Sidney Crosby is doing to the all star balloting process what he does to opposition teams, beginning to dominate the action. Crosby is in a commanding lead as the balloting continues to select the starting all stars for the 2007 All Star Game in Dallas next year.
With 747,332 votes "The Kid" is the most popular choice to pull on an all star uniform on January 24th, his next closest compatriot is Washington's Alexander Ovechkin who has tallied 427,654 votes thus far in balloting.
The Western stats will be released on Wednesday, but it's expected that Vancouver's Rory Fitzpatrick will continue to rack up the votes as an intensive Internet campaign to have him selected to the Western team continues on at full speed. At last count he had pulled in over 420,000 votes thanks to his moment of fame on the Internet, this despite the outspoken chastisements of both Don Cherry and Kelly Hrudey on Saturday nights Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.
Both Cherry and Hrudey suggested that the idea of Fitzpatrick being named to the all star team was a bit of an embarrassment and both seemed to recommend that he politely decline the offer and not accept the draft should the Internet campaign prove to be in his favour.
While both Cherry and Hrudey are popular with the hockey public, they may find that the move to place Fitzpatrick on an all star roster is even more popular than them. So far the numbers in favour of Fitzpatrick's place in Dallas seem to show that the fans don't always listen to their commentators as much as the commentators may think they do.
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