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The Stars Come Out in Dallas

Lindy will be there. So will Ryan, Brian and Danny. Rory won’t be. After a three-year absence from the sports scene, the NHL All Star game is back, and the puck will be dropped next Wednesday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

This event will have more than the usual intrigue and interest for Buffalo Sabres fans, almost a perfect storm of headliners and side stories which will make this game a must-see here in Western New York.

Ruff will coach Easten Conference squad

Head coaches for each team are selected based on the point leaders for the conferences at the season’s midpoint. Buffalo clinched that feat by New Year’s Day, and our own Lindy Ruff will be the head coach for the East. When asked about the honor, Ruff joked, “Well, that means I get to play my guys more.” With three Sabres players earning All Star designation, those words will probably ring true.

The Rory Fitzpatrick campaign falls short

He is a journeyman defenseman playing for the Vancouver Canucks and is a former Buffalo Sabre. And when the fans cast their ballots, Fitzpatrick was steamrolling his way to becoming an All Star, thanks to a grassroots effort, a well publicized Web site and plenty of media attention towards this crazy attempt to buck the system. In the end, defensemen Scott Niedermayer of Anaheim and Nicklas Lindstrom of Detroit won the battle, polling 591,657 and 573,069 votes respectively, with poor Rory coming in third at 550,167.

Yet in the aftermath came numerous conspiracy theories, claiming that the NHL might have manipulated voting to keep Rory from making the cut. Fitzpatrick’s votes dropped from 159,784 to 58,010 between December 20 and 26, a loss of more than 100,000 votes, at a time when media coverage of the Vote for Rory campaign was at its highest. Curiously, more than 100,000 votes for Western Conference defensemen weren’t reported on the December 26 release.

Briere and Ovechkin—linemates!

Both Buffalo’s Daniel Briere and Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin were voted as starters and will be linemates for the Eastern squad. Fellow All Star, defenseman Brian Campbell, says not to expect too much. “I don’t expect any big story to come out of this. The guys are out there to have fun,” said Campbell.

Nonetheless, everyone remembers Ovechkin’s cheap shot against Briere on December 1 in Washington, which thankfully did not cause serious injury. At the return game in Buffalo on December 26, Ovechkin was loudly jeered by the Sabres faithful every time he touched the puck, and Briere managed to get his licks in as well.

How Briere and Ovechkin interact with each other as teammates for one night will be something to watch.

Ryan Miller chimes in

Miller was really happy to be named an All Star. “It’s a real honor for me and it should be a lot of fun,” said Miller. Miller enters a game where the goaltender is typically set up to be the foil. “No, I don’t want to make a statement. It’s not a normal hockey game and really it’s just entertainment and a way of showcasing our skills.”

Would Miller like to see a system similar to baseball, where the winning squad earns home advantage for their conference in the finals? Miller replied, “Nah, I don’t agree at all with what they do. The All Star Game is a place to strut one’s stuff, and this should be all for fun.”

A future All Star Game in Buffalo? No. Um, maybe.

Buffalo hosted this event once—in 1978 at the Aud. Back then Sabres fans delighted in watching the one-two punch of Gilbert Perreault and Rick Martin score the tying and overtime winning goals for the Wales Conference.

So how about another NHL All Star Game in Buffalo? “No, we don’t have the convention and hospitality facilities that the league and an event of this magnitude requires,” replies Sabres Managing Partner Larry Quinn. “But I’ve approached [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman about the possibility of headquartering the event in Niagara Falls, Ontario and having the game here, thus making it a true regional event. He didn’t say no.”

The 2008 All Star Game is set for Atlanta and 2009 is all but promised to Phoenix. The 2010 Winter Olympic Games will preempt the game that year. So 2011 would be the first year available for Buffalo. Oh…and our fabulous Canal Side and Cobblestone District should be done by then. Let’s hope!

TARO SEZ…

Buffalo Bandits the newest hot ticket? A sellout crowd of 18,690 was in attendance at the season opener last week. “That is a franchise record,” reported Bandits media spokesman Rob Crean. Indeed, the last Bandits sellout was in 1997, when arena capacity was about 100 less. The Bandits next host Minnesota this Saturday at 7:30. Suffice to say, get your tickets early.

In goal for the Los Angeles Kings this past Saturday: Yutaka Fukufuji, the NHL’s first ever Japanese born player. Where else but here would you learn of this?

Watch for those Dallas Stars banners hanging in the rafters at the American Airlines Center. They all have a white background, save for their 1999 Stanley Cup banner. That one is black. Taro speculates, “Perhaps that banner is black to help mask the taint of a questionable title. Black hides stains so much better.” Sounds right!