T1B

Reserves for the West were announced today...

http://www.nhl.com/allstar/2008/west_roster.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The one guy from every team rule sucks but its worse when the wrong guy from the team is chosen. Kane or Sharp should've been the Blackhawks representative instead of Keith. Kane will probably be in the YoungStars game though. Legace from the Blues over Boyes or Kariya is up for debate as well. Nash was a good choice from Columbus but Leclaire should've gotten some consideration.

It looked like in some cases, the highest scorer was picked from teams without a bonafide All-Star. Horcoff and Arnott are prime examples of that. Jovanovski as the Coyotes pick was pretty bad...could've gone to Doan or Vrbata.

The Wings are the best team on the planet right now and deserved their 4 players and even Rafalski should've gotten a bid as well...he's second to Lidstrom in defense scoring. The rebirth of Ozzie in Detroit has been fun to watch...he gets a much deserved All-Star nod and he just signed a new deal as well.

The East comes out tomorrow...my picks:
Goalies: Gerber, Lundqvist
Defensemen: Campbell, Gonchar, Redden, Rozsival
Forwards: Comrie, Heatley, Jokinen, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin, M. Richards, St. Louis, Staal, Sundin

http://www.nhl.com/allstar/2008/east_roster.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Quite a lot of surprises on this team as well...

Two goalies with mildly mediocre numbers get in over a guy like Gerber who has 20 wins and better goals against than DiPietro. There really wasn't a great player off the Islanders so I guess they took him over Comrie or Guerin or maybe Campoli on defense.

I can't really complain with the Sens getting all three of their star forwards in the game...all three are in the top 10 in scoring. Hossa getting in over guys like Jokinen, Savard and Sundin is a surprise...probably just playing to the host fans.

You can dress 20 more guys of those who were left out and probably have a team as good or better than either of these teams. This could be your starting lineup of All-Star snubs:

Forwards:
Evgeni Malkin (20 G / 28 A -- 48 pts.)
Mike Ribeiro (22 G / 26 A -- 48 pts.)
Mats Sundin (20 G / 28 A -- 48 pts.)

Defensemen:
Brian Rafalski (7 G / 30 A -- 37 pts.)
Michal Rozsival (11 G / 16 A -- 27 pts.)

Goalie:
Martin Gerber (20-6 / 2.57 GAA / .917 SV%)