Sharp no shoo-in for All-Star Game
Patrick Sharp always seems to be working for recognition, not that it seems to bother the Blackhawks' 29-year-old star.
When Sharp scored 11 goals in the playoffs last spring, many of them among the most important in the Hawks' run to the Stanley Cup, he watched teammate Jonathan Toews win the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Now Sharp is off to the best start of his career with 24 goals, third best in the NHL, and there's no guarantee he will be one of the 36 players added to the All-Star Game roster Tuesday.
In fact, Sharp has two things going against him: The Hawks already have two representatives, with Toews and Duncan Keith voted in by fans, and the NHL's hockey operations department, which will make the selections, only has 21 spots to award to forwards.
“I hope he goes,” teammate Brian Campbell said. “We have two already so that's tough. Should he be there? Yeah, of course he should be there, but sometimes that All-Star Game doesn't identify your 100 percent elite players, and that's a category hopefully he doesn't fall into.
“He is an elite player. He's third in goal scoring and that should be automatic right there.”
Toews, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have the first three spots at forward based on fan voting.
Of the 21 additional spots available, it would appear there are 10 sure things in Alex Ovechkin, Steve Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Corey Perry, Henrik Zetterberg, Anze Kopitar, Eric Staal and Brad Richards.
That would leave Sharp in a group of about 15 others for the last 11 spots. Among the competition looks to be Ryan Kesler, Danny Briere, Rick Nash, Alex Semin, Martin Havlat, Loui Eriksson, Matt Duchene, Pavel Datsyuk, Mike Richards, Paul Stastny, Claude Giroux, Dany Heatley and Logan Couture.
One thing to keep in mind is every team does not need to be represented in the All-Star Game, only at all-star weekend.
“It would be a tremendous honor to go, that's for sure,” Sharp said. “But it's something that's out of my control. There's more important things than who goes to the All-Star Game.
Like getting the Hawks back to the playoffs. Sharp certainly has done his part over the first half of a difficult season.
“You look at what he has achieved this year and his numbers are pretty amazing,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
“He's been consistent all season, which is a tough thing to do,” Campbell said. “He's been scoring different goals in different ways.”
Even Toews had a slow start, but Sharp has been the Hawks' one consistent offensive weapon. Even when he went eight games without a goal in early November, Sharp had 4 assists.
“He's been producing at that same rate, that point-a-game (pace),” Quenneville said. “Whether it's power play or the timeliness of getting our offense going, game in and game out that's been the one staple for us all year.
“You've got to commend him for how he has prepared himself for the year and how consistent he has been.”
Sharp is going to easily surpass the 25 goals he scored last season and should go way past his career high of 36 set in 2007-08.
“It's never easy to score and you never know when that next goal is going to come, but so far, so good,” Sharp said. “I like to think I play the same way every night.”
Sharp came back this season more confident than ever about his status as an elite player after the big playoff he had in helping lead the Hawks to the Cup.
“I changed a few things,” Sharp said. “I think the playoffs last year, I scored some goals that were big for me. I was pretty excited to play in the playoffs. I grew up watching them.
“I was nervous for a lot of those games and to be able to score at the pace I did in the playoffs, on that stage, really gave me confidence going into this year.”