Ward and EStaal - Hometown Favorites

There are tons of first-time All-Stars (21), though it kind of makes me wonder how some of these guys weren’t All-Stars last year. Steven Stamkos split the Richard Trophy with Crosby, but he wasn’t an All-Star.  Mike Green was a Norris Trophy nominee and first team all-season All-Star in ’08 (both feats he would repeat last year) and he wasn’t an All-Star. [link]

"Squishy, we made the team!"

Here’s the full list.  Highlighted guys are on my fantasy team, so Crosby will know who to draft to make my ultimate All-Star Team. [Photo Roster]

FORWARDS
David Backes (St. Louis), Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh)*, Matt Duchene (Colorado), Patrik Elias (New Jersey), Loui Eriksson (Dallas), Claude Giroux (Philadelphia), Ales Hemsky (Edmonton), Jarome Iginla (Calgary), Patrick Kane (Chicago), Ryan Kesler (Vancouver), Phil Kessel (Toronto), Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles), Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh)*, Rick Nash (Columbus), Alex Ovechkin (Washington), Corey Perry (Anaheim), Brad Richards (Dallas), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver), Henrik Sedin (Vancouver), Patrick Sharp (Chicago), Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay), Eric Staal (Carolina), Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay), Jonathan Toews (Chicago)*

If Jordan hadn't been hurt, it would be Staal City.

DEFENSEMEN
Dan Boyle (San Jose), Brent Burns (Minnesota), Dustin Byfuglien (Atlanta), Zdeno Chara (Boston), Tobias Enstrom (Atlanta), Mike Green (Washington), Erik Karlsson (Ottawa), Duncan Keith (Chicago)*, Kris Letang (Pittsburgh)*, Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit), Marc Staal (N.Y. Rangers), Shea Weber (Nashville)

Sharp, Keith, Toews and Kane... what's Kane looking at? Squirrel!

GOALIES
Marc-Andre Fleury (Pittsburgh)*, Jonas Hiller (Anaheim), Henrik Lundqvist (N.Y. Rangers), Carey Price (Montreal), Tim Thomas (Boston), Cam Ward (Carolina)

NYRFan Steph can wear her Lunqvist jersey in Greece that weekend.

ROOKIES
Logan Couture (San Jose), Evgeny Dadonov (Florida), Jordan Eberle (Edmonton), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Phoenix), Tyler Ennis (Buffalo), Cam Fowler (Anaheim), Michael Grabner (N.Y. Islanders), Taylor Hall (Edmonton), Tyler Seguin (Boston), Kevin Shattenkirk (Colorado), Jeff Skinner (Carolina), Derek Stepan (N.Y. Rangers)

I've been to 4 Sharks games this year, think Couture had a goal in every one.

So that’s it till the All-Star Game draft on Friday, Jan 28.  It will air on Versus.  Who do you think will be the captains?  Who was left off this ASG roster? Someone’s gotta be fired up – only one Red Wing?  Only one Flyer? Last I checked (2 seconds ago), they were #2 and #3 in overall points in the NHL standings…

UPDATE: Here are the 2011 All-Star Game Jerseys.  I rather like the blue one… hope Tanger ends up on that team.

Prom dresses.

Where am I going with this? Well Stan Lee created THE GUARDIAN PROJECT where each day until the All Star game he is revealing an NHL ‘guardian’ based on each NHL team. Sounds cool? If you are a comic book nerd. I suppose it’s a wet dream of a life time. Really. Honest. And if you are a hockey-comic-book nerd, you’ve hit the mega-millions!



But you know what? I had a deja-vu moment. Mr. Cherrie was prattling on about this Stan Lee Guardian Project and superheroes and all I heard was the NHL and superheroes and I kept waiting for the villain Stanley. I kept waiting for ‘cup’ to follow Stanley. But it didn’t. Finally in exasperation I asked, “What does the Stanley Cup have to do with all this?!” This time it was Mr. Cherrie staring blankly back at me. “The Stanley Cup? What are you talking about?” Then it dawned on him what I meant and he started laughing. “I bet no one else in the world would even think that but you!”

Gee thanks! Really? Come on? No one? No one. No one else hears STAN LEE and the NHL and is waiting to hear CUP drop after all that? SERIOUSLY?! Well then, I guess I’m just blessed with a lovely dry sense of humor.

But if you want to check out all the fabulous superheroes created by STAN LEE and not the STANLEY CUP, go to www.guardianproject30.com or if you’re single and want to impress your comic-book nerd neighbor and get a date, send him there, he’ll be impressed that you know about it. And no need to thank me, thank Mr. Cherrie.