When this season began, most Buffalo Sabres fans liked Zemgus Girgensons‘ rookie season, and hoped he would progress to about 15-18 goals to go along with the expected hard work and tough play.
Thanks to his faster-than-expected development, and about a million Latvian votes, today Zemgus Girgensons can say that he’s an NHL All-Star.
Girgensons finished with 1,574,896 votes, more than any other player this year, and more than any player ever, in any year. He was one of the first six players named to the All-Star game along with, hilariously, five members of the Chicago Blackhawks, including Buffalo native Patrick Kane.
This is Girgensons’ first All-Star nomination, being barely 100 games into his NHL career, and he’ll likely be the Sabres only representative, unless the selection committee is feeling generous.
As for whether he deserves it or not, remember that this is the event that features a fantasy draft and numerous props/costumes during the skills competition. Let’s just sit back and enjoy this small win for Sabres fans, and say congratulations to Zemgus.