Amidst all the uproar from the hockey media (in Toronto) as to whether or not its fair that four of six starting spots for the ASG were occupied by Alfie, Spezz, Michalek, and Karlsson (instead of Kessel, Lupul, Grabovski and Liles) and all the questions about whether its deserved (fun fact; it is) something important needs to be said - this is an important moment for Sens fandom.

Yes, it's not at all uncommon for hometown boys to be voted in. Yes, its just the all-star game; a bloated corporate event that even players can't quite get excited about and yes, legitimate questions could be asked about how truly worthy a couple of our picks are (though, it should be noted, I feel all four are pretty defensible) BUT the fact remains; Sens fandom stepped up HUGE.

The fact is that Ottawa's fanbase isn't much respected (a shock, I know) and I don't think anyone expected Ottawa's quiet, polite, fairweather bandwagon fans to push our guys ahead of picks like Crosby and Kessel and outdo voting efforts like Project Mayhem (which, to be fair, was never a serious threat). Nobody would question that this would happen in pretty much any other Canadian city, but I sincerely think they didn't think it would come from us. Sens fans stood tall and, in classic fashion, burned Leafs fans by putting Kessel out on his ass. We showed that if you're going to hold an ASG in our house, its on our terms...and I think we surprised a lot of people in doing it.

What I'm saying, in my long rambly way, is that every year I see all the accusations of Ottawa's fanbase being fairweather or bandwagon or whatever become more and more empty and disingenuous and its really cool to see a big example of how wrong the haters are sitting atop the ASG leaderboards. Good job, all!