The All-Star Game and why to boycott it

As you probably know by now, the Eastern Conference's starting lineup for February's All-Star Game at the Bell Centre in Montreal is currently set to be made up of six Montreal Canadiens players, and nobody else. Forwards Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay, Alexei Kovalev, defensemen Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek, and netminder Carey Price are each leading in their respective positional categories, some by insurmountable margins.

It would be almost impossible for Markov, Komisarek, and Price to miss out on the game, as they are all up on their challengers by about 200,000 votes. Koivu, Kovalev, and Tanguay, are being somewhat threatened by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, but the odds of any of them being caught up to are not good.

What is so sad about this situation is that the Habs did not come by these votes properly--Some Montreal fanboy, probably living in his mother's basement, constructed a javascript that allowed for Habs fans to vote once, and have dozens more votes cast automatically.

Also upsetting is that the only Canadien even remotely close to being worthy of this honor is Markov, who is still only third among Eastern defensemen in scoring behind Mike Green of Washington and Mark Streit of the New York Islanders.

Kovalev, Tanguay, and Koivu are 22nd, 27th, and 36th among Eastern forwards in scoring, yet they are the top three forwards in all-star voting. Meanwhile, Malkin, Crosby, Alex Semin, Alex Ovechkin, Zach Parise, Marc Savard, and Simon Gagne, all guys who have torn up the league this year, are likely to miss out on the starting lineup. Gagne and Parise aren't even sniffing the top 10.

Price, 8th in the East in goals against average and 7th in save percentage, is annihilating his competition in voting, way up on second place Marc-Andre Fleury. Goalies like Henrik Lundqvist, Tim Thomas, and Mike Smith have tremendously outperformed Price this year, but they won't be recognized for it.

So my call to arms to you is simple--

DO NOT WATCH THE ALL-STAR GAME OR BUY ANY MERCHANDISE THAT MIGHT SUPPORT IT! A BOYCOTT IS THE ONLY WAY THE TRUE VOICE OF THE FAN CAN BE HEARD!

Until Gary Bettman and the bufoons in the NHL offices in New York realize how dumb it is to allow homer fans to cheat their players way into the All-Star Game, don't watch this ridiculous spectacle. I don't care if it's their 100th season or if they are hosting the game. It doesn't mean they can butcher this event.

Montreal Sucks, and Gary Bettman sucks.