The Skinny on NHL All-Star Balloting being dominated by a Latvian (and Latvia)

Columbus waited three years for their rescheduled All-Star Game.  At least they know they are going to get to see Buffalo's Zemgus Girgensons.

The Latvian has over 800,000 votes (80% from his home country) and has more than twice the votes of Chicago's Patrick Kane, who is 2nd overall:

Zemgus Girgensons Buffalo 803,805

Patrick Kane Chicago 375,758 

 

To put in perspective, there are just over 2 million people living in Latvia, and Girgensons has received the equivalent of 1 vote for every 2.5 Latvians.  (You can vote up to 10 times per day)

The Buffalo-born Kane has received the equivalent of 1 vote for every 843 Americans (based on a US population of 316.1 million)

Girgensons is steaming towards the all-star game with 8 goals and 6 assists this season.  He has also LOST 57.7% of his face-offs.  In 3 December games, he has 1 goal, 3 hits, and is -2; maybe he is concentrating on his face-offs as he has won 30 of 54 this month.

Girgensons' career totals 16-20-36 in 97 games.  Brock Nelson, who will play his 100th NHL game tonight, is 26-23-49 in 99 career games.

You could make a pretty good all-star sextet and have about 70,000 votes left over, with (for example):

Rick Nash NY Rangers 88,527

John Tavares NY Islanders 86,273

Alex Ovechkin Washington 83,706 

Mark Giordano Calgary 172,449

Drew Doughty Los Angeles 142,873 

Henrik Lundqvist NY Rangers 161,171

Jaroslav Halak (100,934) actually has more votes than Tavares; Johnny Boychuk (69,043) is the other Islander among the leaders.