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Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:09 am EST

Latest all-star ballot jokes: Vote for Turco and Habs domination

By Greg Wyshynski

As of this morning, Dallas Stars goalie Marty Turco is last in the NHL in goals against average (3.75) and save percentage (.863), and the only reason he isn't last in goals surrendered is because Miikka Kiprusoff has played three more games. He's been the worst goalie in hockey this season. And he's second in the Western Conference in All-Star Game fan balloting right now.

The good news is that Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks is about 10,000 votes ahead; with his popularity and numbers this season, it's hard to conceive a situation where he wouldn't start for the West -- barring some perverse "Vote for the Worst" campaign to mock Turco's ineffectiveness by starting him in the ASG.

To the Dallas Stars fans: Seriously? Look, Web-savvy fans for every team are going to stuff the ballot box; on Day 2 of the voting, the Montreal Canadiens currently occupy every starting position in the Eastern Conference. And who wouldn't rather see Alex Tanguay start the game than Alexander Semin or Evgeni Malkin, right? Also Hab-tastic: Andrei Markov currently has more votes than Nicklas Lidstrom and Dion Phaneuf combined.

(UPDATE 10:18 a.m. EST: Moments after posting this, The Pensblog passed along this image of what it claims is a Canadiens' fan auto-voter program to stuff the ballot box. Your move, NHL.)

Back to Dallas: If you had to point to one reason why the Stars are two points out of the basement in the West, that reason's name is Marty Turco. Even as they're trying to rock the vote for Mike Ribeiro or Brenden Morrow, how can Stars fans honestly punch the card for Turco this season? If it's blind loyalty, then why does Stephane Robidas have 20,000 more votes than the oft-injured Sergei Zubov? What gives?

Well, at least if Turco's in there, we'll see more successful attempts in the trick-shot competition than last season ...

In other ASG fan voting news, it appears as though the insurgent candidacies of Tim Thomas and Aaron Ward of the Boston Bruins are legit. Thomas (15,285) is third in the Eastern Conference goalie voting, although Carey Price is running away with over 103,000 votes. Powered by a Boston radio show campaign, Ward is ninth on defense. Finally, only nine teams (or 18 overall in the NHL) are currently represented in either conference's fan voting.

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87 Comments

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  1. Anne
    1. Posted by Anne Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:55 pm EDT

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    Habs fans are lame.
  2. sleza
    2. Posted by sleza Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:55 pm EDT

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    c'mon tanguay is old man, one should respect the elderly...
  3. Sombrero Guy
    3. Posted by Sombrero Guy Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:10 pm EDT

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    Mirtle's blog had a mention of a "team vote" where you can automatically vote for every player on a specific team. I didn't see it when I logged on so maybe the NHL took off that option? Or maybe I'm half asleep still and just overlooked it.
  4. sleza
    4. Posted by sleza Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:55 pm EDT

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    and it would be great if both saku and mikko started the game...
  5. Patty (in Dallas)
    5. Posted by Patty (in Dallas) Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:42 pm EDT

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    I think it's anti-Stars fans that are voting for Turco. To make fun of him.
  6. Paul C
    6. Posted by Paul C Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:04 pm EDT

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    i would imagine the fact that the all-star game is in montréal this year, combined with the general insanity of habs fans is what is driving the habs to the top of the poll.
  7. knucklehead
    7. Posted by knucklehead Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:37 pm EDT

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    C'mon Wysh, everyone knows the fans want Turco in net because the fans want to see scoring. Turco should just be happy the game isn't at The Joe_/
  8. Tacks
    8. Posted by Tacks Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:51 pm EDT

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    Check the IP addresses off all the votes. You'll see the habs votes are run on scripts and the turco votes are all individual fans from the east.
  9. Ch M
    9. Posted by Ch M Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:23 pm EDT

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    Votes are getting more and more stretched out of place by the hour, this won't end it appears. NHL will have its hands full on this one.
    While having the starting 6 be all Canadiens in Montreal during their 100th is amusing, there will be several players left off the roster as a result who actually deserved to be there considering the minimum 1 per team. The snubs will be an intersting result.
  10. Jason
    10. Posted by Jason Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:14 pm EDT

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    I'm all about fans stuffing the ballot boxes for their teams (that's the point, right?) ... but to do so illegally, as some habs fans as done, is completely asinine.
  11. books
    11. Posted by books Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:22 pm EDT

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    If Turco makes the all-star game at least there will be one game this year where his .800 sv % doesn't hurt my fantasy squad. By the way has anybody seen Turco with his mask off this year...I'm convinced Cloutier abducted him and took his place.
  12. Tacks
    12. Posted by Tacks Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:51 pm EDT

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    Toronto fans should stuff the box multiple times with Finger.
  13. G-MAN
    13. Posted by G-MAN Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:35 pm EDT

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    Who's Turdco, and who are the Habs?........never heard of them.....
    Go Bruins.......
  14. diehard_wings_fan134096
    14. Posted by diehard_wings_fan134096 Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:43 pm EDT

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    @carl_vs_mastershake
    ok then lets all go vote for aaron downey haha..
    VOTE DOWNEY 2008/09 ALL STAR GAME!!!!!
  15. herecomethehawks
    15. Posted by herecomethehawks Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:18 pm EDT

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    I'll just hope the coaches stock the teams with the right players. Starters are in name only anyway.
    BTW, no Duncan Keith or Brent Seabrook options even in the write-in portion. Their names just don't come up.
    Fail.
  16. Matt
    16. Posted by Matt Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:18 pm EDT

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    I actually have an idea that should have been used from the start:
    Have Montreal play the Western Conference in the ASG. The whole team. Then, All-Star voting would continue normally, those players would still have the prestige of being voted into the ASG (since they really don't care about going or playing anyways) without actually playing.
    Game. Set. Match. Everyone's happy.
  17. Dennis S
    17. Posted by Dennis S Thu Sep 03, 2009 10:04 pm EDT

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    I'm going to vote for Thomas and Wideman.
    I couldn't care less who makes it form the West.
    In the East I'm going
    Semin
    Kessel
    Malkin
    Wideman
    Chara
    Thomas
  18. chieftanfeces
    18. Posted by chieftanfeces Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:23 pm EDT

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    Thanks for reminding me why my fantasy team is lingering at the bottom of the standings.
    You made my day.
  19. Ed D
    19. Posted by Ed D Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:48 pm EDT

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    If Marty plays in the All-Star Game, he'll need a game off afterwards to recover so the Stars will have somebody else in goal that night, giving Dallas a chance to win. A vote for Turco is a vote for Victory!
  20. RinkRaith
    20. Posted by RinkRaith Thu Sep 03, 2009 8:55 pm EDT

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    I think Marty is being voted in by Eastern Conference team's fans in the hope that their all-stars can "feast" on Marty during the ASG.
  21. J.S.
    21. Posted by J.S. Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:29 pm EDT

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    because the game is in mtl and because of text votes, are you serious?
    we're talking a 22k vote swing for each koivu, kovy, and tanguay inside of three hours, and imagine this: all those votes within that time period were only a hundred or so votes apart. you can't tell me with a straight face that habs fans are that blind or ignorant (maybe both) that they'd pick tanguay over the likes of semin, ao, crosby, or malkin..
  22. J.S.
    22. Posted by J.S. Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:29 pm EDT

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    i thought their fans were supposed to be knowledgeable. even at 530-730 am, there was a 7k vote swing, while the rest of the top 10 were getting only 700-900 votes. most people are resting in a puddle of drool on their pillows at that time, not clicking frantically for koivu, kovy, and tanguay.
    habs fans may be loyal, but they should also keep in mind that there's 29 other cities who look down upon them
  23. Steve S
    23. Posted by Steve S Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:52 pm EDT

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    this is why idiot fans should not be able to vote on this stuff - leave the decision to people that know what they are doing
  24. J.S.
    24. Posted by J.S. Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:29 pm EDT

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    So does this mean I can edit the Habs script to include Ben Eager and 5 other jobbers?
  25. J-Humps
    25. Posted by J-Humps Thu Sep 03, 2009 4:39 pm EDT

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    And there's absolutely nothing wrong with the ballot missing Sergei Zubov, Lubomir Vishnovski, and John-Michael Liles?!?! I know the West dominates defense but c'mon!

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