Penguins/NHL
All-Star Voting
Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby leads all vote getters in the NHL All-Star Fan Balloting Presented by XM with 118,755 votes.
Crosby holds a significant lead in votes for forwards, leading Washington Capitals winger Alexander Ovechkin (80,169 votes) by more than 38,000 votes.
Crosby’s teammate Evgeni Malkin is 10th among forwards with 56,255 votes.
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith is second among vote getters, receiving 82,968 votes.
As of today, Crosby, Ovechkin and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews (79,953 votes) would be the three forwards automatically selected to the game along with defensemen Duncan Keith, Nik Lidstrom (80,723 votes) and goaltender Carey Price (71,199 votes).
Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos who leads the NHL with 20 goals and is tied for the NHL points lead with 35, is 4th among forwards with 78,833 voters.
Voting ends on January 3, 2011 and the All-Star game will take place on January 30, 2011.
Three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender with the most votes, will be automatically selected to the game. The NHL hockey operations staff will select the remaining 36 players.
While Crosby is a lock to receive an automatic selection, defenseman Kris Letang has received significant support as a write-in candidate, receiving the most write-in votes among defenseman, collecting 50,153 votes which ranks him 8th overall among defenseman.
Paul Martin is 14th among defenseman with 27,970 votes.
Goaltender Marc Andre Fleury is surprisingly 5th among goaltenders with 44,111 votes.
Also receiving votes during the opening week were forward Max Talbot (5,144) and defensemen Brooks Orpik (7,736) and Alex Goligoski (3,388).
For the fourth straight NHL® All-Star Game, the balloting process is entirely digital, offering sports’ most tech-savvy fans the ability to vote as often as they like via mobile devices and online at NHL.com/vote and Facebook (facebook.com/NHL).
