Vote For Rory Falls Short; Is There Something (Ice) Fishy Going On?

So, as we mentioned yesterday, the Web campaign to vote Vancouver Canucks defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick into the NHL All-Star Game fell just short, finishing in third place after once climbing near the very top. Fitzpatrick took it in stride — considering some NHL players and analysts were acting as if the Very Sanctity of the NHL All-Star Game could somehow be compromised if fans were to have an actual voice — and so did the folks at Vote For Rory, who have been muted since the final announcement was made.

But some aren't going so quietly into that night. An ongoing forum post at SomethingAwful.com purports to detail just how the NHL rigged the voting against Fitzpatrick, switching votes and making sure he didn't sully the sport's "good name." Here's an excerpt:

In very short form (I can explain more if you like) - during the week of Dec 20 - Dec 26, a full 19% of the votes cast for Western Conference D-men went to write-in candidates NOT named Rory Fitzpatrick. In any other week, this never exceeded 4%. Coincidentally, this is the same week that Rory dropped from 2nd to 3rd in the voting. He also grabbed 22% of the total votes reported between Dec 12-Dec 20, while Niedermayer and Lidstrom each grabbed 8%. During the week for Dec20-Dec 26, Niedermayer and Lidstrom grabbed 16% each, while Rory only grabbed 10. The Dec 20-Dec 26 week also got those two about 30,000 more votes apiece than the previous 3 weeks, while Rory lost nearly 2/3rds of his total from the previous week and well more than half of the previous 3 weeks (150,000 Dec12-Dec20, and 60,000 between Dec20-Dec26).

It's all very complicated, and involves math; you can better understand the theory at the link than we could even pretend to try here. But it's a conspiracy theory, and if the Web isn't good for a solid conspiracy theory, well, jeez, it really is just good for porn then, we guess.

Vote For Rory: The NHL Is Rigging This For Sure [SomethingAwful.com]