There is an important distinction between an analysis and a prediction. In this column, I will both advocate for who should and predict who will get each trophy the NHL awards, other than those that are assured by statistics--i.e. the Richard goes to Ovechkin for having the most goals. In most cases the deserving person wins, but perhaps the finalists are not the top three.
Last week, I made a case for Sharks who were deserving of awards, but in this case I will be objective, as I was in my Stanley Cup predictions last night.
Conn Smythe--Henrik Lundqvist. To me this is the most important trophy since it denotes the best player at the most critical time, the play-offs. It has in all but two case gone to the champion and in the others went to the runner-up (most recently Jean Sebastien-Giguere in 2002).
Since my pick last night was the Rangers, that pretty much narrows it down to Jaromir Jagr, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Henrik Lundqvist, and maybe Brendan Shanahan. (They never give it to a guy like Marek Malik, who is tops in the league in +/- over the last two seasons--it hasto go to a scorer or goalie.) With his history of clutch goals, Drury is too obvious a pick, and Jagr is too soft to come through when grit prevails. I am going to predict Lundqvist will be the one to carry New York through the East.
Hart: This is (and should be) a three-horse race between Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Joe Thornton. I really think Joe should win this for his contributions on both ends of the ice, but defense and assists combined are not as sexy as goals, and no one had more of them than Ovechkin. He also carried a team to the playoffs that was not expected to make it, and no one is going to look at the fact it came in the weakest division in league history.
Norris:the three finalists should be Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Campbell, and Zdeno Chara. Campbell transformed the Sharks and is great on both ends of the ice, and Chara was instrumental in the Bruins' turn-around. No explanation is necessary as to why Lidstrom is on the list. Pronger does not belong because he is now the Ducks' second best defenseman, and Gonchar does not belong because he still is mostly an offensive threat.
Lidstrom will win, and I am okay with that. But I would not be surprised if the other two finalists are actually Gonchar and Pronger instead of Campbell and Chara, and that is a crime.
Vezina: the most important position in any sport is goaltender in hockey. Pitchers mean as much in baseball, but there are at least a dozen of them, not two or three. The finalists should be Nabokov, Brodeur, and Luongo; the first two are the only two serious candidates and they will be finalists for sure.
Most of the buzz I am hearing is that Brodeur has an edge because he is more established, but I cannot see voters not giving a single award to a member of the San Jose Sharks after they finished with the second-best record in the league. This is the only award likely to go to the Teal, so I going to say Nabokov gets it. He has more wins and shut-outs and a better goals-against average than Brodeur, so he should win it.
We're going to send you the most entertaining San Jose Sharks articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
2 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete