All Star Weekend

The hockey gods have spoken and there will be no Rory Fitzpatrick in the game. The email, internet and website campaign to elect the warm body to the National Hockey League All Star Game in Dallas later this month has failed. It was a nice gimmick and one felt sorry for Fitzpatrick over the course of the event.

He has been a healthy scratch in Vancouver several times already this year and barely clings to a NHL paycheque. He will get some time away from the rink over the break unless Fox News hires him to file reports from the game.

Two quick things. It is time to drop the one player per team rule. It is a slap in the face to the real all-stars. Two, it is time to move the game to after the season and put in a non-NHL location.

The real line-ups are in and it is time to compare choices - MP in parenthesis.

WEST

Roberto Luongo (x)
Miikka Kiprusoff (x)
Marty Turco (Chris Mason)

Scott Niedermayer (x)

Nicklas Lidstrom (x)

Philippe Boucher (x)
Dion Phaneuf (x)
Kimmo Timonen (x)
Lubomir Visnovsky (x)

Joe Thornton (x)

Jonathon Cheechoo (Daymond Langkow)

Joe Sakic (x)
Bill Guerin (Henrik Sedin)
Martin Havlat (x)
Patrick Marleau (x)
Rick Nash (Daniel Sedin)
Yanic Perreault (x)
Brian Rolston (x)
Teemu Selanne (x)
Ryan Smyth (Paul Kariya)
Henrik Zetterberg (x)

EAST

Ryan Miller (x)
Martin Brodeur (x)
Cristobal Huet (x)

Brian Campbell (x)

Sheldon Souray (x)

Jay Bouwmeester (x)
Zdeno Chara (x)
Tomas Kaberle (Andrei Markov)
Brian Rafalski (Dan Boyle)

Sidney Crosby (x)
Alexander Oveckin (x)

Daniel Briere (x)

Jason Blake (Jaromir Jagr)
Simon Gagne (Marc Savard)
Dany Heatley (x)
Marian Hossa (x)
Vincent Lecavalier (x)
Martin St. Louis (x)
Brendan Shanahan (x)
Eric Staal (Thomas Vanek)
Justin Williams (Rod Brind'Amour)