Rangers Showing Up On The All-Star Ballot

With the All-Star game rapidly approaching, fans have been casting their votes as to who they would like to see in the All-Star Game on January 30th. Recently, NHL.com has posted the voting leaders and I am very satisfied to see that many Blueshirt faithfuls have done their part in trying to get our home town boys in there!

As far as forwards go, Marian Gaborik obviously leads the Rangers forwards with a well deserved 19,454 votes. However, right behind Gaborik is the one and only, Mr. Sean Avery. Thats not a typo, Sean Avery has had his fans start a campaign to get him into the All-Star Game, and they have not disappointed. Avery has beat out Jarome Iginla, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Paul Stastny, Ryan Smyth, Rick Nash, Daniel Alfredsson, and Ilya Kovalchuk with 17,494 votes (five of which I am proud to claim as mine)... which may be a little absurd, but it still brings a smile to my face. Give the fans credit, they campaigned and have not let down on their promise. Following Avery is Brandon Dubinsky, and rightfully so. Dubinsky has had a fantastic year so far and his nomination into the All-Star game is a good way for all of us Ranger fans to say "we appreciate you". Although he is not a front runner for making the ballot with only 9,850 votes, if he continues to play the way he has, he may convince some other fans around the league. Who knows? And finally, Ryan Callahan managed to break into the ballot as well with exactly 6,000 votes.

Now, moving onto defensemen, the Rangers only have two nominees from our blue-line on the ballot: Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. Staal managed to break the top 15 with 28,570 votes, beating out Dion Phaneuf, Shea Weber, Dan Boyle, and Sergei Gonchar. Dan Girardi is not as far up as Staal with only 6,593 votes. But, both have stepped up their play this season, blocking nearly every shot that they can get their bodies in front of. I have high hopes for Staal and hopes he gets a shot to represent our Blueshirts in the All-Star game. Just please, don't get hurt blocking a shot.

And finally, goaltenders are the last category on the ballot. Henrik Lundqvist sits at the 11th place spot on the ballot with 24,245 votes. To me, this is a little disheartening. While some of his glory has been overshadowed by the help of Marty Biron this season, Henrik is still a world class goaltender and still manages to get beat out by the likes of Tim Thomas, Carey Price, and Sergei Bobrovsky (gag, gag, and more gag).

But unfortunately, thats the way it is. And there is nothing else I could do about it other than continue to vote for our Rangers until January 3rd, and I urge all other Rangers fans to do the same!