GodsendJen

I don't typically find much to complain about at the NHL website.  Sure its poorly organized and sometimes cumbersome to navigate but they make tons of high-quality material available to the masses for free.  I can listen to their daily radio show in the morning or games at night, etc.  Today my visit was to cast an All-Star ballot.  As a relative hockey newbie I made some false assumptions about what I should expect from this process.  For starters I assume it would work like the MLB All-Star voting does.  Do it online or at the stadium.  Choose from pretty much any player on a teams roster at the beginning of the season.  Choose to cast the maximum number of votes for any position or only cast votes for players I give a flying fig about. You know, standard All-Star voting stuff. Boy was I wrong.

My first shock came when I learned that you could vote only online.  This might not seam like a big deal given that wide availability of internet service these days, but its an important distinction.  The casual fan who attends a game for the social experience, because a friend had an extra ticket or because they landed the company tickets for the night is likely to cast some votes if an usher spirit girl hands them a ballot at the beginning of the game and collects it near the end of the second period.  Chances are this fan will cast some votes for players on the team he came to watch and maybe punch a few chads for other names he recognizes on the ballot.  This same casual fan, despite spending 8 hours a day in front of a computer connected to the internet, will probably never take the initiative to go out and find the All-Star ballot online and vote. 

But what happens when he does go online to vote? The ballot itself is pretty. It features 10 baseball-card style photo frames with a position listed under the frame and a drop down list of players you can vote for to fill that spot.  When you select the player you can see their photo in the frame and even choose to watch some choice highlights.  There are 5 frames for each division divided into 3 Forwards, 2 Defensemen and a Goalie for each conference. So far, no beef.  I go to cast my votes and find that rather than choosing from all forwards in the eastern conference I'm limited to 30.  Thankfully two of my guys (Kovalchuck and Hossa) are on the list.  No problem.  Frame one goes to Hossa, frame two to Kovalchuck.  Frame 3?  Well I want to write in Slava Kozlov.  He's been on fire and should get some recognition.  I go down to the single write-in slot for the easter conference and choose Slava from the list.  I don't care so much about the defensemen.  None of our guys are on the list and I've already used my write-in spot.  No big deal, our defensemen are improved, but I wouldn't call them All-Stars.  I choose Kari from the list of goalies and go hit submit.  I expect a "Thanks for voting" message.  What I get is an error alert.  It turns out the geniuses at the NHL HQ decided that you must vote for someone in each position slot shown.  I can't help my guys at forward out by not casting a vote for one of their competitors in that third frame.  I can't even make my write in vote for Slava at forward count for that third frame.  I also have to vote for defensemen AND I have to cast a vote for someone at each position in the Western Conference.  My knowledge of individual hockey players is limited to the guys on the Thrasher's roster, a few guys who played for the Caps when I lived in DC and some choice players with our Southeast Division rivals.  All I can say is I hope the NHL honchos enjoy the fruit baskets they are getting from the players at the top of each drop down list this Christmas.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who voted for them just because I had to cast a vote.

NHL All-Star Ballot