ALL-STAR BALLOTING 

The American Hockey League has announced that 2010 AHL All-Star Classic Fan Balloting presented by Reebok will begin Tuesday, December 1, at noon EST, exclusively on the official Web site of the AHL, theahl.com.

Fans will have the opportunity to vote for the most deserving AHL players by visiting theahl.com and completing the official Reebok AHL All-Star Fan Ballot. The players receiving the most votes by position will earn berths in the starting lineups of both the Canadian AHL All-Star team and the PlanetUSA AHL All-Star team at the 2010 Time Warner Cable AHL All-Star Classic, to be held Jan. 18-19 at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, Maine. A committee of AHL coaches will select the remaining All-Stars, and all 29 clubs will be represented on the final rosters.

By completing the official ballot, fans will be entered to win a grand prize of a team-signed authentic 2010 AHL All-Star jersey. Ten more winners will each receive an official 2010 AHL All-Star Classic T-shirt.

On-line fan balloting at theahl.com will end at 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, December 27, 2009.

Of the 488 players to take part in the AHL All-Star Classic since 1995, more than 93 percent have competed in the National Hockey League, including Patrice Bergeron, Brad Boyes, Dan Boyle, Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell, Zdeno Chara, Rick DiPietro, Miikka Kiprusoff, Kari Lehtonen, Ryan Miller, Zach Parise, Bobby Ryan, Martin St. Louis, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal and Tomas Vokoun.

The 2010 Time Warner Cable AHL All-Star Classic will feature the 2010 AHL All-Star Skills Competition on Monday, January 18 (8:00 p.m. ET) and the 2010 AHL All-Star Game on Tuesday, January 19 (6:00 p.m. ET), and will be televised live nationally in the United States and Canada.

Tickets for the 2010 Time Warner Cable AHL All-Star Classic – which include admission to both the Skills Competition and the AHL All-Star Game as well as an official commemorative All-Star Classic event program – are $49 (rows 1-12 in all sections) and $42 (rows 13-24 in all sections). To purchase tickets call (207) 775-3458, visit the Cumberland County Civic Center Box Office or go on-line at portlandpirates.com.

*** FROM THE NOBODY ASKED OUR OPINION FILE***

As far as we’re concerned, Bobby Sanguinetti, currently on recall with the Rangers, is the top scoring defenseman in the AHL and should absolutely get voted in for the second straight year. Ordinarily, we would add P.A. Parenteau to that list, but in our opinion he is a graduate and you’ve seen the last of him in the AHL. Corey Locke leads the AHL in scoring, so that’s a no-brainer. Dane Byers has had a good season and deserves consideration as does Chad Johnson. But in our opinion, Dale Weise should get your votes as well. Weise has been all over the ice both offensively and defensively. He has moved up from third line to top line with the Pack, not just because of Parenteau’s call up, but because he’s earned it. With Sanguinetti in New York, and Parenteau out of the picture, that puts Weise second on the team in scoring. His seven goals is second only to Locke’s 11 and he has 10 assists which is third only to Locke (21) and Sanguinetti (16). You also have to bear in mind that earlier in the season, Weise was not getting nearly the minutes he is getting now and is rewarding Ken Gernander’s faith with solid production. Weise also happens to lead the team in plus/minus with a plus-9 and is second in shooting percentage at 0.167%.