Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested today that Scott Hartnell could very well make the roster for the NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa.
Hartnell has never been to the event before, but has the advantage this season of ranking (as of Tuesday) 8th in plus/minus, 14th in goals (18) and 24th in points (37). As of Monday, he was ranked 25th for points per game (0.92).
Compared to the twenty-one forwards selected last year by the NHL (excluding the three selected from the fan polls), ten players had less goals and six players had less points than Hartnell has earned this season. David Backes (St. Louis Blues), Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks) and Patrick Elias (New Jersey Devils) and Alex Hemsky (Edmonton Oilers) all had less goals and points.
The challenge to Hartsy for receiving a bid is the limited number of spots available and the NHL’s desire to showcase each franchise equally. Claude Giroux is already a lock to represent the Flyers while other stars like Rick Nash, Brad Richards, Ryan Kesler and Alex Ovechkin could all get nods even though they don’t compare as favorably on the scoreboard.
On top of that, the NHL nominates an all-rookie team to compete in the skills competition. Both Matt Read and Sean Couturier are legitimate candidates to earn spots on that team, and the NHL may follow the logic that including one of them gives them enough reason to select a household name like Ovechkin over Hartnell.
As a final push for Hartnell, he has embraced his celebrity this season by adopting the “Hartnell Down” twitter phenomenon created by Flyers fan Seth Hastings and used it to not only connect with fans, but raise money for charity at hartnelldown.com.
This may be the one chance Hartnell has to make the All-Star game. The NHL would be remiss not to include him over other “all stars” who haven’t contributed the way he has in the 2011-12 season.
For the latest Flyers news and updates, you can follow me on twitter (@JoshJanet).
