NHL awards/draft/off-season/training camp/preseason running thread

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Probably, but the whole premise just sounds strange - "the NHL refuses to let a team move from a city where it is not wanted/unappreciated to a city/region where it is craved like heroin and will be lapped up like a saucer of milk." Things that make you go hmmmmm....

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Here are the award winners. Is anyone paying attention?

Hart: Sidney Crosby
Vezina: Martin Brodeur
Norris: Nicklas Lidstrom
Calder: Evgeni Malkin
Selke: Rod Brind'Amour
Lady Byng: Pavel Datsyuk
Jack Adams: Alain Vigneault
King Clancy: Saku Koivu
Bill Masterton: Phil Kessel

Awards Based on Regular-Season Statistics
Art Ross: Sidney Crosby
Richard: Vincent Lecavalier
Jennings: Nicklas Backstrom, Manny Fernandez

Award Voted on by NHL Players' Association
Pearson: Sidney Crosby

Sorry, but Luongo should have won the Vezina

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Wasn't on TV here, the bastards.

Noticed the Ducks got shut out of the awards. Thought Pahlsson should've been a lock for the Selke.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Slightly disagree with the Masterton nod. I know the kid battled cancer, but I don't think he exhibits the qualities near as well as some of the other nods (Bell and Boucher come to mind immediately).

Really disagree with the Jack Adams. Luongo was that team this year. The coaching had nothing to do with their turnaround.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Disagree with you on the Masterton --the guy was a no-brainer--but you're right about the Adams. It was Ruff all the way.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

I get why he was a no brainer, but I think given the qualifications for the award, there were better candidates. The Masterton is given for "perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey." He had the first over his illness, don't know enough about the second, but a 19 year old wunderkind like him hasn't had to really persevere or dedicate himself to hockey like some of the older guys who fought.

It's slightly (okay, more than slightly) homerish of me, but I really thought Boucher deserved it. He missed a handful of games all year while flying back and forth to Quebec to be with his dying father and ailing mother.

His father was diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer in November, and Boucher went back and forth being with his family making arrangements until April. His mother had heart surgery the week his dad was diagnosed. He's persevered through two broken orbitals, two eye surgeries, a botched foot surgery, trips down as low as the ECHL over his career and was an All Star this season.

Not to take cancer lightly, but what Kessel had I equate to early-stage skin cancer - potentially very serious if it gets out of control, but if you catch it that early, it's not that dangerous and you don't need a long course of treatment to recover. You remove the cancerous piece and follow up, but the killer courses of chemo and radiation aren't necessary. It was nowhere near what Koivu or Lemieux had to go through.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Stunned that Brindy got the Selke again. Last year, his not earning it would have been criminal. This year, Pahlsson should have run away with it.

Thought Marty thoroughly earned the Vezina, even in light of the season Luongo had. I know what many of the diehards on the board think of the Devils' system - fully understand the sentiment - but the numbers Brodeur had in an era where the league is clearly stressing wide-open hockey and offense were too much to ignore.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

I would just like to weigh in on the Jack Adams. As someone who watches almost every Canuck game Vigneault did a great job of coaching this team. What Vigneault had to do was completely change the culture of this team. He brought accountability to a dressing room that had been missing it for years. I think this is the hardest award to judge because I think you need to be around a team or a least very familiar with the team to see what actually is going on. Before he got here certain players were never held accountable for anything.
Having said all this I will agree that his coaching IQ would drop a few points without Luonguo but I think that can be said of most coaches.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Marc Crawford should have been given partial credit for the coach of the year award. His LEAVING helped the Canucks too. ;D

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Luongo had a hell of a year, but Brodeur carried the Devils just as much if not more during the regular season as Luongo.
What I don't get is that the Rangers' goalie was a finalist. Talk about wrong.

 

Re: 2007 NHL awards and off-season running thread

Al Strachan's 10 Ways To Fix The NHL

The only bad idea he has is enlarging the nets. I'll tweak his season restructuring the season by making sure every team plays each other at least once (but should be twice). That would also help in marketing the players, because teams KNOW they would get a Sidney Crosby in their building.