The NHL announced its rosters for the league’s all-star game today. Alexander Ovechkin will represent the Capitals for the Eastern Conference while his teammates Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green will not.

Both deserved, and I’m sure got, consideration but in reality neither was the kind of shoe-in whose absence is particularly egregious. Yes, Backstrom is seventh in the conference in scoring, but three of the players ahead of him are centers, and Jeff Carter, who’s tied for the NHL lead in goals, is only one point behind.

Green, who leads the NHL in goals by defensemen and is tenth in scoring for blueliners (third in the East) is a more obvious oversight. But still, Green has only played in 28 of the team’s 41 games, perhaps too high a percentage to be considered for the event.

The approach that ought to be adopted by the team, especially Backstrom and Green, is pretty well summed up by Bruce Boudreau:

“We know on merit that Nick and Mike and maybe Alex Semin should all be on that. But that’s not how [it] goes, and it’s not because they don’t deserve to be on it. It’s how the whole thing is situated. They have to pick a player from every team.”

The all-star rosters are designed for a lot of things: to have a representative from each team, to get players with name recognition, to find players people want to see play with one another in a wide-open (non-checking) game. What they are not designed to do is provide a definitive list of the best players in the league; if you were to ask around, I think there would be very few who don’t consider Mike Green one of the six best defensemen in the Eastern Conference or don’t think Nicklas Backstrom is having a better season than Eric Staal. To put it simply: all-star game selection simply aren’t worth worrying about.

The good: The Capitals have re-signed one of their key components, agreeing to a four year, 21 million dollar contract with Mike Green:

The Washington Capitals have agreed to terms with restricted free agent defenceman Mike Green.
Sources tell TSN it’s a four year deal with an average annual salary of $5.25 million.

Despite the cries of some GMs in training voicing their opinion on Huet and the Caps, in fact, aren’t that far apart, I’m told. But, as you know, a deal isn’t a deal until it’s signed. If one is struck, look for it to be three-years, as previously reported, in the neighborhood of $5 million per. That’s a lot of money, but the Caps are comfortable with Huet and vice versa.TSN’s comments sections, Green’s contract is a good one for the Capitals: it’s less than ten percent of the new salary cap and more than a fair price given this statistic pointed out by TSN in the same article:

Green, a first round pick by the Capitals in 2004, had 18 goals and 56 points in 82 games last season. The 18 goals led all NHL defencemen, making Green the youngest player to accomplish that feat since Paul Coffey in 1981-82.

The bad: The Capitals still haven’t agree to a contract with Cristobal Huet, despite continued insistence that talks are going well:

Huet and the Caps, in fact, aren’t that far apart, I’m told. But, as you know, a deal isn’t a deal until it’s signed. If one is struck, look for it to be three-years, as previously reported, in the neighborhood of $5 million per. That’s a lot of money, but the Caps are comfortable with Huet and vice versa.

If those numbers are accurate, it’d be surprising to see Huet land anywhere other than Washington. A three-year deal is perfect for the team and Huet is certainly worth five million a year.

Lastly, the sad news:

…the latest on Brian Pothier is neither particularly encouraging (from a hockey standpoint) nor surprising: “Running, weights and skating are a long way off for now, but Pothier is excited that his mind is strong and his body is, albeit slowly, following.”

And while that’s good news in terms of his cognitive skills and whatnot, it’s nearly gut-wrenching to read that a guy who one year ago was among the best-conditioned men in the world was bed-ridden for a week not long ago because he tried to jog a couple of blocks.

Coach Bruce Boudreau wasn’t pulling any punches when he talked to the media after the Caps 4-2 loss to Florida last night:

“I thought when we were up 2-1, we looked like we were controlling the game pretty well. But I thought [defenseman Mike Green] was very lackadaisical on the second goal…”