The suspense might have been given away a week or so ago when the NHL’s website briefly began selling Alex Ovechkin MVP shirts, but it shouldn’t take the shine of this moment at all. Alex deserved the Hart trophy more than the other candidates last night at the NHL awards and if you want to argue against a guy who led the league in goals and points, not mention led his team to third-place in the Eastern Conference, well go ahead but you’re starting with a handicap. Sure,Jarome Iginla and Geno Malkin are fine players with compeling reasons, but none match what A/O did for Washington.
Another winner came out of Washington as well last night. Head coach Bruce Boudreau, who take over midseason, won the Jack Adams trophy for coach of the year. He had as nearly as big of a role in the Caps’ turnaround as Ovechkin did.
Does anybody really care about the Lady Byng award for sportsmanship? I thought this was a men’s league? Pavel Datsyuk took that home along with the Selke for best defensive player — even if his teammate Zetterberg was a better pick.
Somebody is going to have to explain to me how Martin Brodeur won the Vezina, again. So, Evgeni Nabokov of the Sharks was voted as the first-team all-star goal for the season, but he’s not good enough to win the actual award that’s given for it?
Last but not least, Nicklas Lidstrom won the Norris Trophy — yawn.
So now that the awards are handed out — and the Leafs have hired someone to coach their assortment of “players” — I can deal with a few weeks of NHL silence. And then that wonderful time of year known as free agency kicks in… At least I can distract myself with NFL training camps and the NBA off-season which, for the record, is about THIS MUCH more interesting.
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