Because every team in the NHL has at least one player representative in the All-Star Game by rule, it’s quite uncommon for any team to find themselves in the situation that the Montreal Canadiens are in.
After the NHL announced the results of its ‘Last Men In’ fan vote, it was made official: Sabres’ forward Jeff Skinner will nab the final roster spot for the Atlantic Division, and that will leave the Canadiens without a player representative.
Due to a nagging injury, the Canadiens’ original representative, Carey Price, announced his decision to pull out of the All-Star Game. Generally, in cases such as these that could leave a team without an All-Star, the NHL picks a replacement from that player’s team to ensure that they remain represented, but with goalies, that isn’t as practical — it’d be a real stretch to put Habs back-up goalie Antti Niemi in there, you know?
Instead, the NHL named Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy in Price’s stead. After Shea Weber, the Canadiens’ representative in the Last Men In vote, was beat out by Skinner, that officially leaves the Canadiens off the All-Star Team.
This isn’t necessarily final. There’s the chance that another (non-goalie) All-Star from the Atlantic Division could get injured, in which case the NHL would be able to fill the spot with a Habs skater.
Still, though, barring that circumstance, the Canadiens would be without an All-Star representative, and in the NHL? That’s quite unusual. Now, whether the rule to have an All-Star from each team is for better or for worse is a different conversation, but it has been controversial among some fans for a while now.
This year’s All-Star teams will be taking to the ice in jerseys manufactured from recycled materials, but the black-and-white look debuted to a pretty negative response. However, fans seem to be in agreement that one minor tweak would salvage the design.
