Chicago Blackhawks' Kane, Toews, Keith, Crawford Named All-Stars
Nov 5, 2016; Dallas, TX, USA; Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19) and right wing Patrick Kane (88) celebrate the win over the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center. The Blackhawks defeat the Stars 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Leading the league in NHL All-Star Game selections this season are your Chicago Blackhawks
Today, NHL fans were delivered something to complain about for the next week, minimum. That’s honestly all the release of the NHL All-Star Game rosters ever causes, although Chicago Blackhawks fans should be pretty happy with this season’s results.
The Blackhawks lead the NHL in All-Star selections, as Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford have all be chosen to play Jan. 29 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Before we talk more about the Blackhawks’ selections and non-selections, here is each team’s entire roster:
Atlantic Division
F Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay)
F Brad Marchand (Boston)
F Auston Matthews (Toronto)
F Frans Nielsen (Detroit)
F Kyle Okposo (Buffalo)
F Vincent Trocheck (Florida)
D Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay)
D Erik Karlsson (Ottawa)
D Shea Weber (Montreal)
G Carey Price (Montreal)*
G Tuukka Rask (Boston)
Metropolitan Division
F Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh)*
F Taylor Hall (New Jersey)
F Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh)
F Alex Ovechkin (Washington)
F Wayne Simmonds (Philadelphia)
F John Tavares (New York Islanders)
D Justin Faulk (Carolina)
D Seth Jones (Columbus)
D Ryan McDonagh (New York Rangers)
G Sergei Bobrovsky (Columbus)
G Braden Holtby (Washington)
Central Division
F Patrick Kane (Chicago)
F Patrik Laine (Winnipeg)
F Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado)
F Tyler Seguin (Dallas)
F Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis)
F Jonathan Toews (Chicago)
D Duncan Keith (Chicago)
D P.K. Subban (Nashville)*
D Ryan Suter (Minnesota)
G Corey Crawford (Chicago)
G Devan Dubnyk (Minnesota)
Pacific Division
F Jeff Carter (Los Angeles)
F Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary)
F Bo Horvat (Vancouver)
F Ryan Kesler (Anaheim)
F Connor McDavid (Edmonton)*
F Joe Pavelski (San Jose)
D Brent Burns (San Jose)
D Drew Doughty (Los Angeles)
D Cam Fowler (Anaheim)
G Martin Jones (San Jose)
G Mike Smith (Arizona)
*Indicates fan-elected captain
Jan 8, 2017; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks right wing Ryan Hartman (38) and goalie Corey Crawford (50) celebrate the victory following the third period against the Nashville Predators at the United Center. Chicago won 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Analyzing Kane and Crawford
These are very interesting All-Star rosters, in my opinion. For some good reasons and some bad. Before I offer a few thoughts on all four rosters as a whole, let me offer my thoughts on the Blackhawks’ league-leading four picks.
Patrick Kane is always going to be at the All-Star Game now. At least until he’s, like, Jaromir Jagr‘s age (if he plays that long). Kane is tied for second in the league with 44 points despite a drop in goals. His 12 are the fewest among the top 16 point producers this season.
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But Kane has the quick hands and all those fancy moves fans love to “ooh” and “ahh” over, and Kane’s having another solid offensive season, so it makes plenty of sense to get him on the roster.
Crawford was another easy inclusion, despite what a small-but-vocal portion of the fan base might believe about him. Crow was far better than last season’s two Central Division goaltenders, Dubnyk and Pekka Rinne, and he missed the game. This season, Crow is easily a top-two goaltender in the Central, so thankfully he made the cut.
Crow may not have the most wins or league-leading stats, but his numbers are really impressive this season behind a Chicago team that hasn’t shown much desire to posses the puck consistently. He has 15 wins, a .925 save percentage and a 2.33 goals-against average to go with two shutouts while facing an average of 30.8 shots per game.
Not to mention he carried the team through the first month-plus in the season, when he was stopping everything in sight at 5-on-5. And would you look at that, the early-season points binge still has the Blackhawks atop the Central. Huh.
Analyzing Keith and Toews
Now, on to Keith and Toews. We’ll start with the defenseman, who is another of the league’s more noticeable players due to winning the Stanley Cup three times. Keith’s 29 points are good for fourth in the league among defensemen, and that’s while posting a whopping one goal.
But does Keith seem a step slow to you all this season? He’s still pulled off some of his typical iron-man acts, but he’s losing a few more board battles and getting beat position-wise a few more times this season than we’re used to. Dare I say Niklas Hjalmarsson has been better for stretches (he’ll never get into an All-Star Game, though).
He’s coming off knee surgery, so maybe he’s conserving his energy like only he knows he can do. So maybe this wasn’t the best season to push him into the All-Star Game? Could’ve let Roman Josi go. Or Kevin Shattenkirk.
Toews … interesting case here. The captain sounded very apologetic today when he learned he’d be in the All-Star over the likes of teammates Artemi Panarin, Marian Hossa and Artem Anisimov (we’ll get to them in a bit).
I think Toews is well aware how he snuck in to the All-Star Game. This guy is the league’s top captain, a three-time Stanley Cup winner and a face of the entire league. If he wasn’t at the league’s showcase exhibition during what should be one of the peak seasons of his career, it’d be insane.
Heck, the guy’s face is on the banner for the All-Star Game webpage.
But if you look at the stats, Toews is absolutely right that he shouldn’t be in L.A. based on his stats for this season. While he’s missed time due to injury, he’s also been really sluggish offensively until these last couple weeks.
You have to go to the fourth page of NHL.com’s stats sheet to find Toews’ name, sitting in the 162 spot with 20 points. His faceoff winning percentage is stellar (58.3) and his intangibles and defensive play at forward are important as always. But those aren’t necessarily the things that make an All-Star.
Being a face of the league, however, will get you there. This is a shining example of the All-Star Game’s use as a popularity contest. That’s just how it is.
Analyzing Panarin, Hossa and Anisimov
Panarin actually isn’t the only top-10 points producer in the league who is missing the All-Star Game (Columbus’ Cam Atkinson was also left out), but his omission is grievous nontheless. Panarin has been carrying this team offensively through stretches of the season, as Kane did last season.
Panarin’s 41 points are good for a share of sixth in the league, and his plus-16 rating is best among the league’s top-10 point producers. Panarin is a fun guy to watch play because he clearly has fun on the ice. Having him not in the game is a detriment to the league.
Hossa is probably glad he wasn’t included in the game, as it gives a player in his late 30s a little extra rest time. While Hossa got off to a stellar start this season, he’s kind of fallen back in the NHL pack in key stats. But you can’t deny his 16 goals, including four game-winners, are impressive.
Anisimov has really come into his own this season while playing between two stellar wings. His 31 points tie him for 38th in the league — one behind All-Star Simmonds from Philly — and he’s well on his way to a career year. Still, Anisimov isn’t as flashy as many other centers, so it’s not surprising he was left out.
Overall, I’d say Panarin is by far the biggest snub for the Blackhawks, and maybe the biggest in the league.
Jan 4, 2017; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks forward Brandon Sutter (20) scores in a penalty shot against Arizona Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith (41) during the third period at Rogers Arena. The Vancouver Canucks won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
League-wide thoughts
Let’s break it down by division, shall we?
Atlantic: Nielsen is Detroit’s one pick? Things really have gone south in the Motor City.
It’s cool to see a younger, lesser-known guy like Trocheck get into the game, although he’s fourth on his own team in points. The NHL is pretty bad at making new stars unless they’re already on a star trajectory, so I’m glad to see Trocheck in.
A crazy-good goaltending duo here in Price and Rask.
Metropolitan: Um. Did no one watch the first half of the season? How are there no Columbus or New York Rangers forwards on this roster? There are absolutely zero forwards from a team that had a 16-game win streak and a team with the most prolific offense in the league this season?
No Atkinson? No Brandon Saad? No Kevin Hayes? No Derek Stepan? Sheesh.
Simmonds is a solid player, but I’m surprised he made it over Flyers teammates Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux.
But another really good goaltending duo with Bobrovsky and Holtby.
Central: Get Panarin in there for Toews and substitute Shattenkirk or Josi for Keith. Still a chance one of those latter two gets in if Subban can’t answer the bell due to injury.
That goaltending duo of Crow and Dubnyk is straight fire, though.
Pacific: Mike Smith is an All-Star in 2017. Excuse me while I laugh-vomit. This goaltending duo of Smith and Jones is going to get its lunch fed to it.
Like with Trocheck, cool to see Horvat make it from the Canucks instead of one of the Sedin twins.
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