The NHL All-Star game turns 62 years old this year and is being hosted by the Montreal Canadians, as part of their 100 year celebration. History could be made as all six starting positions could be filled by Montreal players, which would eclipse the 1986 Edmonton Oilers who had five players voted in. While some people think that is unfair and fans are 'stuffing the ballot', to those people I say... Yea, you are probably right, but that's what you get when you make a stupid rule like fan balloting. Whats next, have Maggie the Monkey pick All-Stars too? In light of the All-Star game coming around, I thought I would give a quick rundown on hockey's All-Star showcase.1940s - The first All-Star game was in 1947 and, oddly enough, was played three weeks into the season. Could you imagine, three weeks into the year?! Guys like Aaron Voros and Brandon Dubinsky would have been shoe-ins! The league also decided that the format for the annual game would be the Defending Stanley Cup Champs vs. Rest of the League All-Stars, AND the Cup Winner would also host the game too! Yikes. That would be a lot of New Jersey and Detroit All-Star games, heck, as least with the Wings not being able to play on the All-Star team, maybe more Oilers would be selected... Naaaah! Movin' on to the '50s!
1950s – The All-Star game got it's first face lift by 1951, as a new system was adopted. The format would have the 1st team All-Stars vs. The 2nd team All-Stars. The rest of the rosters for the 1st team would be filled by American team players, and the 2nd team roster was filled by Leafs and Habs players. Weird. That lasted for two seasons, then went back to the original format of the '50s. The game was also criticized for being too early in the year and had to compete with the World Series and NFL season, which caused a columnist to write that the 
All-Star game be played in mid-season AND have the fans choose the starting lineup, much like the MLB All-Star game. Hmmm... Fast forward to the '60s!
1960s – The shift to a mid-season game was complete, to much scrutiny and debate. Since the 1st and 2nd team All-Stars were chosen at the END of the previous season, it would be 8 or 9 months before they played in the All-Star game, which meant that they may have gotten worse and may not be All-Stars anymore. The '60s also featured the first All-Star MVP (won by Eddie Shack in '62). The final game of the 60s lead to the current East vs. West format, as well as rotating cities playing host to the All-Star events. Now, light up a doobie and roll with me into the '70s... Gnarly...
1970s – The '70s brought us face lifts, feminism and a re-birth of international hockey! In 1979, the NHL held a three-game mini-series between the NHL's best vs. the USSR's best. The NHL lost 2-1 (with an embarrassing 6-0 defeat in the 3rd game), but fans were rewarded with fan balloting! Yay! However, not everyone was pleased with the All-Star game, as players regularly declined invites in order to rest and prepare for a Stanley Cup run. The '70s also brought the first time the NHL All-Star Game MVP would be rewarded with a car/truck! Let's drive on over to the '80s...
1980s – Honorary captains were introduced in 1985 and fan balloting became a regularity as a way to hype the media of the mid-season game. 1987 brought about more international hockey as Rendezvous '87 (a 2 game series this time) was held and pitted the Soviet Union vs. NHL All-Stars (ending 1-1). 1985 would also see the Edmonton Oilers have 8 players (Gretz, Moog, Fuhr, Krushelnyski, Kurri, Anderson, Coffey, Lowe) and 1 coach (Sather) in the All-Star game. And Sporer complains that 6 Habs are going to be in the All-Star game... Anyways, onward to the '90s!
1990s – The '90s would introduce a skills competition; however, the All-Star game would take a hit as '95 gave us a lock-out (which obviously solved nothing, as we had another one 10 years later). 1998 also gave us a change in the format as East vs. West would change into (my personal favorite) North America vs. The World. The '90s also gave us our 1st three-time All-Star MVP winner as Mario Lemieux took home his 3rd in 1990, Gretz would equal him in '99. The 90's also introduced an old-timers game, but no one really paid much attention to that. Time to Y2K ourselves into the new millennium!!!
2000s – The game reverted to the East vs. West format, but suffered a severe blow as '05 was a lockout year (Thanks Bob and Gary) and '06 was the travesty known as Turin, Italy (way to go Canada, you really earned that 7th place finish). One bright spot would be in 2001, as a record 26 goals were scored in North America's 14-12 victory over The World.
Here are some quick stats...
Most Appearances – Gordie Howe, 23
Most Points (All-time) – Wayne Gretzky, 25 (13G 12A)
Most Points (one game) – Mario Lemieux, 6
Most Hosts – Montreal Canadians, 12
Most MVPs – Mario Lemieux & Wayne Gretzky, 3
http://fanballoting.nhl.com/leaders
So, now that we I've gotten the brief history out of the way, let's get to the debate on this years contest... The only players that have been voted in that are not Habs or Wings are Phaneuf and Luongo. If you run down the West, I don't think I could disagree with any of it... Hossa, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom round it out with Phaneuf and Luongo. Maybe the Sharks are getting a little bit of a snub, but could you really argue any of those 6 players are not more popular then any San Jose player? Because, really, isn't that all the All-Star game fan balloting is, a popularity contest? Of course it is, Why do you think Sergei Gonchar is 4th in Eastern Dmen, but he hasn't played a single game all year long? And something tells me, if Edmonton was hosting the game, Sporer would be the one stuffing ballots and Hemsky, Souray & Horcoff would be starting, haha. I don't think I have an issue with fan balloting, my issue comes with needing every team to be represented. There are 22 All-Stars per team (12FW, 6D, 3G) and 15 teams to choose from. If Detroit has (at least) 6 on their team alone, then how can you pick one from a last place team? How can a last place team have an All-Star on it? Either, hes the most selfish player wanting only to pad his own numbers, or hes the lowest caliber All-Star ever! Atlanta, LA, Florida, NYI, St Louis, Phoenix and Dallas may have former All-Stars on their rosters now (Kovi, Kopitar, Bouwmeester, Guerin, Kariya, Jokinen, Turco), but that doesn't mean they are having an All-Star year now, because if they were, THEIR TEAMS WOULDN'T BE OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS! So there, that's my All-Star rant...
On a side note, did anyone see Kovi drop the gloves against White of TO?! Not much of a tilt, but isn't it refreshing to see someone score 40 goals AND be able to back it up? I mean, hes no Iginla or Lecavalier I'll admit, but he throws the body and is willing to drop the mitts when push comes to shove. Just think how many goals this guy would have if he wasn't stuck in the depth of Atlanta, Heatley got out and scores back-to-back 50 goal years. The Leafs say they want to get younger and re-build, could you imagine Kovi, Grabovski and Antropov together? Calling Mr. Burke...
Cheers
-Smith
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