midseason award winners

[yave1964]

Entering the bye for some teams followed by the All Star break here are my picks for winners of various awards given out by the NHL. Still lots of Hockey left but at the break here are my picks:

 

PRESIDENTS TROPHY: Nobody can dispute this one, it goes to the team with the most points and Tampa Bay easily is running away with this one with an insane 37-10-2 good for 76 points. Think about that, 76 points is more than at least half a dozen teams will havefor the entire season, lol. And they have a goal differential of plus 59 in their first 49 games so a differential of plus 100 or better by years end is certainly within reach. The gold standard of regular season success.

 

HART TROPHY AS THE LEAGUE MVP: With apologies to Kucherov, McDavid, Gaudreau and Rantanen who all make this a difficult conversation, I have to give this one to NATHAN MACKINNON who is having a beastly season with 70 points and is averaging over 22 minutes of ice time and is second in the NHL in power play points. The heart of his team and one of the hardest skaters in the game to defend.

 

VEZINA no brainer, MARC ANDRE FLEURY leads the league with 27 wins, nobody else has more than 22, he has 6 shutouts nobody else has more than 3, he is second in shots faced. Anderson and Vasilevskiy are having fine seasons but this is the year of MAF about the easiest of all the awards to pick.

 

CALDER TROPHY LEAGUES TOP ROOKIE ELIAS PETTERSSON ran away and hid with this one in the leagues first month, he has cooled off and then missed time to injury and in spite of all that has nearly doubled up the next closest point getter among all rookies. Rasmus Dahlin is as good as advertised and Ottawa has two kids who I love in Tkachuk and Colin White (between them they have 49 points to the 46 for Pettersson by himself) but this one was over in October.

 

SELKE TROPHY (LEAGUES TOP DEFENSIVE FORWARD) Bergeron wins it every year but is nicked up, Kopitar is usually his closest competition but plays for a loser, I am giving this one hands down to BRAYDEN POINT. On top of being the leagues first 30/30 guy this year (30 goals 30 assists) he is an absolute delight to watch when he doesn't have the puck, he forechecks as if he invented it. The best defensive forward in the game today, arguably the most complete forward in the game today.

 

 NORRIS TROPHY (LEAGUES TOP DEFENSEMAN) For years the award has went to the top scoring defender even if they have deficiencies in their defensive side of the game but this year it will go hands down to MARK GIORDANO who has played in obscurity for years in Calgary and will finally be recognized for the great player that he is. He leads all of hockey with  plus 30 and has 52 points in 48 games. Nobody else is close.

 

JACK ADAMS AWARD (LEAGUES TOP COACH) (tie) I am giving this to two coaches, BILL PETERS in Calgary is owning the West like a boss proving his mettle now that he has a real team to work with after coaching the undermanned Hurricanes for years and BARRY TROTZ who has taken the Islanders to the top of his division at the break and amazingly with the same blueline that couldn't stop anyone for years they are giving up the least goals in the game.

 

LADY BING (MOST GENTLEMANLY PLAYER) who cares. Seriously, they need to do away with this one, lol.

 

ROCKET RICHARD AWARD (LEADING GOAL SCORER IN TEH GAME Who else, the ageless Alex Ovechkin with 33. 3 ahead of Skinner and Tavares.

 

  Those are my picks, most IMHO are bullet proof, you could argue the Hart and maybe the Selke but the rest IMHO are no brainers.

[Hockey-78]

I don't necessarily agree with you about every trophy winner but my god, you can write like the best!

[yave1964]

3 minutes ago, Hockey-78 said:

I don't necessarily agree with you about every trophy winner but my god, you can write like the best!

Why thank you sir

[hf101]

On 1/22/2019 at 12:57 PM, yave1964 said:

SELKE TROPHY (LEAGUES TOP DEFENSIVE FORWARD) Bergeron wins it every year but is nicked up, Kopitar is usually his closest competition but plays for a loser, I am giving this one hands down to BRAYDEN POINT. On top of being the leagues first 30/30 guy this year (30 goals 30 assists) he is an absolute delight to watch when he doesn't have the puck, he forechecks as if he invented it. The best defensive forward in the game today, arguably the most complete forward in the game today.

 

Maybe this is the year that Crosby takes home the Selke?   Last weekend at the All Star Break he told reporters ...

 

“I mean, I think your play has to earn that. Anyone can say that, but I think I definitely want to be known as a player who’s responsible defensively and I want to be good offensively, but do it the right way. And I think for the most part this year that’s been the case. I think you leave that up to others to watch and decide, but I certainly take a lot of pride in being good defensively.”

 

Last week, the PHWA released their mid-season awards as Patrice Bergeron, Aleksander Barkov and Mark Stone were the Selke nominees.   But hey,  when Crosby speaks,  others pay attention, and he may have opened a few eyes as he currently is a +19, (Bergeron is  a +3) on the season and is only 0.4 % less in Face Off wins vs Bergeron.   Crosby also has scored 57 points compared to Bergeron's 41 pts.

 

Crosby will go into the record books if he wins the Selke.  As no player in NHL history has ever won a Hart, Art Ross, Conn Smythe and a Selke in their career.

 

Comparing Crosby's stats to Braydon Point.  Crosby has 8 points less than Point.  Point has a + / of +17, and a FOW % of 49.2%.  And 22 of Point's points are on the PP where Crosby only has 14.

 

After looking up these stats today, I don't know why Barkov and Stone were given mid-season honors.