In looking at the leading vote getters late tonight, Marc Andre Fleury has taken over the top spot in the Eastern Conference starting goaltender voting. Fleury's total has grown to 787,208, while Carey Price has 783,678.

Sidney Crosby is very close to breaking the 1,000,000 vote mark and could potentially do it by morning, as he sits just 329 votes back of the mark. His 999,681 votes also put him just 21,055 votes behind Jaromir Jagr's all time record.

More in the morning...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/ DECEMBER 21, 2008

PENGUINS’ CROSBY SMASHES JAGR’S VOTE RECORD

IN XM NHL ALL-STAR FAN BALLOTING PRESENTED BY 2K SPORTS



NEW YORK (Dec. 21, 2008) -- Anyone wondering what Sidney Crosby would do for a midwinter encore 12 months after scoring the winning shootout goal in the inaugural Winter Classic now has their answer. At noon ET today, Crosby eclipsed Jaromir Jagr’s record for the most votes ever received by one player in one season in the history of NHL All-Star Game fan balloting.

With nearly 13 full days of voting still remaining in the XM NHL All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports that will determine the starting lineups in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal, Crosby soared past the 1,020,736-vote mark that Jagr, then a member of the Penguins, posted in 2000.

Pittsburgh fans apparently aren’t satisfied with simply keeping the record in the family. They also have Crosby’s current teammate Evgeni Malkin poised to beat Jagr’s 9-year-old record. As of the moment Crosby reached the milestone, Malkin was within 19,000 votes of doing the same.

Through Jan. 2, NHL fans can vote as often as they like in the XM NHL ® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports to select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal. Fans around the world can vote online via interactive English and French ballots at Vote.NHL.com.

Those in the U.S. and Canada also are able to cast their votes via text message using any wireless carrier. Real-time results are available exclusively at http://Vote.NHL.com/results.

Fans can vote for up to six Eastern Conference players and six Western Conference players -- three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender. Fans are permitted to select as few as one player -- a balloted player or write-in -- per online ballot at Vote.NHL.com or via text message.

To vote using any wireless carrier, fans should text their favorite player’s last name to the shortcode 81812. Fans interested in voting for all of their favorite team’s balloted players can text the team nickname (e.g., Bruins) to 81812. Standard text messaging charges will apply.

XM, which airs every NHL game for every team as the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the NHL, and 2K Sports, a leading publisher of sports video games, are the NHL All-Star Fan Balloting title and presenting sponsors, respectively.

The 2009 NHL All-Star Weekend in Montreal will celebrate the Montreal Canadiens’ Centennial season with live national broadcasts of the Honda/NHL SuperSkills® event on Saturday, Jan. 24, and the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, Jan. 25, on VERSUS in the United States and CBC and RDS in Canada. NASN, ASN, J Sports, Sky Mexico, Fox Sports Australia and other NHL international broadcast partners will provide live coverage of both the Honda/NHL SuperSkills event and the NHL All-Star Game to more than 150 countries and territories in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Mexico and the Caribbean. NHL Radio™ will provide exclusive, national radio coverage which can be heard on stations around the United States and Canada as well as on Sirius XM Radio's NHL Home Ice, located at XM channel

204 and on SIRIUS channel 208 with the “Best of XM” programming package.

NHL.com and NHL Network will provide extensive coverage of the All-Star Weekend.