Avalanche Snubbed at the Oscars

Adrian Dater has informed us that the Colorado Avalanche will not have a representative at the NHL AllStar game in Atlanta this year after Paul Stastny went down to appendicitis. Let me be among those who may be saying "Meh"

I think the idea of having a player from every team on the roster reeks of the whole "Everybody's a winner!" motto that permeates our culture these days. If a team has no bonafide superstars on their roster, why reward a lesser player just to represent the team?

The only person you could make a slight argument for would be Marek Svatos. And man would it be slight. Yes, he's got 20 goals. He's also got 3 assists and just doesn't have the same qualities that players such as Lecavalier and Iginla have.

Lecavalier will turn you inside out then hang the goalies jock up in the rafters before potting a goal. Marek Svatos will pounce on a rebound in the crease. See the difference?

No Avalanche players made it this year and no healthy Avalanche deserves to go either.

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Guess Who's Going to the All-Star Game

Back in my home town there was a big sign with a photo of a gap-toothed hockey player with a caption below it which said "Guess who ain't going to the Stanley Cup?"

It was a sign for the local beer league hockey team, the Benos, and I always felt like that sign defined our little hockey rink for whatever reason.

Why does that matter whatsoever to the Colorado Avalanche? Well, this team has their own gap-toothed leader and if they put a picture of him up at the rink, the caption below him would read "Guess who is going to the All-Star game!"

That's right, despite entering a brutal slump over the last dozen games, Paul Stastny will be skating alongside the league's best in Atlanta on January 27th.

Names such as Joe Thornton, Niklas Lidstrom and Sergei Zubov will be Paul Stastny's teammates for one night. It's even a possibility that he could skate on a line with a couple arch-rival *cough, cough* Red Wings in Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk at some point.

So after being snubbed in the YoungStars game last year, he's getting his due this year and it's well deserved.

Despite only having 5 points in his last 14 games, he's still averaging a point per game as he puts in over 20 minutes of ice-time each night including time on both the powerplay and penalty kill.

He may be stretched thin with the absence of Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth but it's amazing how complete a player he is at such a young age.

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