Crosby will start All-Star game
NEW YORK (AP) – The Detroit Red Wings dominated the first half of the NHL season. Now they’re taking over the All-Star game, too. Sidney Crosby is starting to do the same.
Crosby, the 20-year-old reigning NHL MVP, topped All-Star voting for the second straight year and will start again for the Eastern Conference, the league announced Tuesday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins captain, in his third NHL season, received 507,274 votes, nearly 200,000 more than anyone else in the East, and about 30,000 more than West leader Nicklas Lidstrom.
Detroit placed three players in the All-Star starting lineup, matching the Buffalo Sabres, who did it last season for the East en route to their first Presidents’ Trophy.
Lidstrom, a five-time Norris Trophy-winning defenseman, will join Red Wings teammates Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk in the Western Conference starting lineup Jan. 27 in Atlanta.
Lidstrom, who received 477,787 votes, will partner with Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf on the blue line while Jarome Iginla – also of the Flames – plays up front with Zetterberg and Datsyuk.
“You’re used to playing against the top players – now, you’re playing with them,” Lidstrom said. “So that’s always fun.”
Zetterberg and Datsyuk are among eight first-time All-Star starters. Iginla and Phaneuf, who have helped Calgary take over first place in the Northwest Division, are also set to make their initial starts in the midseason game.
Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo got the starting nod in goal for the West.
Crosby, who entered Tuesday ranked fourth in the NHL with 57 points, got the most votes again but earned 318,509 fewer votes – a 39 percent drop – than he garnered for the 2007 game in Dallas when approximately 28 million ballots were cast.
Last year, Crosby at 19 years, five months, became the youngest player voted into the starting lineup since fan balloting began in 1986.
Copyright Associated Press 2008