Patrick Sharp…All Star?
January 14th, 2008 by FrankWhy Patrick Sharp was not named as an all-star reserve is a bit puzzling. Not that I have anything wrong with Duncan Keith, but if you look at what Sharp has done this year, how can he not have been considered? He leads the league in short handed goals, he’s a plus 11 on a team that is battling to stay above .500, and he is on pace for at least 40 goals.
When Jonathan Toews comes back form his injury that total could potentially be even higher. He has improved his game and really has matured this year, and I strongly feel that he deserves the chance to be on the squad. He also won last nights game in the shootout against Nashville, so he has proved to be very very clutch!
He may have been thought of as a 3rd line center and a guy that was going to score about 15-20 goals a season, but somewhere along the way, he has developed into a very good two way hockey player that can score with some regularity. Playing on a line with Toews and Kane or Havlat has certainly helped him, but it’s possible that the talent was always there, he just needed to be with other players that were good enough to bring it out of him. Maybe he also was given some confidence by Denis Savard by putting him out in key situations so that he could find out just what he could do.
So far the way the his season has gone, he has been a very pleasant surprise and hopefully will be a Hawk for quite some time.
On a side note, not Hawk related, but during commercials of the Hawks-Predators game, I caught some of the Flames-Oilers contest last night. Even though the score was 2-1, it appeared to be one of the most entertaining games I have seen in quite awhile. For some reason, the western conference just seems to “bring it” every night.
Thanks for reading!
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3 Responses to “Patrick Sharp…All Star?”
By Doulos on Jan 14, 2008
Fully agree. That Battle of Alberta game last night was a real great game! Physical, fast, good goaltending, end to end. It was awesome!
By Greg Ballentine on Jan 16, 2008
Isn’t Patrick Kane the obvious Blackhawk rep for the All Star Game? Duncan Keith is a surprise choice.
By David Johnson on Jan 16, 2008
I am not sure he is the obvious choice. He has more points (40) than Sharp (35) but Sharp has 22 goals to Kane’s 9, Sharp is a +10 to Kane’s -7, and Sharp plays 5 on 5, the PP and the PK and has 7 SH goals. If you just go by performance there is a lot of reasons why you would choose Sharp over Kane.
As for the Keith selection I can only assume they had a better forward selection from other teams rosters and it was easier to get a defenseman on the roster than a forward.