Well, the votes are now in, and apparently the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association have disagreed with me and have voted for Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins over Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers.
Lundqvist will not join an elite list of six goaltenders that have won the Hart Trophy, despite leading the New York Rangers to the best record in the Atlantic Division and the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference.
The voters instead decided to go with Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who led the NHL with 109 points. Besides winning the Art Ross Trophy in 2012, Malkin also won the 2012 Ted Lindsay Award, as voted on by his peers. When I heard Malkin got the Ted Lindsay Award, I knew he also won the Hart Trophy too!
The only other award I got wrong was the Selke, where I went with Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings over the eventual winner, Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins. After analyzing their statistics in greater detail, I actually agree with the Writers’ Association. Datsyuk may have had three more points than Bergeron, but Bergeron was +15 higher than Datsyuk, and won the 2012 Bud Light Plus-Minus Award for having the best plus-minus in the NHL.
Henrik Lundqvist (Robert Kowal, Wikimedia Commons)
The 2012 NHL Award Ceremony takes place tonight in Las Vegas with Nickelback performing.
Let’s see how well I do:
HART–The question here is should the Hart Trophy go to a goalie? The answer this season is yes. Henrik Lundqvist was the primary reason the New York Rangers led the Eastern Conference in points. You can’t give the Hart to a player that missed the playoffs (Steven Stamkos) and in Pittsburgh, when healthy Sidney Crosby is just as valuable to the Penguins as Evgeni Malkin.
VEZINA–If Lundqvist wins the Hart, he’ll win the Vezina too.
NORRIS–Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators had more assists than Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber had points.
As we get ready to take in some first round playoff action in the NHL, let’s not forget to look back on the beauty goals that got us to this point!
This week on the GOTW (for the week of March 26) we’ve got a couple of guys getting on the end of beautiful plays by their teammates and three awesome breakaways. If you scroll right to the bottom, you’ll also see one of the strangest goals of the year!
Let’s go!
5. Jakub Voracek
That series between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins is really going to be something, especially if we get to see the type of games we saw recently between those two clubs. Check out this beauty goal from Jakub Voracek!
Things are heating up around the NHL as the trade deadline approaches, but don’t worry folks – I’ve got a No Movement Clause!
This week on the GOTW, we’ve got a beautiful shorthanded goal from one of the Staal brothers, a monumental goal from a long-time Duck, a strangely awesome overtime winner, a last-second GWG and a wicked breakaway goal from one of the league’s rising stars.
Let’s go!
5. Eric Staal
Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal made the Habs look foolish last week with this shorthanded goal around Tomas Kaberle. He drives right around him, cuts to the net and then jams a slow-roller past Carey Price.
The All-Star break didn’t leave us with many games around the NHL last week, but there was no shortage of highlight reel action before the players parted ways for a few days!
Since it would be a shame to put a goal from the no-defence All-Star game, as nice as it may have been, ahead of a beauty goal that happened with real points on the line, this edition of the GOTW won’t feature anything from this weekend. Here’s what I’ve got for you though: a penalty shot snipe, an incredible fake on a great goalie, a couple of unreal backhanders and a solid individual effort!
Let’s go!
5. Trevor Lewis
I’m not normally a fan of putting penalty shot goals on the list, but this dangle from LA’s Trevor Lewis is definitely worth another look. Sens fans might argue it shouldn’t count, because it shouldn’t have been a penalty shot, but there’s no doubt that Lewis made Craig Anderson look a bit silly with a couple of sweet fakes.
It’s times like these that I wish that Wayne Gretzky were the Prime Minister of Canada.
Sure, he might not be great at balancing budgets or tackling the socio-economic issues facing the country, but he’d probably get the hang of it. At the very least, it would ensure another win for Canada if the rumors about another Summit Series are true!
This September marks the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, and there will apparently be some kind of month-long celebration of the Cold War clash between the two nations. As part of that celebration, the Toronto Star reported this week that Prime Minister Stephen Harper would be facing off against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a couple of exhibition games, which the PMO quickly denied.
Sounds cool, right?
Well…it would be, if we were talking about leaders like Wayne Gretzky and Vladislav Tretiak, or Joe Thornton and Pavel Datsyuk! Instead, we’re talking about a Canadian who dropped out of hockey in his early teens and a Russian who only just recently picked up the sport. (AFTER THE JUMP: Video of Putin on skates!) (more…)
Another week has come and gone in the NHL, and half of another week has also come and gone, but I’ve finally got the Goals of the Week for you, from the week of November 21st.
It was quite the week in the league – a triumphant return for a young star, another couple of stars in the making continued to rack up the highlight reel goals, and a couple of veterans showed off their dangles as well. This week in the What the Puck section, you’ll see the many sides of Cal Clutterbuck’s game!
5. Jason Spezza
Jason Spezza is off to a hot start this season, and that was really showcased on Sunday when he took a pass up the middle of the ice, skated through three Hurricanes players and beat Cam Ward with a nice move. (See the GOTW after the jump!) (more…)
The Calgary Flames were in the loss column for the second consecutive game on Wednesday night.
Ian White and three-time Selke Trophy winner Pavel Datsyuk each scored a goal and two assists as Detroit defeated Calgary 5-3.
The Red Wings got on Flames’ netminder Miikka Kiprusoff early at 6:14 of the first period on the power play after rookie defenceman Derek Smith took a cross-checking penalty. Tomas Holmstrom, who has made a living by producing on the power play, gave the Red Wings an early lead.
The Flames went ahead on goals by Jarome Iginla and Brendan Morrison, before the Red Wings tied it on a goal by White.
After the two teams traded goals in the third period on the power play, Datsyuk scored the game winner at 12:39, and Valtteri Filppula then scored an insurance marker just over a minute later.
With the loss, the Flames fall to 8-11-1, and are seven points back of the Edmonton Oilers for a playoff spot.
The NHL is finally back, and what an opening week it was!
Sure, it’s too early in the season to get a good read on how your team is going to do and who is going to run away with all of the individual awards, but at least we can now sit back and watch the multitude of early season dangles!
Throughout the year, I’ll be counting down the top five goals each week ending each Sunday. I’ll also be trying to track down the “What the Puck” moment of each and every week of the NHL season, which you’ll find after the number one gino.
Here we go!
5. Jiri Hudler
Detroit Red Wings forward Jiri Hudler gets us started this week, taking a nice feed from Pavel Datsyuk before making a deposit into the bank of shelf with a sick backhander! If I had to caption Craig Anderson’s post-goal response, it would probably read: C’mon Man! VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP! (more…)
The guys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it for another week, breaking down the top stories from across the world of sports. This week, we’re discussing the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup (and the city of Vancouver’s reaction), we make some NHL Awards & Entry Draft predictions, and the Edmonton Eskimos kick off the preseason!
In the GABBYs: The Capitals run up the score, Boston continues to win, Terry keeps his tattoo and lots more!
It was quite an end to the NHL season on Wednesday night in Vancouver, riots aside, with the Boston Bruins providing a huge upset at Rogers Arena to capture the 2011 Stanley Cup.
Now, when I say “upset,” it’s not so much that the Bruins beat the Canucks, it’s how they did it. Did anyone honestly predict that Boston, who had scored three times in Vancouver over the first three games there, would come out and put up a four-spot in game seven? I certainly didn’t!
One thing that wasn’t a surprise at all was the awarding of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP to Bruins goalie Tim Thomas – he earned his second shutout of the final in the deciding game and ends up with a 1.14 goals against average against Vancouver. He was absolutely ridiculous during the playoffs and many people were convinced that he would win MVP honors regardless of the outcome on Wednesday.
Here’s the bad news though: that’s it for the season! We’ve got the NHL awards coming up, the draft a few days later, free agency kicks off a week after that and then we’re into the dog days!
Before we completely close the book on the season that was though, I feel it’s only fitting that we look back at the top 10 goals (as chosen by me) of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs… (more…)
For the second time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the team that went up three games to none and then lost the next three games of the series, won game seven.
Thursday night in San Jose, the San Jose Sharks defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 to win the best-out-of-seven Western Conference Semi-Final four games to three.
The Sharks will travel to Vancouver where they’ll play the Northwest Division champion Vancouver Canucks Sunday.
San Jose was the better team by far in the first period, outscoring the Detroit Red Wings on goals by Devin Setoguchi and Calder Trophy candidate Logan Couture. But it was the Red Wings that dominated the territorial possession in the second period before the teams exchanged goals in the third.
The Vancouver Canucks have advanced to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 1994.
Now they’ll just have to wait and see who their opponent will be.
Last night in Nashville, Ryan Kesler notched two assists as the Canucks eliminated the Nashville Predators 2-1 to win the series 4-2.
Kesler has been by far the best Canuck in the playoffs. He leads all players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 15 points–two more than Joel Ward of the Nashville Predators, Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings, Ryane Clowe of the San Jose Sharks and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is also a +6 and has won 53.8% of faceoffs. Don Cherry said this past week Kesler is the early favourite for the Conn Smythe Trophy, and I would agree.
Pavel Datsyuk may not have been 100%, but played like he was on Sunday night in San Jose.
Datsyuk had three assists and was remarkable with his prolific passing skills as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-3 to prevent elimination. The Sharks still lead the Western Conference Semi-Final 3-2.
Datsyuk, who almost didn’t play because of a hand injury, didn’t look like he was affected that much whatsoever.
Detroit’s other top forward who is not 100%, Johan Franzen, should not have played because his left ankle was significantly limiting his skating ability.
As we get ready to take in some first round playoff action in the NHL, let’s not forget to look back on the beauty goals that got us to this point!
It’s times like these that I wish that Wayne Gretzky were the Prime Minister of Canada.
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