Dave Lozo's Bag Skate: The Airtight Case for Carey Price to Win the Hart Trophy

The only thing standing between Carey Price and a Hart Trophy is the asinine idea that goaltenders shouldn't be eligible for the MVP award.

Goaltenders have their own award, certain voters believe. 

It's an argument similar to the one in baseball that states pitchers shouldn't win the MVP because they have their own award, the Cy Young. Although, that argument is also rooted in the idea that someone who plays every fifth day can't be as valuable as an everyday player.

Clayton Kershaw defied that notion this season; Price should do the same with hockey's bias this season.

The last goaltender to win the Hart was Jose Theodore of the Canadiens in 2002. Since then, it's been a steady stream of forwards hoisting the trophy, with goaltenders getting very little respect in voting. Since 2005-06, the only goaltenders to crack the top three in voting are Miikka Kiprusoff (third, 2006), Roberto Luongo (second, 2007), Martin Brodeur (third, 2007), Steve Mason (third, 2009) and Henrik Lundqvist (third, 2012).

Year	Player	Team
1929	Roy Worters	New York Americans
1950	Chuck Rayner	New York Rangers
1954	Al Rollins	Chicago Black Hawks
1962	Jacques Plante	Montreal Candiens
1997	Dominik Hasek	Buffalo Sabres
1998	Dominik Hasek	Buffalo Sabres
2002	Jose Theodore	Montreal Canadiens

That's two finalist goaltenders in six seasons.

Price will almost certainly make it a third in seven seasons, and if he maintains this pace, he shouldn't just win the Hart but run away with it.

First, the basics on Price.

He is second in wins (27), first in save percentage (.933), first in goals-against average (2.03) and tied for fifth in shutouts (4). Barring a second-half fade, that should be enough to hold off Pekka Rinne for the Vezina Trophy, who is on pace to have similar numbers, although missing a month to injury will likely cost him true consideration.

What makes Price such a slam-dunk MVP at this moment, especially with Rinne acting as a mirror image?

The Canadiens, to put it delicately, aren't that good.

Montreal is 20th in five-on-five shot-attempt percentage (48.5) and 23rd in shots allowed per game (30.7). Nashville is sixth and 10th in those respective categories, which automatically rules out Rinne in any trophy discussion, as Price is doing more with less. The Canadiens are scoring 2.55 goals per game, 22nd in the league; the Predators are scoring 2.96 per game, seventh in the league.

Rinne was ahead of Price for a while, but Price's January (7-1-1, 1.53/.951) vaulted him ahead of Rinne.

What Price has done to offset the Canadiens' deficiencies at five-on-five is nothing short of Roy-ian. At .942, Price leads the league in even-strength save percentage; if he maintains that pace at his current workload, Price will have the highest even-strength save percentage among goaltenders making at least 60 starts since Dominik Hasek was at .946 in 1998-99 for the Buffalo Sabres.

That wasn't enough to win Hasek the Hart that season, although he won the Hart in 1998 after posting an identical .946 even-strength save percentage in 74 starts. Hasek won the Hart in 1997, too, but NHL.com's even-strength save percentage history doesn't go back beyond the 1997-98 season.

Forget Roy-ian; Price has been borderline Hasek-ian this season.

The only reason Hasek fell short of a third straight Hart Trophy in 1999 was Jaromir Jagr's 44-goal, 127-point season. Jagr's 127 points were 20 more than the next-closest finisher, making that Hasek's tough luck.

This season, no one is having anything close to a Jagr-type season.

Most years, you can go down the list of the league's leading scorers and pluck the Hart finalists out of the top-three group. This year, it's not that simple.

Jakub Voracek (58 points) and Tyler Seguin (56) are leading teams that are out of the playoffs as of today. Patrick Kane (56 points) is on a Blackhawks team with so much talent that it likely hurts his candidacy. Claude Giroux (52 points) is in the same boat as Voracek, while Sidney Crosby (52) is playing below the high standards he set for himself in his career, and Evgeni Malkin (51) has been sidelined by injury.

Nicklas Backstrom (52 points) could wind up splitting votes with Alex Ovechkin (48). Vladimir Tarasenko (50 points) might be too fresh a face for voters to back, while Ryan Getzlaf (50) has a strong case, as he has carried the mumps-plagued Ducks to the top of the league standings.

Rick Nash may have the best resume of anyone outside Price. He has 31 goals in 48 games for a Rangers team lacking the forward depth it had last season and has been strong on the penalty kill with a league-leading four shorthanded goals. It's fair to say the Rangers wouldn't be a playoff team without Nash.

Price has meant the same for the Canadiens, only on a far greater level. 

As long as voters aren't guided by an unwritten rule that goaltenders aren't eligible for the Hart, then Price should do what Roy never did in his career and take home NHL MVP honors.

Quote of the Week: Jon Cooper vs. Darryl Sutter

Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Kings coach Darryl Sutter are the two most quotable coaches in the NHL. Each week, we will let you decide who had the best quote. 

Ten years from now, when we finally have flying cars and a cure for baldness (fingers crossed), perhaps we will also have advanced in an evolutionary sense to the point where we no longer emphasize plus/minus when judging a hockey player.

Today, however, plus/minus is still a thing. Just listen to Darryl Sutter on defenseman Jake Muzzin, via L.A. Kings Insider:

"

He’s a high-minus defenseman. We need him to be a hell of a lot better than that. And actually, I’m telling the truth, and actually that is right. He’s a high-minus defenseman playing with one of the best defensemen in the league, and for us to make the playoffs, he can’t be.

"

Muzzin is minus-nine, and the other defenseman Sutter mentions is Drew Doughty, my Norris pick as of today, who is plus-two. You won't believe this, but Muzzin's underlying numbers paint a much different picture, as he is a 57.0 percent Fenwick player with a horrendous 97.3 PDO. Doughty has been a little better in his minutes away from Muzzin, but Muzzin is hardly an anchor around Doughty's neck. 

The breaks should start going Muzzin's way in the second half. 

In Tampa, Jon Cooper was asked by WDAE 620 about the decision to part ways with backup goaltender Evgeni Nabokov over the weekend: "Sports is sports. At times like this, you remember sports can be a business."

Sports is sports. That's undeniable. But Nabokov has been substandard for a few years now, and Andrei Vasilevskiy is better. "Sports is sports" is a nice way of saying that.

KHL Thing of the Week

There is some quality hockey played overseas that we rarely hear about in North America. This section will highlight that or something else from our friends playing hockey in the KHL.

The KHL will be down at least one team for 2015-16, as Slovan Bratislava will be dropping out of the league, according to reports.

"

Slovan Bratislava will have to pull out of the KHL next season due to lack of financing, says Itar-Tass. Cc: Malmö Redhawks.

— Risto Pakarinen (@puckarinen) February 2, 2015"

The decision seems to be based on finances and the declining ruble in Russia. The Slovak squad could play in a few different leagues in Europe, but it won't be the KHL.

Notable former NHL players on the roster include Cam Barker, Ladislav Nagy and Johan Backlund. It's just the latest indicator that money is becoming an issue in the KHL and that fewer financial options may be available for the borderline NHL/AHL player in the future.

Who Is Connor McDavid-ing This Week?

The tank battle for Connor McDavid will be quite the scene this season as teams stumble over each other to finish last in the standings, thus guaranteeing either McDavid or future American hero Jack Eichel. 

30. Buffalo Sabres (14-33-3, 31 points) — Sad.

29. Edmonton Oilers (13-28-9, 35 points) — Sadder.

28. Carolina Hurricanes (17-26-6, 40 points) — Saddest.

(You may think that's backward, but there's nothing sadder than being just outside the bottom two spots in the standings.)

Goal of the Week

Let's make this an Upworthy teaser for Goal of the Week.

Dominic Moore is a fourth-line penalty-killer. Justin Faulk is an All-Star defenseman who represented Team USA at the Sochi Olympics. You won't believe what happens next:

It certainly helps to have a paralyzed Cam Ward to shoot past, but holy moly, that move. 

Questions and Answers

Got a question? Tweet me @davelozo or email me at [e-mail], but please don't call before 9 a.m. I will answer any of your questions about hockey or whatever if it's a good question.

I was pretty staunchly in the Trade Mike Green camp before the season, as he seemed like a luxury a team that needed forward help couldn't afford. If John Carlson and Matt Niskanen are your right-handed, top-four defensemen for the foreseeable future, one more year of a guy you already deemed not as good as Niskanen and Carlson didn't make much sense.

Green, who is in a contract year, has been pretty good. The theoretical player the Capitals could have acquired for Green before the season probably would not have been as impactful. Green is fifth among Capitals defensemen in even-strength ice time, fourth overall with 31 points and has been a tremendous possession player in his diminished role.

The question the Caps have to ask themselves is this: Can we let Green walk after the season for nothing, or do we trade him and get what we can before the deadline? It's not an easy question, as the Capitals will probably be worse in the aftermath of that trade, which is not something teams headed to the playoffs are looking to do. If Jack Hillen is your No. 6-7, what is dealing Green going to do to the back end as a whole?

If the Capitals are realistic with themselves and acknowledge they are not playing for a Stanley Cup this season, they should look to trade him. Ideally, they could acquire something that could help them now, but it's hard to find sellers in the market for a pending UFA defensemen. If I'm the Capitals, I strongly consider dealing him to the West. If there's nothing that seems "worth it" for the future, then I'd hold on to him. 

Trading him, however, would be my preference. 

The game show I would have killed to be on was Press Your Luck. But there's not much in the way of skill involved. Dallas Stars play-by-play man Ralph Strangis was once a contestant, which makes him a personal hero of sorts, even though he lost.

My answer: Double Dare. I was in all the smart-kid nerd classes growing up and was pretty good at sports, so I'm pretty sure a buddy and I would've killed on that show. I was also weirdly good at knowing when to "dare" the other family when they didn't know the answer. I could read stupidity. I would've dared, received the double dare and cleaned up. 

Now I'm older, not as athletic, definitely dumber, so I'd probably have to get on Wipeout to satisfy that childhood fantasy. Although nothing can beat what I imagine is the exhilarating feeling of jamming your arm up a nose full of boogers and pulling out a flag.

Everybody and nobody. The East is weird, man. Tampa and the Islanders are, to me anyway, the two best teams in the East. But I could see them losing to just about anyone behind them in the standings (except Isles-Rangers, as I give the Rangers no shot in a seven-game series with them as of now).

The Lightning are so deep, so good, but so lacking in experience. I can't even count last season, as a four-game sweep isn't really a "series" in that there were no highs and lows, ebbs and flows that young players need to experience and understand in order to have success. Ben Bishop has as many playoff games under his belt as your neighbor (assuming your neighbor has never played in an NHL playoff game).

If Tampa draws Boston in the first round, I could see the Bruins winning. If Tampa draws Washington? I'd take Tampa. The East is all about matchups. Last year, if Boston avoids Montreal, Boston beats the Rangers in the conference finals. I can't ever prove that, but that Montreal matchup was a nightmare for Boston the same way the Rangers were a nightmare for Montreal.

If Tampa can avoid the Bruins (who I assume will be all systems go in April) they can get to the Stanley Cup Final and maybe win it. If Tampa runs into Boston in the first round, they could get swept. That's how weird the East is.

"

@DaveLozo What do you think will be the biggest move that happens at the NHL trade deadline?

— Dave (@BmoreDaveS) February 2, 2015"

I'm lumping these three questions together because my answer relates to all three. 

In a lot of ways, the dominoes have already fallen. David Perron from Edmonton to Pittsburgh for a first and Devan Dubnyk to Minnesota for a third are sort of market-setters. No one knows who the first "trade deadline" guy will be, though. Maybe Jaromir Jagr gets traded this week, maybe in a month. Only time will tell.

Biggest deal? I'll gamble on it being Keith Yandle. Maybe the Coyotes would prefer to trade him after the season, but if a team blows Don Maloney away with a deal that makes them better in the future and worse now but also makes them better in the future because of a better draft slot, they'd have to do it. Yandle has one more year at $5.35 million on his contract and is without question more offense than defense, but he can make a difference on a Cup contender.

As for Antoine Vermette, how about Washington? If the Capitals hang on to Green, they need to make another deal to improve, so a center would make a lot of sense for them. The organizations have done business in the recent past (Martin Erat) so maybe they can do something again.

Just about every team with a center need will be in on him, as his $3.75 million cap hit can be easily worked into anyone's cap situation.

All statistics via NHL.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com. Cap information via Spotrac.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.