So you want to be a star?

The halfway point of the season is almost upon us and it’s that time of year when the NHL usually makes it’s strong push for fans to vote in the annual popularity contest known as the NHL All Star Game. With the Olympics taking center stage this year, the ASG winds up getting scrapped, and we are all probably better for it at the end of the day. That said, there are usually a couple of players not named Ovechkin or Crosby that do make an All Star roster based on their performance on the ice during the first part of the season (novel concept, eh?), earning themselves a couple of days of partying and hanging out with the “elite” in the NHL.

With the majority of the Wings traditional All Star representation heading to Vancouver to represent Russia and Sweden, there won’t be a lack of good guys taking on the world’s best for us in February. But the Olympics can be a huge misnomer when trying to draw parallels to who would actually be All Star worthy in a traditional NHL season, so MW is here to present our choices on who’s star is shining bright enough to represent the Western Conference at the mythical 2010 NHL All Star Game.

Brad Stuart

39 GP, 2 G, 6 A, 8 PTS, -6 rating

CSSI Rating: -2 (+14.5, -16.5)

Hardly All Star numbers, but nobody has elevated their game more this season than Stuart, save Todd Bertuzzi. After a rough start to the year, Stuart has elevated his game and altered his style of play to become one of the better lockdown defensemen in the NHL. Normally a rohttp://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Anna+Gutierrez&init=quick#/chollis?ref=namele reserved for Nicklas Lidstrom, Stuart has quietly anchored the Red Wings defense over the last month. More importantly, his work ethic has done a complete 180 from when the season started. Gone are the feet caught in the quicksand and the worthless poke checks, replaced by hard skating, solid positioning and big time hitting. In reality, would Staurt make the roster? Probably not based on statistics alone, but he’s worth every fan vote that the Red Wings nation could offer up.

Jimmah

23 GP, 12-8-2 record, 2.26 GAA, .921 SV%

Raise your hand if you ever thought you would mention “Jimmah” and “All Star Game” in the same sentence without a negative connector in their somewhere. Mine’s raised.

The Jimmah Experment got off to a pretty rough start, but since then Howard has been rock solid in the net for the Wings. He’s the de facto starter for the Wings no matter what Babcock says, and he’s clearly out played Chris Osgood during the first part of the season. His confidence is sky high at this point, and it should be. Statistically, his GAA lags only behind Ilya Bryzgalov, Cristobal Huet and Mikka Kiprusoff in the Western Conference and he’s in the top ten in GAA in the entire league. He sits just outside the top ten in save percentage, but he’s also played roughly ten less games than each of the guys in front of him. Compared to the Canadian olympians, he ranks ahead of both Roberto Luongo and Marc-Andre Fleury in save percentage and GAA and is only .002 percentage points behind Martin Brodeur in save percentage.

His name has been tossed around as the third piece of the goaltending puzzle for the United States, and it would be a shame if he doesn’t get the call. He’s been spectacular while backing a sub-par Red Wings squad this season and should be considered a near lock for the mythical All Star roster.

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There you have it. No big names. No superstar players. Only two representatives. Both deserving and both would represent the Wings very well, while also providing a breath of fresh air to the spectacle of All Star weekend.

Congrats gentlemen.

Tags: Brad Stuart, Chris Osgood, Cristobal Huet, Ilya Bryzgalov, Marc-Andre Fleury, Martin Brodeur, Mikka Kiprusoff, NHL All Stars, Nicklas Lidstrom, Roberto Luongo, The Jimmah Howard Experiment