Sunday, January 4, 2009

Three Devils Who Should Be Playing On All-Star Weekend

Voting for the starters of the NHL All-Star game just concluded the other day and what a mess this was. At one point it looked as if the Canadians would have five starters in the all-star game, with only three actually being close to deserving on a nomination. The Pittsburgh fans flew in and saved the day by voting for Crosby and Malkin in their place. There is no doubt that those two are absolutely deserving of the honor. And that is what this should be an honor, of who played the best in the first half not who is the most popular. So where does that leave some of our Devils?

Well I see three Devils deserving of going to Montreal. Zach Parise should be a lock and if he doesn't go this thing is a real sham. Parise is 5th in the league in points (46) and 5th in goals (22). He has been one of the most dominant players in the league this year and no reason not to see him in Montreal on All-Star weekend.

Next is Patrick Elias, once one of the top forwards in the league has returned his game to the high level we have come to expect from him. Elias who has only scored 21 goals/69 pts. in 2006-2007 and 20 goals/55 pts. in 2007-2008 is primed to easily surpass those marks this season. Elias's 17 goals ranks 18th in the league and 15th in points (41 pts.) Clearly his among the top forwards in the league with Jeff Carter, Marc Savard, Alex Ovechkin, Nicholas Backstorm, Mike Richards, Phil Kessel and Ilyga Kovalchuk.

Last is the biggest surprise of them all, Scott Clemmensen. When looking at all the goalies in the Eastern Conference Clemmensen is a clear top candidate for the All-Star team. Clemmensen has a 2.17 GAA, which ranks 4th in the league and only the Boston duo of Thomas and Fernandez have lower GAA in the Eastern Conference. Clemmensen also ranks 7th in SV% with a .926, with only Thomas and Fernandez ahead of him again as well as Anderson from FLA. His 14 wins ranks 10th in the league, while every goalie but two ahead of him has played at 5 more games.

Now I know there are more flashy names like Fag Boy Lunquvist (NYR), Ryan Miller (BUF), Cam Ward (CAR) and Marc Fluery (PIT). I mean Fluery missed being named the starter by 29,000 votes and he has a 3.01 GAA, only 11 wins in 22 games and a poor .904 Sv%. So hopefully whoever decides on who is in and who is out really picks the best players.

Then again who are we kidding, the Devils never get respect on TheFourthPeriods.com Power Rankings the Devils are not even in the top 10, but hey still have the Rangers ranked 8th and the Pens ranked 6th. This just proves some people don't know shit about hockey and yet they get paid to write and evaluate it.

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