Sabres' Zemgus Girgensons leads NHL All-Star Game vote after two weeks
The leading vote-getter among all players for the 2015 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus isn’t Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos. No, it’s not even Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews or Alex Ovechkin. Evgeni Malkin? Sorry. Tyler Seguin? Get real. P.K. Subban? Sorry.
The man leading the vote totals after two weeks is a 20-year old Latvian playing for the Buffalo Sabres.
Zemgus Girgensons currently leads the Sabres in goals with seven and is second in scoring with 13 points. Not exactly stats you’d normally see from a leading vote-getter for an All-Star Game, but he has a secret weapon supporting him: Latvian fans.
“I’ve heard about the votes. I’ve seen it. There’s not a lot I have to do with it. It’s not me voting,” a sheepish Girgensons said Saturday just before leaving the Bell Centre after the Sabres’ optional skate. “It’s the fans back home. We got some crazy hockey fans back home.”
The Latvians are hockey’s greatest fans; just watch any footage of them at an international competition. They sing. They chant. They dress up. They’re the best. So it’s no wonder they’ve gotten behind one of their own to make him a starter in the All-Star Game.
"Zemgus Girgensons" is Latvian for "Rory Fitzpatrick," after all.
Here are the rest of the Week 2 voting totals, which were released by the NHL on Tuesday:
Goaltenders
Carey Price, Montreal 204,923
Corey Crawford, Chicago 174,466
Henrik Lundqvist, NY Rangers 109,662
Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh 81,704
Pekka Rinne, Nashville 81,031
Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles 73,744
Tuukka Rask, Boston 59,352
Jonas Hiller, Calgary 58,788
Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus 58,183
Jimmy Howard, Detroit 45,357
Defensemen
P.K. Subban, Montreal 240,362
Duncan Keith, Chicago 208,086
Brent Seabrook, Chicago 154,865
Kris Letang, Pittsburgh 134,148
Andrei Markov, Montreal 119,094
Shea Weber, Nashville 113,613
Erik Karlsson, Ottawa 104,595
Mark Giordano, Calgary 103,011
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles 98,044
Zdeno Chara, Boston 79,928
Niklas Kronwall, Detroit 73,308
Olli Maatta, Pittsburgh 58,344
TJ Brodie, Calgary 57,867
Roman Josi, Nashville 55,168
Ryan McDonagh, NY Rangers 46,754
Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis 46,037
Johnny Boychuk, NY Islanders 45,289
Jack Johnson, Columbus 41,928
Ryan Suter, Minnesota 41,278
Mark Streit, Philadelphia 40,976
Tyler Myers, Buffalo 39,935
Kevin Shattenkirk, St. Louis 37,575
Brent Burns, San Jose 36,014
Niklas Hjalmarsson, Chicago 34,669
Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay 30,535
Dion Phaneuf, Toronto 27,258
Rasmus Ristolainen, Buffalo 23,123
Alexander Edler, Vancouver 19,663
Cam Fowler, Anaheim 19,516
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Arizona 17,941
Forwards
Zemgus Girgensons, Buffalo 399,356
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh 218,672
Patrick Kane, Chicago 216,261
Jonathan Toews, Chicago 212,994
Max Pacioretty, Montreal 129,324
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh 126,430
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay 106,042
Patrick Sharp, Chicago 102,890
Tyler Seguin, Dallas 99,982
Tomas Plekanec, Montreal 89,729
Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit 82,545
Rick Nash, NY Rangers 64,505
Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis 59,912
Jakub Voracek, Philadelphia 59,145
John Tavares, NY Islanders 56,126
Martin St Louis, NY Rangers 54,921
Alex Ovechkin, Washington 54,319
Alex Galchenyuk, Montreal 54,248
Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit 54,042
Marian Hossa, Chicago 52,620
Jamie Benn, Dallas 52,253
Phil Kessel, Toronto 49,708
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia 47,601
Gustav Nyquist, Detroit 45,092
Patrice Bergeron, Boston 44,359
James Neal, Nashville 43,802
Jaromir Jagr, NJ Devils 42,149
Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles 40,385
Filip Forsberg, Nashville 39,234
Chris Kunitz, Pittsburgh 38,656
Zach Parise, Minnesota 35,738
Corey Perry, Anaheim 33,179
Ryan Johansen, Columbus 31,614
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim 30,466
Tyler Ennis, Buffalo 30,140
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado 30,026
TJ Oshie, St. Louis 29,611
James van Riemsdyk, Toronto 29,218
John Gaudreau, Calgary 29,129
Wayne Simmonds, Philadelphia 29,083
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
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