The Puck Stops Here

In December, I picked Jason Spezza as the Lady Byng trophy leader. Since then, Spezza instigated a fight which significantly increased his penalty minute total (he had only 2 at that point and now has 27 pims) and missed some time to injury. He is no longer the leader for the award. Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings now has more points and less penalty minutes then Spezza does. Datsyuk leads Detroit with 59 points and has only 12 pims. Among players who played their entire season in the West Conference (Joe Thornton who started the year in Boston does not count), only Alex Tanguay of Colorado has more points. The Western Conference has been the lower scoring conference but not due to lack of talent. Its harder to score in the west. Those players who are the western scoring leaders are underrated because they are often unnoticed in the NHL scoring leaders (since they are dominated by east players). Datsyuk is one of the players who has lost the most recognition because of this. He is having a very good year and he is playing a very sportsmanlike game. He is very worthy of the Lady Byng trophy, should his season complete the way it has started.