You're All-Stars to us, Mark Scheifele and Cam Atkinson

It's true: Complaining about who is, and who isn't, an All-Star is the first-est first-world problem there is. But it's time for Mark Scheifele and Cam Atkinson - who won't be in Los Angeles this weekend - to get their due.

They're both top 10 in NHL scoring, each with 46 points on the season. Only one player has scored more goals than Atkinson - that Sidney Crosby guy. Six players have scored more than Scheifele, all of them All-Stars except Atkinson.

Yeah, sure, you could throw Nicklas Backstrom in this conversation, too. His 47 points are tied for fifth overall, but he's been an All-Star before, earning his first trip - what the hell took so long? - last year. Scheifele and Atkinson have never had the honor.

And until the NHL takes the best players, regardless of team, and drops the sticks in the middle to make three-on-three teams, this will happen every year - deserving players won't be at the All-Star Game.

Columbus Cam

Atkinson, like his Columbus Blue Jackets team this season, seemingly came out of nowhere. But the sixth-round pick, 157th overall in 2008, has proven over the past three seasons that he's a solid NHLer. He's reached new heights in 2016-17 - like his team - and is set to obliterate career highs across the board.

Season	Age	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
2013-14	24	79	21	19	40
2014-15	25	78	22	18	40
2015-16	26	81	27	26	53
2016-17	27	47	24	22	46

Among the league's top 10 scorers, nobody averages fewer minutes than Atkinson's 17:53 per game. His 19 points on the power play are tied for third in in the league.

You want more? Atkinson's averaging more points per 60 minutes than Connor McDavid, who leads the NHL in scoring. Atkinson ranks sixth among skaters who've played at least 35 games.

Rank	Player	P/60	GP
1	Crosby	4.14	41
2	Evgeni Malkin	3.73	47
3	Thomas Vanek	3.47	36
4	Conor Sheary	3.37	40
5	Nikita Kucherov	3.29	42
6	Atkinson	3.29	47
7	Backstrom	3.22	48
9	McDavid	3.22	49
9	Phil Kessel	3.21	47
10	James van Riemsdyk	3.19	45

At 27, at 5'8 and 180 pounds, and as a player drafted in the sixth round, Atkinson was never supposed to be here, among the McDavids and Crosbys of the world. And who knows if he'll ever be here again - he's shooting 17.3 percent.

The Jackets are one of the best stories in hockey this season, with Atkinson the club's leading scorer. If anyone deserved a trip to L.A., it's him.

With all due respect to Justin Faulk and Taylor Hall, they're not All-Stars this season. It remains stupid - and always will be - that each team must be represented at the game, and in a three-on-three tournament, there are no positions. Atkinson surely wouldn't have minded playing "defense."

Superstar Scheifele

Lost in all the Patrik Laine hype - and Nikolaj Ehlers hype, too - is that Scheifele, only 24 in March, has become the superstar the Winnipeg Jets dreamed he'd be when they drafted him seventh overall in 2011.

Yes, it's official: Scheifele is a superstar. And while he won't be in L.A., there are multiple All-Star games in his future, because, to put it simply, he's really quite excellent at hockey.

Scheifele's gotten better with age. He's going to score 35 this year and hit the 70-point mark for the first time in his career.

Season	Age	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
2013-14	20	63	13	21	34
2014-15	21	82	15	34	49
2015-16	22	71	29	32	61
2016-17	23	48	21	25	46

Only five players in the Western Conference are averaging more points per 60 minutes than No. 55 (and one of them is his teammate Laine, who is certainly deserving of his All-Star selection, considering what he's doing at 19 years old).

Rank	Player	P/60	GP
1	McDavid	3.22	49
2	Vladimir Tarasenko	3.18	48
3	Tyler Seguin	3.01	49
4	Jeff Carter	2.97	48
5	Laine	2.91	43
6	Scheifele	2.85	48

All-Stars in our hearts

Hey, it is what it is. In the end, Atkinson and Scheifele are on theScore's All-Star team, and have themselves a long weekend to enjoy. Best of both worlds. They should put their feet up, relax. They should definitely watch "La La Land," if they haven't yet. It's so good.

The rest and relaxation will come in handy. Atkinson's got hockey to play this spring, something he hasn't done since 2014. A lot of hockey, hopefully.

And there's absolutely no shame in Scheifele winning back-to-back gold medals with Canada at the world championship. The tournament is split between Cologne and Paris this year, with the Canadians stationed in France for their round-robin games. What's better than Paris in the spring?

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