Last season the league adopted a new policy, scrapping the traditional "at least one representative from each organization" clause, and going with the best of the best.

The Flames were one of the inaugural season losers, having nary a single representative in the festivities.

Was it disappointing as a Flame booster? Probably.

Is it better for the game, however? Definitely.

With 30 National Hockey League teams and 21 skaters on each side; full representation from each club would predestine 30 of 42 players, a number that exceeds 70% of the all-star population.

How can the best ever be assembled under those circumstances? Quite simply, they can't.

Having said that, when teams and their fans are excluded there is bound to be some complaints, with the all-star selection system coming under fire.

In some cases the cries should fall on deaf ears, as a cellar dwelling team's players lack the offensive output to make the grade. In other cases, the arguments seem to hit the mark.

A good move by the NHL this season is to include a third team to accompany the World and North American principal squads, that being the Young Gun team. By including players under the age of 24 and playing on their first NHL contracts, the league has managed to find a way to get full representation from all teams.

A team like Atlanta doesn't have a player in the all-star game, but they have two players in the Young Gun contest. Nashville and Minnesota are in the same boat.

But how about the "Hitchcock firing" Dallas Stars? They sit six games over .500 in the competitive western conference, and don't feature a player in the main event. They do however have Brendan Morrow in the Young Gun game. Is that fair? What is fair?

The table below is an attempt to quantify and rank the ability of NHL centers to gripe in the wake of nonattendance at this year's all-star game.

Points in the standings are compared to players in the game to give a true indication of which teams may have indeed received the short end of the stick.

Clearly a team can win without a lack of true stars, and would there fore have a lower output of players in the game, but the table still stands in pointing out some inequities that exist.

The Detroit Red Wings, the league's number one team, lead the way with the smallest points per appearance ratio. The first ranking shows points per appearance for all three categories (World, North American, and Young Gun squads), but the better index is the final two columns, which only deal with the all star game itself. The Wings have garnered 80 points in the standings, and are sending 5 players to the game (six if you include Datsyuk in the Young Gun game), for an average of 16.0 points per player. They lead the pack by a fair margin.

The top three is rounded out by San Jose and Colorado, both top NHL clubs.

Then things get interesting.

The Washington Capitals, in danger of missing the playoffs have two players in the game despite only 49 points. Their points to players ratio sits 4th with a 24.5 mark. Clearly they're not getting a lot of bang for their buck when it comes to their star players.

The team most victimized would be the Philadelphia Flyers who sit 2nd overall in the standings, but only have one player (Jeremy Roenick) in the game.

The Flames ratio seems to meet their position in the standings, suggesting no complaints should surface in Cowtown despite the snubbing of Roman Turek.

When an all-star game precedes an Olympic Games there is always a greater focus on nationality. The current format of the World vs. North America was born four years ago, a week and a half before the Nagano games.

This year Canada has a fierce advantage in all-star representation, putting 32 of the 69 players filling out the three rosters (46.3%).

Canada holds 36.8% of the defencemen, 47.6% of the forwards, and 62.5% of the goaltenders.

I guess "our" game is in trouble.

The team by team break down goes as follows...

Team North America consists of 16 Canadians and five Americans. The Americans have two defencemen and three forwards on the team.

Team World consists of six Russians, five Czechs, four Swedes, two Fins, two Slovaks, a Latvian, and a Norwegian.

Finally the Young Guns squad is made up of 16 Canadians, four Americans, four Czechs, two Russians and a Swede.

In the end there is no definitive way to ensure the best of the best are the best in the all-star game. There are just too many players and too many ways to rate and rank them in building the hockey teams.

Some will be there when they shouldn't, others will miss the game unjustly.

Ilya Kovalchuk had the numbers to represent the World for Atlanta.

Mike Modano is a true all star and should have likely been there for the Stars.

Cliff Ronning would have been a good choice from the Predators.

But ... and this is the sticky point ... who would you remove to fit them in?

Therein lies the problem.