Boudreau Blasts Ovechkin All-Star Snub

Entering Saturday night's action, Washington Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin ranked second in the NHL in both goals and points overall. But when it comes to the fans who vote for the the starters in the NHL All-Star Game, that wasn't good enough -- and it has Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau more than a little annoyed.

Here's what he said at the pre-game press conference held a couple of hours ago ahead of the Caps hosting the Rangers at Verizon Center in Washington in just a few minutes:

"It's dumb," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said before Washington hosted the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
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"It's not right the best player in the game is not a starter," Boudreau said. "But it is what it is. We want to get the fans involved, and they've got the right to vote for whoever they want ... Everybody that knows hockey knows that ... Alex would be in the starting lineup if it went on merit," Boudreau said.

While Boudreau is right in that the league ought to give the fans what they want, the NHL isn't entirely blameless for the Ovechkin snub. Instead, the massive gap between Ovechkin and the rest of the top vote-getters in the Eastern Conference is the predictable result of the league putting all of its eggs in the Sidney Crosby promotional basket.

This week while I was in Chicago at the 2009 NHL Winter Classic, I was cheered to see that the league had done such a good job transforming the stadium into a home for hockey. Hung above the field level concourse was a series of banners featuring stars from both the Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks in a trading card company promotion. It was a nice touch among a number of nice touches.

Excuse me, there was one banner that didn't feature a player from Chicago or Detroit, and that banner was plugging Crosby. It was impossible for me not to shake my head in disgust, as it was just another example of how the league has promoted Crosby to the exclusion of all others. Until the league rectifies the situation -- perhaps in part by including Ovechkin and the Capitals in the next NHL Winter Classic -- we're going to continue to see the best and most exciting player in hockey suffer snubs like this one.