He’s a bit out of place as All-Star

The NHL continues to provide more punch lines than punches, from the glowing puck to the lockout to recreation-league-like uniforms that are going to be introduced at the All-Star game.

Fans, meanwhile, are trying to have something else introduced at the game: Rory Fitzpatrick as a starter.

Fitzpatrick may be merely a journey defenseman, currently getting mail in the Vancouver Canucks’ dressing room, but he has united the masses in an ice-roots campaign.

A man of the people? Well, Fitzpatrick has scored only nine more NHL goals than the average NHL fan.

The idea has spread to more cities than Fitzpatrick has played in during his 10 nondescript years as a pro, with the get-out-the-vote war room located at voteforrory.com. Canucks players gave an endorsement, showing up one day with Vote for Rory T-shirts, now available in the Canucks’ team store.

As of Thursday, Fitzpatrick was in, second only to the Ducks’ Scott Niedermayer in votes among defensemen.

Fitzpatrick pleads not guilty when asked about the campaign -- “I have enough problems just turning my computer on” -- but does appreciate the notoriety. Still, he had to point out the obvious, “Obviously, somebody has some spare time.”

Then again, knowing how little defense is played in the NHL All-Star game, maybe they just want to see him get his first point of the season.

Slush slinging

The Fitzpatrick campaign has a little bit of the Karl Rove flair, with ads currently playing on YouTube.com that include ...

“Scott Niedermayer. He claims he’s a hardworking defenseman, but the Minneapolis Star Tribune described Niedermayer’s skating as ‘effortless.’ Do you really want to see the ‘effortless’ Scott Niedermayer at the All-Star game. Isn’t there a better, more hardworking, choice?”

And ...

“Nicklas Lidstrom. He claims he is an All-Star defenseman, but the stats say otherwise. On Nov. 3, of the year 2000, Nicklas Lidstrom was a minus-4 in a 6-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Those aren’t All-Star numbers. What else is Nicklas Lidstrom hiding?”

Nothing in yet from the Swift Hockey Veterans for Truth.

Trivia time

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno celebrated his birthday Thursday, so what came first, Paterno or Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean?

‘Slap Shot’

meets ‘Rudy’?

Christian Hanson, who plays for Notre Dame’s hockey team, has already garnered more attention than the average collegiate fourth-line center.

Hanson is the son of Dave Hanson, one of the Hanson brothers in “Slap Shot,” and admits to having seen the movie many times. He also has seen high points of his dad’s professional career, when he was known as “Killer.”

“He has a few tapes I’ve gotten to watch,” Christian Hanson said in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “They’re all pretty short, because most of them are him one-punching a guy.”

Christian Hanson, meanwhile, has only 28 penalty minutes through 40 college games, less than the Hanson brothers would collect in one shift.

Hardly a chippy off the old block, eh?

Trivia answer

Paterno, who was born Dec. 21, 1926. Lindbergh didn’t make it across the Atlantic until May 21, 1927.

Other historical events Paterno pre-dates: the stock market crash (1929), World War II (1939-45), Woodstock (1969) and, of course, Rory Fitzpatrick’s birthday (Jan. 11, 1975).

And finally

Future Hall of Famer Brett Hull, more shrieking violet then the shrinking variety, accused the league of suppressing individual personalities that could be used to sell the game.

“Guys are afraid to be themselves, and in the marketing of the NHL they need to find the characters and use them,” Hull said in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week.

Well, there is this guy named Rory Fitzpatrick ...

chris.foster@latimes.com