Sittin' at the end of the bar

If you go to NHL.com and take a look at the All-Star voting this morning, you’ll see that Montreal Canadiens occupy all six Eastern Conference starting positions, five of them by more than twice as many votes as their nearest non-Canadien pursuers. Seems the fans of Hab Nation have figured out a way to game the system. Oh, it might have been “corrected” by the slow-footed folks at NHL.com, but we’re reminded of a time honored tradition in sports, captured in the oft-quoted statement, “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

Did Habs fans cheat? Did they play dirty? Shoot, we’ll bet somewhere, Dale Hunter is smiling.

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Steve Eminger is now the sixth leading scorer for the Lightning and the top scorer among their defensemen.

Did we just see the sun stop in the sky?

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In case you weren’t paying attention in all the Geno-love these days, his fellow Pennsylvanian, Simon Gagne, is making quite a comeback for the Flyers…tied for fourth in scoring (22 points) and goals (11), tops in short-handed goals (four), fifth in shooting percentage, and plus-8.

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Who is Devin Setoguchi, and how did he get to be tied for fourth (with Gagne) in scoring?

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Alex Ovechkin’s slump might be over, but whatever he had, it seems Ilya Kovalchuk has it. The Thrasher forward has only one multi-goal game this year (he had eight last year, total, and three by this time last year) and trails both Vyatcheslav Kozlov and Brian Little (Brian Little?) on his own team. He’s a streaky sort, so something might break pretty soon for this guy.

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One wonders…Do Minnesota Wild players play a “system” even in the boudoir? Geez, they could make whoopee boring. That game against the Pittsburgh Penguins last night…the NHL had better have a deal with Versus to burn all evidence of that game having been played. Those weren’t blue uniforms the Penguins were wearing, that was the color of their skin from the energy being taken out of their game. It worked, though, so $#@& you, Peerless!

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Jay Bouwmeester…0-6-6, -8, 24 PIMS. He’s on a pace for his lowest scoring total from the blue line (on a points-per-game basis) since his second year, the highest PIMS total of his career (he’s currently tied for 11th in minor penalties taken), and is on his way to his worst plus-minus as a pro. We don’t know if he’s costing himself money in the long run, but about that return Florida is going to get at the trading deadline for him?...That might be another story.

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The Ducks might be anxious to have Alexander Semin sitting in the press box tonight. You really don’t want this guy coming into your building. In eight road games this year, he is 5-10-15, +7. Among players playing at least five road games, Semin has the second best points-per-game average (if you had Lee Stempniak as number one, would you pick my Powerball numbers for me?).