What does NHL want All-Star Game to represent?
For all the hand-wringing about what would happen if marginal Vancouver defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick ended up at the All-Star Game in Dallas, it couldn't have possibly been as big a puzzler as the curious mix of players selected by the league to fill out the two All-Star rosters.
In general, the All-Star Game is a dog's breakfast of schmoozing and glad-handing and waving of the NHL flag, with a couple of on-ice events thrown in around parties and public appearances. Fair enough. It is what it is.
But the league has to decide what it wants the All-Star Game to represent.
Is it a celebration of the game's stars regardless of how they're playing at this moment, or is it a reward to players who reflect the best the game has to offer?
Sadly, the league seems to have managed the difficult distinction of not quite getting it right on either count. How else to explain the presence of Phoenix Coyotes center Yanic Perreault on the Western Conference squad?
We think the world of Perreault. He is a solid, character player who last season made the Nashville Predators a much better team. This season, he is doing the same in Phoenix. He is a gentleman. But when the reserves were announced Saturday afternoon, Perreault ranked 144th in scoring. Yes, Perreault is a good story, but it is hardly compelling enough to warrant an inclusion in the midseason "classic."
Some will assume that Perreault, St. Louis Blues' Bill Guerin and Simon Gagne of bottom-dwelling Philadelphia are on the roster because each team has to have a representative. That's not the case. There is no such mandate.
Which raises the question: What is Guerin doing in Dallas with his 92nd-best point total?
Yes, the West is thin when it comes to marquee scorers compared to the East. But there are at least five Western Conference players whose point totals are significantly greater than "All-Stars" Guerin and Perreault. In no particular order, we offer up Alexander Frolov, Steve Sullivan, Andy McDonald and the Sedin twins from Vancouver, all of whom are having solid seasons and would have seemed to make more sense.
We can understand the inclusion of Marty Turco as one of the West's three netminders because the game is in Dallas, but Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher was justly named to the reserve roster. Is there a better renaissance story than the play of Dominik Hasek in Detroit? Or how about Chris Mason? He kept the Predators afloat during Tomas Vokoun's long injury convalescence and leads the NHL in save percentage, a save percentage markedly better than that boasted by Turco, who has struggled at times this season.
Then there's Rick Nash. Oft-injured and struggling to live up to the promise shown before the lockout when he tied for the league lead in goals, Nash's teammate David Vyborny would have been a better choice if the league wanted to patronize Columbus fans by including at least one player from the conference's 15th-ranked team.
Then there's the East.
Defending Cup champion Carolina boasts two forwards, Eric Staal and Justin Williams. While you'll find both in Dallas, you won't find them among the NHL's top 30 scorers. In fact, when the rosters were announced, 13 players in the East had point totals that surpassed those of Williams and Staal, including Carolina captain Rod Brind'Amour, arguably the best two-way player in the game.
Among those likewise snubbed, Jaromir Jagr, Marc Savard, Patrice Bergeron, Michael Nylander, Martin Straka, Ilya Kovalchuk. Jagr, for one, has been nursing a couple of nagging injuries and declined an invitation, while teammate Brendan Shanahan was an admirable choice.
As for Williams, Staal, Gagne and Nash, one imagines they are being rewarded for past successes. They are young and talented and all, the kinds of players the NHL is keen to promote, but that hardly seems fair, especially to players who are having superlative seasons. Savard, for instance, is showing that last season's 97-point effort was no fluke and is the ninth-leading scorer in the league.
Those players who aren't headed to Dallas will use the time away to recharge their batteries, and perhaps their teams will be better for it down the stretch. But if the NHL wants the All-Star Game to have meaning, to resonate with both fans and players, they'd better figure out just what the game is supposed to be about.
Scott Burnside is the NHL writer for ESPN.com.
