Defense is probably the most difficult position to properly rank players, because their impact goes well beyond goals, assists and plus/minus, the simple objective statistics.
The OCPR for Goalies takes into account total saves, total goals allowed, as well as saves made and goals allowed on the power play (a goalie is supposed to be your best penalty killer, is he not?).
The New Jersey Devils, not usually involved in high stakes deals, got themselves one of the most prolific goal scorers of the last decade in Ilya Kovalchuk.
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All-Star games are exhibitions for the fans, and they rightly deserve to participate by casting their vote. But while we can genuinely respect the votes and the opinions of the votes, they also sometimes provide immeasurable comedic value to those involved in the sport. Fan voting is kind of like the sport world equivalent of third-hand smoke.
Take this year's NHL All-Star Game voting in which four teams represent the 12 starters. The Canadiens have four players in the starting line-up, while the Ducks and Blackhawks have three apiece and the Penguins have two.
Chicago and Anaheim are currently ranked fourth and sixth respectively in the Western Conference, while Montreal is fourth in the Eastern Conference and Pittsburgh is ninth.
San Jose and Boston have been the two best teams in the NHL, while defending champion Detroit is not far off their pace.
Removing the ballot-box-stuffing-fans from the equation, I took a look at the current rankings from my Ice Impact Counter to determine the deserving All-Star starters in the most objective way possible. The Ice Impact Counter (IIC) is a statistical formula I developed in order to give certain weights to things like even goals, shorthanded goals, assists, plus/minus totals, while taking efficiency into consideration.
Kane and Toews are nice young players, but they really can't come close to touching the kind of seasons the pair of Sharks and Datsyuk are having. Even Daniel Sedin from the Canucks and Devin Steoguchi are more deserving.
The Campbell signing has worked out phenomenally for Chicago, and he is right with Rafalksi and Boyle amongst Western Conference blue liners.
No name amongst defensemen is bigger than Nicklas Lidstrom, who is sixth overall and would have made a much better choice than Niedermayer, if not Boyle and Rafalski.
Backstrom has been excellent for the Wild and Giguere hasn't even been the best goalie on his team, as Jonas Hiller has three shutouts and a .933 save percentage for the Ducks.
If you take away all of Crosby's penalty minutes accrued from last week's fight with Andrew Ference, then he really isn't too far off Savard and Krejci. He is the face of hockey, and so there are no legitimate objections here while I politely highlight the very fine play of Bruins' Krejci and Savard.
Kovalev, like Komisarek (particularly Komisarek) don't belong anywhere near the All-Star Game this season. Markov and Price, however, have both been playing All-Star caliber hockey for Montreal.
