Inside the NHL | The NHL All-Star Game: another offensive showcase?

    As All-Star Weekend approaches, the NHL may want to take another look at
its priorities.
    Currently, the league showcases three major events during All-Star Weekend: the skills competition, the YoungStars Game and the All-Star Game itself. Of all three events, the All-Star Game is the least compelling. The skills competition involves the best players showing off their talent, including 100-mph slapshots and outrageous shootout moves. In the YoungStars Game, the best rookies take on the best sophomore players, giving fans a great look at hockey's future stars.
    Since 1947, the All-Star Game has pitted the best players in the NHL against each other. Make that the best offensive players — the last 20 All-Star Games have seen an average of 15 total goals per game. Over that span, average total goals did not exceed eight goals per game in league contests. Clearly, nobody is trying to play defense, fore-check or do anything hockey-related aside from scoring. The All-Star game is one where they should probably leave the goaltenders and bruising defensemen at home and let the Ovechkins and Iginlas of the league shoot the lights out.
    And yet, the NHL is inviting two excellent defensemen to the party. Stephane Robidas of the Dallas Stars will be suiting up for the West. He is tied for second in defenseman hits with 125 and has 75 blocked shots to go with them, but hits in the All-Star Game are about as common as unicorns. Robidas might pick up a secondary assist just because it's hard to avoid when 15 goals are scored. A goal is less likely, as he has scored just two goals in 42 games. Robidas is a very good player, but he will never be an offensive weapon.
    Robidas was a league selection to replace injured Detroit Red Wings veteran Nicklas Lidstrom, but Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Komisarek was chosen instead by the fans. The league shares some blame, since Komisarek was a questionable choice for fan balloting in the first place. In this, the offensive game of offensive games, Komisarek clearly does not belong. He has 11 goals in 325 career games and is more known for his physicality, his shot-blocking and his punishing hits, regularly appearing in the top 10 in those categories. He may be an excellent defenseman, but Komisarek is the worst All-Star selection this side of Sean Avery.
    To add insult to injury, Komisarek will be starting, as the fan voting determines the starters for each team. This season's starters for the East are all from the Pittsburgh Penguins or the hometown Canadiens. Coincidence?
    Voting occurred online, so it was not long until enterprising fans devised automated voting programs to exploit the NHL's vote-early-vote-often policy. Then, as the Penguins-Habs off-ice battle heated up, each team encouraged its fans to vote via text message for all of that team's nominees simultaneously. For the Penguins, this originally included Sergei Gonchar, on the injured reserve since September. The Habs nominees included an underperforming Alexei Kovalev (on pace for just 21 goals) and an injured Saku Koivu, neither of whom deserves to be playing in the game.
    Of course, the hometown fans in Montreal wanted to see all three forwards, two defensemen and the goalie wearing the bleu, blanc et rouge, whether they were deserving or not. All fans want to see their favorite players take the ice, and with an arguably meaningless game on the line, how much does it really matter if teams stuff the ballot box? Currently, the All-Star game is just a fun goal-scoring exhibition. If the NHL wants real hockey, where players like Robidas and Komisarek would be worthwhile selections, it will have to change the game to encourage defense. This solution would be virtually impossible to implement, as teams do not want to risk unnecessary harm to their stars, and injuries would certainly result from a typical regular season-style game.
    The only real solution is for the league to wise up, pick better players on the fan ballots, and recognize that the game is going to be a gong show. Each side could then put in the players that will thrive under these conditions. The big men, although very valuable to their teams, are a bit out of place.