Philadelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette thought that his player Scott Hartnell deserved a 2012 NHL All-Star bid. And If Hartnell was not selected for the squad? Laviolette said that passing over Hartnell would be "criminal."
Well, Hartnell has been overlooked for the roster and CSN Philly columnist Tim Panaccio agrees with the Flyers coach about Hartnell.
Panaccio was fired up about what he considers a snub even though he doesn't particularly care for All-Star games.
Everyone at CSN knows how I feel about All-Star Games. They are a sham. They mean nothing in hockey. The sport that All-Star Games matter in is baseball, where the winning league is affected later at the World Series.
Scott Hartnell is having a career season as a Flyer. He deserves to be in Ottawa at month's end.
He has been resurrected - again - with Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr. Hartnell has 18 goals and 37 points at the mid-point of the season.
So why did Hartnell get overlooked? According to Panaccio, and his colleagues who told him as much, the Flyers forward doesn't have the star power that Alexander Ovechkin has.
Ultimately, that lack of star power is what might have cost Hartnell a spot at the All-Star game.
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