The Puck Stops Here

The NHL Awards were presented last night. Earlier I had posted my picks if I had a ballot and my comments when the nominees were announced. Here are the award winners and my comments.

Selke Trophy - Rod Brind'Amour Carolina Hurricanes He was a deserving winner and the best defensive forward in the regular season. This is a repeat win for him. Had the award been for best defensive forward in the regular season and playoffs, Sami Pahlsson of Anaheim should have won. I had him as the second best defensive forward in the regular season and the best in the playoffs (where Brind'Amour played on a team that didn't qualify for playoffs).

Lady Byng Trophy - Pavel Datsyuk Detroit Red Wings He is another repeat winner. I had Martin St. Louis of Tampa Bay as my pick. St. Louis had a better season, finishing fifth in the league with 102 points, while Datsyuk was 17th with 82. Although one might argue Datsyuk was more sportsmanlike, using the fact he had 20 pims against St Louis's 28, I think that difference is largely explained by ice time. St. Louis lead NHL forwards in ice time, playing 24:09 per game (and all 82 games) while Datsyuk was 36th among forwards with 19:57 per game (in 79 games). That's over 400 extra minutes played for St Louis. If we assume that Datsyuk earned penalty minutes at a constant rate per minute of ice time he plays, he would had had 5 more minutes had he played as much as St. Louis. Using penalty minutes as a benchmark for sportsmanship, there is not enough of an advantage for Datsyuk to make up for the fact that St Louis was a better player.

Adams Trophy - Alain Vigneault Vancouver Canucks A poor choice. The hockey writers don't know how to pick good coaches. Both Jacques Lemaire of Minnesota and Ted Nolan of the NY Islanders went without nominations. Twelve different coaches were named as first place picks on at least one ballot. In the end, the coach of the year is often coach of the most improved team. Vancouver improved a lot, because their goaltending improved. Roberto Luongo is much better than Alex Auld and Dan Cloutier. Vigneault may be a competent coach, but he should have been far from coach of the year this season.

Masterton Trophy - Phil Kessel Boston Bruins Get cancer and win this award. I would have picked Owen Nolan of Phoenix. He didn't get cancer or anything, but he came back and was one of the Coyotes better players after injuries had kept him on the sidelines for two years. As bad as cancer sounds, Kessel was kept out about a month because of it. There is more perseverance and dedication to hockey shown coming back ion Nolan's case, when he could have easily retired, then in Kessel's case.

Calder Trophy - Evgeni Malkin Pittsburgh Penguins He was the best rookie this season and he won. No big surprise there.

Norris Trophy - Nicklas Lidstrom Detroit Red Wings This is Lidstrom's fifth Norris Trophy. He is one of the best defencemen ever. Might have been a bit more of a race if Niedermayer and Pronger were not teammates.

Vezina Trophy - Martin Brodeur New Jersey Devils This is his third Vezina Trophy. He was the deserving winner, though Luongo also had an outstanding year.

Hart Trophy - Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins Possibly the first of many for him. He was the deserving winner.

Pearson Award - Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins Again the deserving winner and again likely the first of many.

First All Star Team - Alexander Ovechkin Washington Capitals, Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins, Dany Heatley Ottawa Senators, Nicklas Lidstrom Detroit Red Wings, Scott Niedermayer Anaheim Ducks, Martin Brodeur New Jersey Devils These are the same six I picked. Heatley moves from second team left wing last season to first team right wing this year. A successful switch of wings. That leaves left wing as a weaker position. Though Ovechkin is a good player, he had a worse season then the rest of the first team all star.

Second All Star Team - Thomas Vanek Buffalo Sabres, Vincent LeCavalier Tampa Bay Lightning, Martin St Louis Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Pronger Anaheim Ducks, Dan Boyle Tampa Bay Lightning, Roberto Luongo Vancouver Canucks I disagreed with three of these picks. I had Joe Thornton of San Jose and Jarome Iginla of Calgary on the forward line instead of LeCavalier and St Louis. This is largely because it was harder to score in the West Conference and East Conference players tended to have inflated offensive totals. I also picked Sergei Gonchar of Pittsburgh over Dan Boyle on defence. Gonchar slightly outscored Boyle and anchored a less porous defence that played in a more competitive division. It is interesting that all three of the players I did not pick all play for Tampa Bay. I think that is over-representation for a team that barely qualified for playoffs. If Tampa really had 3 players good enough for second team all star, they would have done better as a team.

Here are the voting results for the awards and here they are for the all star teams. On my hypothetical ballot, I did not bother to make as many picks as voters do on the actual NHL ballot (5 ranked choices for awards - I only picked three), but if I had cast my ballot it would not have changed the winner of any awards. In fact, it would not have changed the order of finish for any award except the Vezina Trophy, where Miikka Kiprusoff and Henrik Lundqvist tied for third place. I would have broken that tie giving Kiprusoff third place by himself and leaving Lundqvist without a nomination.