All-Star Picks a Capital Crime

Is there anything else the Washington Capitals can do to get some respect from the rest of the NHL?
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↵Here in Washington, it’s not an idle question. Thanks to a combination of automated ballot box stuffing and the league’s continued insistence at promoting the career of Sidney Crosby to the exclusion of all others, Washington winger Alex Ovechkin -- who last I looked was the reigning MVP, the league’s leading goal scorer and second in points overall this season -- couldn’t find a way to get voted as a starter on the Eastern Conference squad.
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↵But the ultimate insult came later in the week, when the Eastern Conference reserves were announced and not one additional member of the team was included on the roster. Let me remind our readers that the Capitals currently rank second overall in the Eastern Conference and boast a league-best 18-1-1 record on home ice. As great as Ovechkin is -- and don’t doubt that he is both the best and most exciting player in all of hockey -- the Caps wouldn’t be sitting where they are in the standings if he wasn’t getting some significant help.
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In most cases, that help is coming from second-year center Nicklas Backstrom. After a slow start, Backstrom managed to find his stride and is now scoring at better than a point a game pace and ranks fifth overall in the league in assists. Still, there wasn’t any room for him on the Eastern Conference roster.
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↵That goes double for defenseman Mike Green, who despite the fact that he’s missed 13 games this season due to injury still has scored more goals than any other defenseman in the Eastern Conference. And though he’s missed significant playing time due to a high ankle sprain, winger Alexander Semin even had a strong case for inclusion, as the only player scoring at a better point per game pace in the league is Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin.
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↵Taking a trip through the team’s locker room after practice yesterday, Washington Post beat writer Tarik El-Bashir found lots of befuddled players and one perturbed head coach in Bruce Boudreau: ↵↵⇥“We understand the process,” said Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau, who remains in the mix to clinch a spot behind the bench. “But as a personal opinion, I don’t agree with the process. I agree that people would much rather see the best players in the world rather than one representative from every team.↵↵Don’t get me wrong, I know that there isn’t room for everybody on the team. Then again, maybe there’s an upside from all of this lack of recognition. After all, while the team may very well have had the third best record in the NHL for the calendar year of 2008, this is still a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff round in almost 11 years. Perhaps having a little extra incentive isn’t a bad thing.↵