Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Brian Campbell are all on the ballot for the 2009 NHL All-Star game, set for late January in Montreal.

Fans can vote their picks for both the Western and Eastern conferences at http://vote.nhl.com.  The top six picks from each conference will be inserted into the starting lineup for the game.  The NHL will make the rest of the picks.

The polls opened on Wednesday, Nov. 12 for fans to begin submitting their choices for the game.  They'll remain open until January 2 at 8:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

So far, it isn't even close in the East.  All Montreal Canadiens.  Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay EACH lead the next forward by more than 100,000 votes. Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek EACH lead the next defenseman by more than 100,000 votes.  Carey Price leads the next closest goalie by 150,000 votes.

But the NHL said yesterday that it's investigating possible voter fraud.  It has observed signs of automatic balloting, which is strictly prohibited in the rules of the contest.  It'll be interesting to see if any action comes of that, but it may be a reason for the Canadiens' enormous leads.

In the West, it's closer, but the top 3 forwards are Detroit Red Wings right now.  Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Marian Hossa, in that order.  Kane sits in eighth place right now with 40,857 votes.  Toews is not in the Top 10.

At D, Detroit's Niklaus Lidstrom and Calgary's Dion Phaneuf are leading big, each with more than 50,000 votes of the next guy on the list, Detroit's Brian Rafalski.  Campbell is sixth with 30,394 tallies.

In net, Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks leads the next vote-getter, Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks, by more than 70,000 tallies.  And rightly so, he leads the NHL with 5 shutouts.

So who are my picks?

It's obvious the contest has been a popularity contest so far, a get-out-the-vote one at that, and Detroit and Montreal fans are really responding (whether or not they are using some illegal means to do that, it's not known at this time).  And that's sad.

But there's still plenty of time in the voting.  As I said, it goes until Jan. 2.  So hopefully a more realistic team will be developed by then.  Hey, a guy can hope.

In the East, I believe it should be:

Forwards:
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
Alexander Semin, Washington Capitals
Thomas Vanek, Buffalo Sabres

Defensemen:
Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens
Mike Green, Washington Capitals

Goalie:
Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins

By the way, Thomas is not even on the ballot in the biggest joke of all time!  He leads the NHL in save percentage and goals against average, and led the Bruins to a 2-1 shootout win here in Chicago a few days ago.  He's currently fifth in the balloting with 24,000 write-in votes...what a farce.  Hopefully that is fixed in time.

In the West:

Forwards:
Marian Hossa, Detroit Red Wings
Jarome Iginla, Calgary Flames
Teemu Selanne, San Jose Sharks

Defensemen:
Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
Brian Campbell, Chicago Blackhawks

Goalie:
Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks

Kane should make the team, anyway, after the NHL weighs in on the final picks.  I'm not sure on Toews.  And I'm sure you noticed another big omission in this post...Patrick Sharp, who is off to a great start.  He's been left off the ballot like Thomas, so he'll need to be written in.

Again to submit your votes the site is: http://vote.nhl.com

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