Flames Rejoin the All-Stars

D'Arcy McGrath

February 1st, 2002

It's time for the annual all-star party for the National Hockey League, and this time ... the Flames were actually invited!

Last season the league adopted a new policy, scrapping the traditional "at least one representative from each organization" clause, and going with the best of the best.

The Flames were one of the inaugural season losers, having nary a single representative in the festivities.

Was it disappointing as a Flame booster? Probably.

Is it better for the game, however? Definitely.

All Star Television Schedule

Skills Competition

11:00 MST

CBC

2002 NHL All-Star Game

1:00 MST

CBC

With 30 National Hockey League teams and 21 skaters on each side; full representation from each club would predestine 30 of 42 players, a number that exceeds 70% of the all-star population.

How can the best ever be assembled under those circumstances? Quite simply, they can't.

Having said that, when teams and their fans are excluded there is bound to be some complaints, with the all-star selection system coming under fire.

In some cases the cries should fall on deaf ears, as a cellar dwelling team's players lack the offensive output to make the grade. In other cases, the arguments seem to hit the mark.

A good move by the NHL this season is to include a third team to accompany the World and North American principal squads, that being the Young Gun team. By including players under the age of 24 and playing on their first NHL contracts, the league has managed to find a way to get full representation from all teams.

A team like Atlanta doesn't have a player in the all-star game, but they have two players in the Young Gun contest. Nashville and Minnesota are in the same boat.

But how about the "Hitchcock firing" Dallas Stars? They sit six games over .500 in the competitive western conference, and don't feature a player in the main event. They do however have Brendan Morrow in the Young Gun game. Is that fair? What is fair?

The table below is an attempt to quantify and rank the ability of NHL centers to gripe in the wake of nonattendance at this year's all-star game.

Points in the standings are compared to players in the game to give a true indication of which teams may have indeed received the short end of the stick.

Clearly a team can win without a lack of true stars, and would there fore have a lower output of players in the game, but the table still stands in pointing out some inequities that exist.

Teams

GP

PTS

NA

World

Guns

Total

Pts/App

Rk

Pts/App*

Rk*

Detroit

54

80

2

3

1

6

13.3

29

16.0

30

San Jose

53

62

2

1

0

3

20.7

22

20.7

29

Colorado

55

67

3

0

1

4

16.8

27

22.3

28

Washington

55

49

0

2

0

2

24.5

18

24.5

27

N.Y. Rangers

55

57

2

0

1

3

19.0

23

28.5

26

Vancouver

56

58

1

1

0

2

29.0

13

29.0

25

Los Angeles

53

59

0

2

0

2

29.5

12

29.5

24

N.Y. Islanders

52

60

1

1

0

2

30.0

11

30.0

23

Toronto

54

65

0

2

0

2

32.5

8

32.5

22

St. Louis

53

67

1

1

0

2

33.5

7

33.5

21

Chicago

56

69

1

1

1

3

23.0

20

34.5

20

Columbus

53

36

0

1

1

2

18.0

25

36.0

18

Atlanta

54

36

0

0

2

2

18.0

25

36.0

18

Florida

53

39

0

1

2

3

13.0

30

39.0

17

Tampa Bay

53

45

0

1

1

2

22.5

21

45.0

16

Anaheim

57

47

1

0

0

1

47.0

4

47.0

15

Minnesota

54

48

0

0

1

1

48.0

3

48.0

14

Nashville

54

49

0

0

2

2

24.5

18

49.0

13

Buffalo

53

50

0

1

1

2

25.0

17

50.0

12

Pittsburgh

53

52

1

0

1

2

26.0

16

52.0

11

Calgary

53

54

1

0

1

2

27.0

15

54.0

10

Montreal

54

55

1

0

1

2

27.5

14

55.0

9

New Jersey

53

56

0

1

0

1

56.0

2

56.0

8

Phoenix

53

57

1

0

2

3

19.0

23

57.0

7

Dallas

52

58

0

0

1

1

58.0

1

58.0

6

Edmonton

56

61

0

1

1

2

30.5

9

61.0

4

Carolina

57

61

0

1

1

2

30.5

9

61.0

4

Ottawa

53

63

1

0

3

4

15.8

28

63.0

3

Boston

54

68

1

0

1

2

34.0

6

68.0

2

Philadelphia

53

70

1

0

1

2

35.0

5

70.0

1

The Detroit Red Wings, the league's number one team, lead the way with the smallest points per appearance ratio. The first ranking shows points per appearance for all three categories (World, North American, and Young Gun squads), but the better index is the final two columns, which only deal with the all star game itself. The Wings have garnered 80 points in the standings, and are sending 5 players to the game (six if you include Datsyuk in the Young Gun game), for an average of 16.0 points per player. They lead the pack by a fair margin.

The top three is rounded out by San Jose and Colorado, both top NHL clubs.

Then things get interesting.

The Washington Capitals, in danger of missing the playoffs have two players in the game despite only 49 points. Their points to players ratio sits 4th with a 24.5 mark. Clearly they're not getting a lot of bang for their buck when it comes to their star players.

The team most victimized would be the Philadelphia Flyers who sit 2nd overall in the standings, but only have one player (Jeremy Roenick) in the game.

Year No. Flame All-Stars
1981 1 Nilsson
1982 1 Rautakallio
1983 1 McDonald
1984 1 McDonald
1985 2 Reinhart, MacInnis
1986 1 Suter
1987 Rendezvous '87
1988 5 MacInnis, McCrimmon, Suter, Niewendyk, Vernon
1989 4 Mullen, Suter, Niewendyk, Vernon
1990 4 MacInnis, Mullen, Niewendyk, Vernon
1991 4 McInnis, Fleury, Suter, Vernon
1992 3 Roberts, MacInnis, Fleury
1993 2 Roberts, Vernon
1994 2 MacInnis, Niewendyk
1995 Lock Out
1996 1 Fleury
1997 1 Fleury
1998 1 Fleury
1999 1 Fleury
2000 2 Bure, Housley
2001 0  
2002 2* Iginla, *Regehr

The Flames ratio seems to meet their position in the standings, suggesting no complaints should surface in Cowtown despite the snubbing of Roman Turek.

Olympic Year

When an all-star game precedes an Olympic Games there is always a greater focus on nationality. The current format of the World vs. North America was born four years ago, a week and a half before the Nagano games.

This year Canada has a fierce advantage in all-star representation, putting 32 of the 69 players filling out the three rosters (46.3%).

Canada holds 36.8% of the defencemen, 47.6% of the forwards, and 62.5% of the goaltenders.

I guess "our" game is in trouble.

The team by team break down goes as follows...

Team North America consists of 16 Canadians and five Americans. The Americans have two defencemen and three forwards on the team.

Team World consists of six Russians, five Czechs, four Swedes, two Fins, two Slovaks, a Latvian, and a Norwegian.

Finally the Young Guns squad is made up of 16 Canadians, four Americans, four Czechs, two Russians and a Swede.

Beats the Alternative

In the end there is no definitive way to ensure the best of the best are the best in the all-star game. There are just too many players and too many ways to rate and rank them in building the hockey teams.

Some will be there when they shouldn't, others will miss the game unjustly.

Ilya Kovalchuk had the numbers to represent the World for Atlanta.

Mike Modano is a true all star and should have likely been there for the Stars.

Cliff Ronning would have been a good choice from the Predators.

But ... and this is the sticky point ... who would you remove to fit them in?

Therein lies the problem.

 

 

 

 

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