I can tell you from first-hand experience that sometimes the selection of the Three Stars can go a little haywire. For example, we blew it last season when Ryan Malone had a hat trick in a memorable one-goal Islanders win at the Coliseum and Ryan was mistakenly left off. After the game I went up to a Penguins staffer and did a mea culpa and assured him Malone's omission was not intentional. He made a good point: "You guys won. The stars are all yours."
When the Three Stars selection raises eyebrows on the odd night, it's usually because the game went to overtime or a shootout or was decided late in regulation. Sometimes the updated Stars don't get to the public address announcer in time or sometimes a name gets lost in translation while the goal horn is blaring ("Asham"? "No, Yashin"!!!! "Asham"?).
But what was the excuse tonight? The Islanders won, 3-1, taking that lead with MORE THAN THIRTEEN minutes left in the third period. No doubt, Daniel Alfredsson had a heckuva effort, darn near heroic, when you consider he played 26 minutes tonight after playing last night against Detroit.
But Alfredsson (one goal, 4 shots, 4 PIMs, minus-1) as First Star over Marc-Andre Bergeron with his two goals (including the game-winner) from his defense position? Daniel's contributions were more valuable than the 31 saves on 32 shots of Rick DiPietro, who didn't get a Star nod at all? I guess it goes back to the Arod-in-Texas argument: can you really be the Most Valuable Player when your team doesn't win?
Somebody, please send an email to my boy Don Brennan at the Ottawa Sun and ask for an investigation.
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4 comments:
You know by tomorrow his email box will be full.
CB,
Don't worry, we'll let Donny boy who he's dealing with.
Webb20
Well said Chris. I didn't understand that choice either when I saw it. MAB was the obvious choice for the 1st star last night and got robbed (not that it means all that much). There was little doubt that it was a night that belonged to the Isles and the stars should have too.
CB,
Here is the response from Mr. Brennan I received.
"I have no idea who picked the three stars. However, if you were totally unbiased and you knew your hockey, you would admit that Alfredsson was clearly the game's best player.
DB"
--Webb20
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