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Award winners at the quarter turn


yave1964

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American Thanksgiving is upon us, most teams are at or near the 20 game point of the season so I am gonna take a look at the award winners and losers at the quarter turn

 

HART TROPHY mCdAVID ABSOLUTELY deserves consideration but I would personally give it to his teammate and sometimes linemate Leon Draisatl. He does every single thing that McDavid does all the while he has turned into one of the top faceoff men in the game. Razor thin but one of those two.

 

CALDER TROPHY Top rookie is very easy, to put it mildly. No skater is running away from the pack, Beniers leads all rookies with 11 points in 20 games, Shane pinto had a hot streak sandwiched between two very cold ones, It simpy has been claimed by  Logan Thompson who has a 10-3 record with a 2.40 goals against and tied for the league lead in shutouts with 2. 

 

VEZINA TROPHY Linus Ullmark was stuck in Buffalo forever, great things were expected last year but he bombed, was very average and lost a ton of ice time to Swayman. This year Swayman was hurt early and Ullmark was forced to start night after night on one of the biggest surprise teams and he has exceeded expectations. He is 13-1 with a 1.96 goals against and a save pct of .941 leading in all cats. Hellboy and Georgiev have had a great start but nobody is cluse to Ullmark.

 

NORRIS TROPHY Erik Karlsson has come back from the dead having a simply monstrous start to the year.He has 29 points on 21 games, he has been on the ice for an insane 47 percent of all Sharks goals scored this year which is unheard of. Sergechev would be my runner up, Dahlin is finally breaking into the party and shwing that he is a stud.

 

JACK ADAMS Lindy Ruff was booed and it looked as if he might be on thin ice but since then his Devils are the best team in Hockey with out it being close. They are currently on a thirteen game heater and IMHO it has to be him.

 

SELKE The torch has been passed, meet the new Bergeron. Nico Hischier has taken the torch as the games best defensive forward, he drops back on defense and then leads the transition game back the other way in a way that nobody since a young Bergeron did. This is his coming out party and he is one of the most fun young players in the game to watch.

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE GOOD IN THE WEST Vegas baby, might be the typical answer but I will go with Winnipeg. Both underperformed last season and have righted the ship this year.

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE GOOD IN THE EAST With apologies to Boston who is having a fantastic year it really cannot be anyone other than the Devils. They are the story of the first half of the season.

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE BAD IN THE WEST Vancouver by far. Oh I know both Calgary and edmonton are stumbling along at or near .500 but it has to be the Canucks who entered the season with promise and have squandered every bit of good will with the fans. They appear to be out of it before The clock strikes December.

 

BIGGEST SURPRISE IN THE EAST BAD gotta be Ottawa. Signing Giroux, trading for Debrincat, a lot of folk thought they were poised to make a run for the playoffs. Instead the year has turned into a nightmare. Norris was lost for the year about thirty seconds after signing a long term deal, Chabot cannot stay on the ice and is not performing when he is out there. We all very much overrated this team. With all the offensive talent on the club they are still only 22nd in scoring.

 

MOST DOMINATING STAT FOR A TEAM Boston at the quarter turn leads all teams in goals scored all the while having the least amount of goals scored against.  Through 19 games they are a plus 40, over two goals a game better night after night against their opponents. They are simply smashing though people.

 

MASTERTON TROPHY for perseverance I give it to Marchand. He came back over a month earlier than expected and is playing better than ever.

 

LADY BING TROPHY As usual, as always, nobody really cares. really.

 

 

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@yave1964 Great read, as always. Pretty hard to disagree with everything mentioned there. I'd add some underdogs/outsiders that might have a consideration into the listed categories:

 

Hart

I'd add McKinnon in the mix. I don't know why but I find him even more impressive than McDavid (maybe because he has a solid squad and more complete in front of him). He has the ability to change the fate of a game in a single trick, where he wants, when he wants.

 

Vézina

I'm preaching for my church but Öttinger has been solid, posting a SV% of .929 and 2.18 GAA. Except a difficult outing against the Skarks in his return, he helped the Stars grabbing some important wins on the road. Hellbuyck is also to be considered: 80's Bowness hockey all-in defense will help him for sure.

 

Norris

I had an interesting read on RDS who suggested that the Norris should have been given to former Habs coach Ducharme because he was the only one capable of slowing down Caufield. Besides that, Montour is clearly under the radar, piling up minutes and points and keeping on this pace even after Ekblad returned. Trouba is also a defensive stud and Morrissey is having hell of a season so far.

 

Jack-Adams

I'll give a shot to Montgomery. Fired by the Stars for a blatant problem of alcohol, he was given a chance by the Blues and now he's back as a head with the Bruins that are impressive so far (or maybe they are just glad Cassidy is gone)

 

Biggest surprises West - bad

I know Anaheim wasn't listed as a play-off contending team, but their rebuild seems to have a harsh stop. The defense is awful, Gibson too even though he's not helped at all, and the offense is looking for some sparks that never come. I was expecting them to be bad, but not that bad.

 

Biggest surprise East - bad

The Caps. They are 3 games below .500 and as there were some evident signs of getting old, the drop is wuite significant and Kuemper is grossly overrated. Yes, he has a ring but Niemi, Binnington and Murray also have one (or more)

 

Masterton

Evander Kane, when he will be back (ok, I'm provoking a bit...) But if it's possible to give it to a coach, I'd say Montgomery.

 

Lady-Bing

Binnington, of course. But like you said: nobody cares.

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