Jason Blake kinda looks like Thom Yorke with his swollen left eye... I wish I had a picture; they showed him briefly and I had to do a double-take.

 

Yeah, thanks to Steve Downie. That guys going to get it one of these days, he shows no respect for the game or other players.

Sens' Spezza, Heatley join Alfredsson at all-star game in Atlanta

 

Daniel Alfredsson will have some company on his flight to Atlanta later this month as fellow Ottawa Senators stars Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley will be joining him on the NHL's Eastern Conference all-star team.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa won't have to get on a plane for the Jan. 27 all-star game in Atlanta (6 p.m. ET). The hometown Thrashers wingers were also added Friday as the NHL's hockey operations department, in consultation with the league's 30 GMs, completed the conference's 21-player roster.

Alredsson and the other five starters, as voted by fans, were announced Tuesday. The Western All-Stars were filled out on Thursday.

While the Sedin twins in Vancouver were split up on the Western squad with Henrik going to Atlanta and Daniel getting the weekend off, the NHL kept Ottawa's star-studded trio together.

"I think it's pretty neat that the three of us get to go together," Spezza said Friday after practice in Ottawa. "The reason why we're all going there is probably because of each other, we help each other out.

"Dany and Danny are a big reason why I'm going and we all try to make each other better players and I think we've all done that up to this point so it makes it even more special to go with a couple of teammates."

For Spezza, it marks his first trip to the all-star game while Heatley heads to his third, having been the MVP at the 2003 game.

"It's the first time so I'm excited, just to be around the guys and just to be in the group of guys selected," said Spezza. "To be named to the all-star team at any level is always exciting and it's something you work for as a kid, so I'm pretty excited."

Heatley looks forward to bringing along his centre Spezza.

"We play together every day but I think it will be fun to be together in that situation," said Heatley. "You usually get a chance to play with a little bit of everybody in those types of games, so we'll see what happens."

The lone representative from the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs will be defenceman Tomas Kaberle and not leading scorer Mats Sundin. The Leafs captain might have wanted the weekend off after already playing in eight all-star games. For Kaberle, it's his third all-star appearance.

No other Montreal Canadiens were added on Friday after defenceman Andrei Markov was voted as a starter.

Joining Markov and Kaberle on the Eastern blue-line will be Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins, Brian Campbell of the Buffalo Sabres, Sergei Gonchar of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kimmo Timonen of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Timonen's Flyers teammate Mike Richards also got the nod up front for the first time, joining Spezza, Heatley, Hossa, Kovalchuk, Scott Gomez of the New York Rangers, Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the NHL's $124-million-dollar man - Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Superstar centres Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Vincent Lecavalier of the Lightning were voted as starters along with Alfredsson.

Martin Brodeur got the nod as the starting goalie by fans and will be joined by Rick DiPietro of the New York Islanders and Tomas Vokoun of the Florida Panthers.

Just as it was in the West, the NHL was not able to recognize every great season because of the limited by 21-player rosters. Among those not going to Atlanta are forwards Evgeni Malkin (48 points) of the Penguins, Marc Savard (45 points) of the Bruins, Vaclav Prospal (44 points) of the Lightning, Ray Whitney of the Hurricanes (43 points), Daniel Briere of the Flyers (42 points), Olli Jokinen (41 points) of the Panthers and Alex Kovalev (41 points) of the Habs.

On defence, Wade Redden (25 points) of the Senators was left off as well as Michal Rozsival of the Rangers and Mike Green of the Capitals - both of whom are tied with Markov for the NHL lead among defencemen with 11 goals.

In goal, Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers and Ryan Miller of the Sabres were also left aside.

Ottawa's John Paddock will be the head coach. He's used to seeing the names of Alfredsson, Spezza and Heatley on his lineup card.

"It's deserving," Paddock said of their all-star nominations. "They're the kind of players and are having the kind of seasons that they should be in it."

^ its a shame the top sens players are dropping like flies these days...

Yeah all 3 have gotten hurt....Heatley was the only serious one though.

The Canucks are being stupid.. :(

Habs are doing pretty good L:)

Wow, the Zednik incident was pretty scary. They announced it at the Canuck game and it was pretty shocking.

Hopefully he has a speedy recovery!

I find it odd that two of the most serious injuries in the history of the NHL (both carotid slashes) happened within a block of each other in the city of Buffalo. It's kinda ridiculous, and probably a bad omen...

good thing that Zednick should make a normal recovery. Amazing he was able to skate over to the bench like that.

Oiler- Canuck game last night was super exciting!

Yes, they now have a playoff spot :cool:

Wow, biggest comeback in Habs history. Down 5-0 and they won!

That's pretty sad. Giving up a 5-0 lead :P

 

Yay, Canucks beat a struggling Detroit last night :cool:

Hopefully todays Wild and Flames game does not go into overtime.

^That was so annoying how the refs basically took the physical play out of that game because of what happened in the warm up.

I know! They gave a penalty in the first scrum that happened. It wasn't even penalty worthy!

I can't wait for deadline day!

I can't wait for deadline day!

 

We're going to lose Brian Campbell. There's no way he's staying the way things are going.

 

Maybe we'll pick up someone good though. (Marian Hossa? I can dream...)

Hossa would only be a quick fix though most likely. Some good prospects is the best they can hope for I would think.

 

 

I kind of hope the Habs go after Holik on Atlanta.

So Forsberg signed with Colorado! Dammit...

I don't expect anything major to happen tomorrow with all the No Trade Clauses each team has. Maybe Hossa getting moved or something.

The Canucks better do something. Our current team is not a playoff team and I don't want to be first/second round knock-outs.

Richards to the Nucks? Anyone? Anyone? Just a possibility.

Wow, biggest comeback in Habs history. Down 5-0 and they won!

 

ugh don't even get me started on that one

Richards to the Nucks? Anyone? Anyone? Just a possibility.

 

No thanks! Costs waaaaaaaay too much.

Huet to the Caps for a second rounder? What the heck?

They just added Federov too. I'm never gonna hear the end of this from my friend the Caps fan.

 

Campbell to the Sharks? Fine, as long as he's not in the East I'm happy.

Huet goes for a 2nd round pick in 2009.

Hall Gill goes to Pittsburgh for a 2nd and 5th rounder.

 

There is no friggin way that Hall Gill has anywhere near the value of Huet. Gill is just a big old defenceman.

Why did Huet get traded? That was a dumb move...

Who do they have in net now? Price?

 

Hossa got traded to the Pens. Campbell to Sharks. Richards to Stars.

 

Dammit Canucks! No moves. What the hell is Matt Pettinger going to do? Stupid Nonis.