C’mon, vote for Rory!

I knew his name but couldn’t recall what team he played for or even that he was once upon a time a member of the Canadiens.

In fact, he was apparently drafted by the Habs in 1993 and played 40-odd games here from 1995 through 1997.

From here, he went on to two seasons with the St. Louis Blues, followed by a year in Nashville and three more with the Buffalo Sabres. He landed in Vancouver this year and was doing his thing until suffering an injury a few weeks ago. He’ll be back soon, but that’s not why he’s popped up in this edition of Off-Sidel… nor why he’s popped up smack in the middle of the international media radar screen.

For those of you still unaware – although I might have been the last person to hear about this, Fitzpatrick is the subject of a campaign to have him named a starter in the NHL All-Star game next January as a fan-chosen write-in.

This might be the funniest thing I’ve ever heard of.

The fact is that the NHL All-Star game is the biggest waste of time this side of the NFL Pro Bowl and well, it just bugs me.

It’s not like the NBA and Major League Baseball, where there is no contact and the game should be all about scoring. Hockey and football are about contact and playing rough.

On top of that, the All-Star vote is a fraud. Having fans vote in starters just plain silly and leads to under-qualified, but highly popular players being voted for. If they’re going to have a vote, it should be among NHL players or something like that.

This mobilization in favour of a hard-working nobody like Fitzpatrick is the best thing that’s happened to the NHL All-Star game since Sergei Federov’s white Nike’s first came out.

A new format is needed or the game should be nixed altogether. In the mean time, let’s rally around guys like Fitzpatrick instead of suckwarts like Dominic Hasek.

Vote for Rory at www.nhl.com/allstarballot.">www.nhl.com



West End All-Star of the year

Ok, I’ll give this one a crack. In the spirit of the season, let’s vote for our own local All-Star team.

Send me your votes for the West End Sports All-Star of the Year and we’ll feature him/her in the last edition of 2006, coming next week.

Submit the info to noahsidel@hotmail.com.