acquisition. He hasn't scored a goal since the home opener on October 10 against Chicago. Meanwhile, undrafted Dan Girardi has 2 goals and a very impressive 14 assists. Did Glen Sather lobby to get Redden on the ballot so he could try to convince the rest of the league he didn't give Ferrari money to a Volkswagen?

Danny Briere and his grand total of 8 games make the list, while fellow Flyer Jeff Carter will be watching the Skills Competition from his (probably very well-adorned) living room.

As for the Islanders, I really like that they put Trent Hunter on the ballot. But is Rick DiPietro (0-2-0, 3.91 GAA) really having that good of a year? To be honest, putting Joey MacDonald on it would've been a decent choice.

To cover their collective rears, their is a footnote on the bottom of the page saying "Player must have appeared in 20 games prior to 1/2/09 to qualify," thus negating Whitney, Gonchar, Martin Brodeur, Marion Gaborik, DiPietro, Brian Rolston, and probably Marty Biron from actually being voted in.

Marty Biron? All-around nice guy. Of all the players I have met in my time, him and Scott Gomez (also on the ballot... Aaron Voros and Brandon Dubinsky and Nik Zherdev are not) are the most personable. At 4-5-2 with a 3.33 GAA and an .888 SP, what qualifies him over equally not-good Antero Niittymaki? (By the way, I had no clue I wrote so much about the Flyers until I re-read this post.)

My stunning conclusion is that the other day, I was listening to XM Home Ice 204, and Tim Gleason (Carolina Hurricane's defenseman) was talking to Phil Esposito and they were railing on the All-Star Game. I've heard it all before and normally brushed it off. You know the arguments: It's on Versus. It's on like a Wednesday or a Tuesday.

But now, I see their point. The NHL doesn't seem to care about it, either. I get that you want to showcase stars, so obviously Brodeur is on it, and Alex Ovechkin with his slow start. Personally, I'm surprised to see Alexander Semin on it as well. But there is absolutely no reason to have Redden or Whitney or Gonchar on it when more capable players like Girardi and Mark Streit are left off. They are not going to get nearly enough votes as simply write-ins.

Maybe if they put a real list out, they would have no one like Boy Wonder Luke Schenn, Luca Sbisa, or Braydon Coburn for the Young Stars game.

Hopefully, within a few years, either the NHL starts to take this seriously and does the ballot the week before it goes up, or they make the whole thing a write-in ballot.

Oh well, atleast Mats Sundin isn't on the All-Star ballot this season.

Zach's 2008-09 Predictions...

Much like my counterpart Bryan (and every fan with a computer and a knowledge of the game), I present to you my 2008-09 NHL predictions... exactly 67 minutes before the puck drops on the season.

EAST

1. Montreal

2. Pittsburgh

3. Tampa Bay

4. NY Rangers

5. Washington

6. Boston

7. Flyers

8. Buffalo

9. Ottawa

10. NJ Devils

11. Carolina

12. Florida

13. Toronto

14. NY Islanders

15. Atlanta

1) Montreal still has the best power play in the game. Remember how they lost Sheldon Souray and were still the best one? Losing Mark Streit is nothing to them. Someone else will step up. 2) It takes a lot for me to not pick my Rangers as 1st in the division, but for the first year in 3 seasons I'm taking the high road and going with my head and picking the Penguins. 3) Tampa Bay is the best team in that division. Steven Stamkos will score 40 goals. 4) Vastly improved defense should keep the Rangers in games while the offense scores 2.5 goals per game. 5) Theodore is a weaker goalie than Huet, Federov is a year older, and their one solid d-man is a kid who has had one good year. Yes, Ovechkin is the best player in the world, but Washington will win and lose 6-5, 5-4 games all year. 6) Don't know why I picked Boston over Ottawa. I love Tim Thomas. This is probably a mistake, I admit it. Maybe a trade deadline pick-up of a defenseman will help. 7) Flyers are a solid team with questionable goaltending (Marty Biron) who play in a tough division. 8) Buffalo is fast, has good goaltending, and manageable defense. I think they'll sneak in.

9/10) I think this might be the year Ottawa and the Devils miss the playoffs. The East is very tough to pick this year (as it was last year). If Ottawa doesn't shore up their goaltending, they have 2 backups leading them this year. Brodeur, on the other hand, is a year older and still have weak defense in front of him. The Devils always pull out wins, but they didn't improve in the offseason and I see them missing the playoffs. 11) Carolina is stuck with a small budget, making acquisitions hard. Cam Ward hasn't proven anything since the Cup run in '06. Erik Cole is gone. Eric Staal is fantastic. Brind'Amour is hurt. Pitkanen is a step up on the PP though. 12) Florida is one of the worst organizations in sports history. While Cory Stillman is a great acquisition and Tomas Vokoun is a Top 5 goalie in the NHL, Bryan McCabe has nothing left besides a big contract, and the rest of the team (except Bouwmeester and Horton) are busts. 13) Besides Antropov and Blake, who's going to score in Toronto? Ryan Hollweg? Jeff Finger? Their saving grace is Vesa Toskala (no pun intended). 14) The Islanders won't be as bad as everyone thinks. Okay, they might. Doug Weight can no longer carry the weight of a team on his shoulders (pun sort of intended). Okposo, Comeau, and and Tambellini should have good starter years. Maybe Josh Bailey sees action. Atleast they won't be as bad as 15) Atlanta. A question mark in goal, two good defenseman (one of whom even the Kings didn't want to trade for), and a skilled forward do not a playoff team make.

WEST

1. Detroit

2. Anaheim

3. Colorado

4. Dallas

5. Chicago

6. San Jose

7. Edmonton

8. Phoenix

9. Minnesota

10. Vancouver

11. Calgary

12. Nashville

13. St. Louis

14. Columbus

15. Los Angeles

1) Let's face it: Detroit never gets bad. When a Federov or Shanahan leaves, a Zetterberg and Datsyuk steps up. When they're gone, Filppula and Helm are ready. Adding Hossa is huge for the offense. 2) Anaheim has improved over last year and should win a dogfight in the Pacific. They had a great regular season last year, just started slow. 3) If healthy, Colorado has a dynamic offense. Sakic, Svatos, Wolski, Stastny, Smith, Guite, even Darcy Tucker. They have 7 serviceable defensemen, although no studs. Maybe with Raycroft and Budaj splitting time, their goaltending holes won't shine as brightly. 4) A great goaltending, 3 stud d-men, and a great offense are going to lead Dallas. 5) Years of horrendous hockey has finally paid of for Chicago. Pat Kane, Jon Toews, and a strong D will help this team beat up on the weakened Central division. If Huet fails in goal, Antti Niemi is ready to go in his stead. 6) San Jose is again good, and with a much better, Dan Boyle-Rob Blake duo on the blueline. Nabokov might wear out at the end from too many games, but they'll easily make the playoffs. 7) Edmonton plays in a weak division, and did improve greatly. Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano should be great, as should Ales Hemsky, Cole, and a returning Shawn Horcoff. What? Souray is back? Pick him up on your fantasy team since everyone else forgot about him. Dustin Penner is an overpaid bum, but he has a supporting cast that overshadows him. 8) I'll go out on a limb and say the Coyotes, led by Olli Jokinen, Peter Mueller and Shane Doan will have a great offense. Dan Carcillo is not just a fighter, he can score. Marty Hanzal and Daniel Winnik also should have breakout years. And with rookies Mueller, Kyle Turris, Viktor Tikhonov, and Mikkel Boedker (who I don't know if he made the team or not... I know Tikhonov did), I get overwhelmed thinking of the young guns on this team. Their D isn't that good (Jovanoski is one of the most overpaid players since Penner. Sauer, Hale, and Morris are good but not stars). However, Ilya Bryzgalov is a gem in net for them. Oh, and you can get 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, and 4 sodas at their home opener for $79 total.

9) I hate Minnesota. I hate their ugly, Christmas-inspired uniforms. I hate their coach and I hate his trapping system. I hate Marion Gaborik. I do love Brent Burns though. And I think these guys might sneak into the playoffs due to the insane parity in the Northwest division. They have a few good forwards (Mikko Koivu, P.M. Bouchard, and don't forget Owen Nolan), and decent D led by Burns, and 2 overrated but alright goaltenders. However, I see them on the outside looking in this year. Originally I had them as 8th, but am moving them down. 10) Vancouver has an amazing goaltender, a good D, and no forwards. Unless they win every game 1-0 or 2-1, I don't see them making the playoffs. 11) Nashville has nosedived. Yes, Dan Ellis is good in goal, but they really put all their eggs into one inexperienced basket when they traded Chris Mason to St. Louis. Radulov was their star playmaker, and he will be scoring tons of goals in Russia this year. 12) When will St. Louis make the jump? Maybe next year, guys, maybe next year. Chock full of 1st round picks, including Erik Johnson and his torn ACL. Legace/Mason make a good team, but I'm afraid that while they will be competitive, it won't be the year for them. 13) Trust me, Blue Jacket fans, Fedor Tyutin and Christian Backman are not great players. While Pascal Leclaire is a fantastic goalie (as is waiting-in-the-wings Steve Mason), the team only has a few good forwards (Nash, Husselius) and a very porous backline. 14) A star goalie, a star D, and a star forward. Didn't the Rangers have that every year they missed the playoffs in the 1990's and 2000's? Sorry, Flames. Your ship sailed in 2004. 15) The LA Kings might not even have enough salary on the books to be able to field a team in 2008-09. Their goaltending fleet is led by Jason LaBarberra, and their best D (Jack Johnson) is a year away from being great. Frolov, Kopitar, and Dustin Brown are excellent, but one line won't win you that many games in the new NHL.

Playoffs

In the East, I see the Rangers or Canadiens escaping. The Rangers have a better goalie (although Carey Price might have the Patrick Roy-like season everyone up in Quebec wants him to have), but they Habs have a great offense. Montreal has also one a Stanley Cup in every decade except this one. So as not to seem like a homer, I'll pick the Montreal Canadiens to win the Eastern Conference, although if the Rangers make the Finals I'll give myself credit as well.

It doesn't matter though, because no one is beating the Sean Avery's Dallas Stars en route to the Stanley Cup. Avery is a great addition to the team. He is like Steve Ott, except he scores. Avery, Brendan Morrow, Mike Modano, Brad Richard, Lou Erikkson, Fabian Brunnstrom, Jere Lehtinen, Joel Lundqvist, Mike Ribeiro. That's 9 awesome forwards. Imagine what a deadline pick up can do for them? Phillipe Boucher, Sergei Zubov, and Stephane Robidas get the job done on D, and they have 4 to 5 other guys who are solid NHL players ready if anything happens to one of them. Marty Turco is vastly underrated, and while Tobias Stephan (one NHL game) is an inexperienced backup, Turco should carry the weight of the team.

Stars over Canadiens/Rangers in 6. Mark it down!

Round 2... So Far

It's a bit early to make judgments about the second round. But why not make them anyway?

- Detroit-Colorado: This series is pretty much done already. Jose Theodore's magic is gone, and I don't mean Propecia. Peter Forsberg is injured yet again, and the only thing that could save the Avs is a big win at home in Game 3. However, I'm not too optimistic. I can't see Colorado winning more than one game the rest of the way. They sure as hell aren't going to be winning any games at Joe Louis Arena anytime soon.

- Montreal-Philadelphia: It's a shame this series isn't getting more publicity. It's going to be a good one. Montreal's offense vs. Philadelphia's physical play. You can tell that even though this series is going to be a war, the goaltending is what's going to decide it. Montreal might have won tonight if not for the stellar play of Martin Biron. Similarly, Carey Price will most likely be stealing one for the Habs at some point in this series. It's very possible that the winner of this series will have the Token Hot Goalie required to make a Cup run.

- Pittsburgh-Rangers: The aforementioned Habs-Flyers tilt might actually be the more competitive series, but this is the one that NBC and Versus are creaming their pants over. We already explained the appeal of this series, and it's great that we get to see it. The blood is already starting to boil, and it might not be long before the chippiness reaches the levels we saw in the Rangers-Devils series. This is one of those series where it's not going to really matter who wins to the neutral observer - it's just great to see these two teams beat the hell out of each other, making the young guys on both teams better and watching this become a big-time rivalry. You just hope the refs don't become bigger stars than the players, as was the case in Game 1.

- San Jose-Dallas: I can't get into Dallas for some reason. But I love watching the Sharks play. And if the Sharks want to reach their potential this year, they will have to dispose of a tough Stars team. Most people expected San Jose to take Game 1 at home, but they lost it in overtime. They should bounce back; however, this series is far from a cakewalk. Hell, everyone thought Calgary would be easy pickings for the Sharks, and look at how that turned out. I still see the Sharks winning this series, but it's going to test their mettle big-time. After all, it's hard to imagine San Jose doing well against Detroit coming off two slugfest series. As for Dallas, now that they've captured home ice, you never know... but I don't see the Sharks going down too easily.

Now that Versus is showing nearly every game, my Center Ice package is pretty much useless. It's been a good run. It's also really hard to watch hockey in bed while considering the needs of a sleeping (or crying, as the case may be) baby. Anyway, we'll see about re-upping on Center Ice next year - I really enjoyed seeing the West Coast games I never would have seen otherwise. One thing's for sure, though - I absolutely cannot live without the NHL Network.