The votes have been cast by the fans and the starting lineups for the 2009 All-Star Game in Montreal have been announced:

East:

Goaltender: Carey Price (Montreal Canadiens)

Defense: Andrei Markov and Mike Komisarek (Montreal Canadiens)

Forwards: Alex Kovalev (Montreal Canadiens), Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins).

West:

Goaltender: J.S. Giguere (Anaheim Ducks)

Defense: Brian Campbell (Chicago Blackhawks), Scott Niedermayer (Anaheim Ducks).

Forwards: Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks) and Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks).

I think the safe conclusion that can be made from this is that the starting lineup for the All-Star Game shouldn't be left up to the fans, as it results in obvious attempts at ballot-stuffing and voting for fading stars or those with name recogntion over those who are more deserving.

How else to explain the presence of three Canadiens on the East's starting roster who have no business being there?

Price, Kovalev and Komisarek are very good players and I have no problem with them being part of the East's roster, but they definitely don't belong on the starting roster. Only Markov has earned that honor.

Boston's Tim Thomas should be the starting goalie for the East. He's been consistently among the league leaders in most of the important goaltending stats. The case can be made for Boston's Zdeno Chara or Washington's Mike Green to take Komisarek's spot.

The fact that Washington's Alexander Ovechkin, the game's most exciting goalscorer, isn't on the starting roster is outrageous and only further highlights how much of a farce the current voting process is.

Giguere isn't even in the top ten for wins, save percentage and goals-against average, but he gets the nod over Columbus rookie Steve Mason (the current league leader in GAA and second overall in SP), Minnesota's Niklas Backstrom and Chicago's Nikolai Khabibulin?

Niedermayer has had a Hall of Fame career but he hasn't had the kind of season that merits nomination to the starting lineup over San Jose's Dan Boyle, Nashville's Shea Weber or Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom.

Toews is a very good player but this season he shouldn't be on the starting lineup when there are so many other Western forwards (Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla, Pavel Datsyuk) are having better seasons.  

Just my two cents. Feel free to leave yours in the comments section. Who do you think deserves to be in the NHL ASG starting lineups?