Kaner is top vote getter in Western Conference

Chicago’s rekindled love affair with the Blackhawks, already manifested by soaring United Center attendance and insatiable interest in NHL Winter Classic 2009, now is being reflected in the fan balloting for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game.

As of 7 a.m. ET today, Blackhawks’ winger Patrick Kane had taken over the top spot among Western Conference forwards in the XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports that will select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal Jan. 25. In the last week, Kane vaulted four players to take a 26,828-vote lead over the previous pace-setter, Detroit’s Marian Hossa. Anaheim center Ryan Getzlaf also slipped past Calgary’s Jarome Iginla for the third starting nod.

But with 16 days remaining in the voting that will end Jan. 2, Iginla remains very much in the running – as do Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and Kane’s Chicago teammate, Jonathan Toews.

On defense, Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom and Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf remained the leading vote-getters, as they have been virtually since the moment balloting began. However, Chicago’s Brian Campbell closed the gap considerably over the last week and Anaheim’s Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger aren’t far behind.

As of this morning, Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo still was the masked man to beat among Western Conference goaltenders. But he had a new chief rival as Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere had moved past San Jose’s Evgeni Nabokov and Detroit’s Chris Osgood and into second place in the balloting.