Original publication: Examiner.com
Original date of publication: January 4, 2011
Canadiens fans are a vociferous bunch. They aren’t ones to hold back, using any outlet available to be heard. So it comes as no surprise that when the NHL opened up the fan balloting for the 2011 All-Star Game in Raleigh, they did just that.
Throughout the seven-week voting period, Habs faithful clicked away in an effort to send as many of the team’s players to the midseason showcase. The league got them started with Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta and Andrei Markov on the ballot. Fans went further in adding six others Canadiens players as write-ins, including Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec and P.K. Subban.
That push for write-in votes is just a sample size of what the NHL has seen overall. After six weeks, 68 players not on the original ballot had earned some degree of support. That there have been so many write-ins is a pleasant revelation for those at the league.
“Whether it’s Canadiens players or on other teams, like Bobrovsky in Philly, that has definitely been a surprise to us and one that we really like,” Casey Hall, the NHL’s senior director of marketing, said on the phone from his New York office. “We have in the past and want to continue to make it about the fans’ choice and that should be any player in the league who’s eligible to earn a vote.”
The exclusion of Price and Plekanec from the ballot left many fans puzzled. But rather than ask why, they did something about it. For the first five weeks of voting, Price led the way among all goaltenders before Pittsburgh’s Marc-André Fleury snuck by him in Week 6. The votes for Plekanec slotted him 10th as of Dec. 28, ahead of Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Brière and Carolina’s Eric Staal.
“It’s not a surprise to know and see the passion that Montreal Canadiens fans have and to see them act on that and be vocal about that,” Hall noted.
But what he wasn’t expecting was the emergence of Subban, even if he is a fan favourite.
“You see P.K. Subban there in seventh place – a rookie, who at the beginning of fan balloting if you had asked me if I would have thought he’d be right up there with (Nicklas) Lidstrom and Kimmo Timonen, it wouldn’t have been my guess,” Hall admitted. “But that’s why it’s not up to me and we leave it up to the fans.”
The Canadiens as an organization have been pushing Cammalleri, Gionta, Price and Plekanec. The background image on every page of the site featured one of the four and linked to the ballot. Then there were the six creative online video ads revealed over a two-week span.
“As a whole, I think those videos and the rest of the Canadiens’ efforts have had an impact. That definitely shows,” Hall said.
Habs fans stuffing the ballot box is nothing new. For the last All-Star Game two years ago in Montreal, they jammed it full of support for Price, Markov, Mike Komisarek and Alex Kovalev. It was part of a big push initiated by the team’s marketing department, and the end result was exactly what they wanted: the quartet earning four of the six Eastern Conference starting nods.
This year, only six starters will be chosen via fan balloting, due to the new fantasy draft format.
The incredible number of in write-ins didn’t change the way the NHL marketed the fan balloting for 2011 but Hall acknowledged it’s something they may look into for the 2012 edition. Either way, the fans’ push has left many smiles in New York.
“Ultimately, whichever players the fans want to send to the All-Star Game, that’s the purpose of fan balloting and giving fans that option,” he pointed out. “For us, we’re thrilled with the results.”
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