Is anyone excited about the NHL Awards Show tonight? I kind of forgot about it until recently.
Fellow blogger, Sean Leahy came up with a great idea to poll bloggers and ask them who should win the various awards. He called his creation, the 2008 Blogger's Awards, and he was nice enough to send me an email asking me for input about a month ago. But somehow I forgot about it. Doh!
Sorry about that Sean.
I thought that since pretty much everyone else is picking their winners, I might try something different here. Not only will I pick who I think should win, but I will offer a Canes Country Blog MAJOR Award to the players who LEAST deserve the recognition. Kind of like proposing an antonym for each award. Let's get started!
Vezina Trophy-
I think that Martin Brodeur will win this.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
John Grahame, who had a save percentage of .880 and GAA of 3.75 last season, which was at or near the bottom of the league. "Crackers" earned a one-way ticket to Russia for his effort and signed a contract to play over there for the next 2 years.
Calder Trophy-
Patrick Kane should win this.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
Blake Wheeler, who refused to be a rookie for Phoenix. How can anyone tell Wayne "friggin" Gretzky, "I don't want to play for you, dude...."
Lady Byng Trophy-
I think that Pavel Datsyuk should win this, even if he was less than gentlemanly in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
Who else but Sean Avery? Can anyone think of another player who is less of a gentleman? The guy will cheap shot you all night long, but will rarely if ever drop the gloves for a fair, face to face fight. Chicken "bleep".
Selke Trophy-
Henrik Zetterberg should get this one. His play on Crosby during that huge 5 on 3 was something legends are made of.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
Ilya Kovalchuk for his perpensity to just hang around the blue line and wait for the puck to bounce out to him. While his defensive "awareness" has improved from where it used to be, I think that "Kovalshoot" will always be primarily an offensive player.
Hart Trophy-
This is the no-brainer of all no-brainers. The surest bet of all horse races. The mother of all gee-hads. This player can do it all, and on top of it has a passion that is hard to match on the ice. Alexander "the great" Ovechkin.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
This was a hard choice, but I picked Michal Handzus, a player who was highly sought after in last year's free agent market and used to be a hard-working, dependable center for the Flyers, but who has been reduced this past year to just being an over-paid joke. For those who think that Erik Cole didn't perform up to his 4 million dollar contract last season, Handzus had just 7 goals in 82 games for the same amount of money in Los Angeles.
Jack Adams Trophy-
I think Bruce Boudreau should win. Give Mike Babcock a last place team and see if he can turn it into a division winner in just a few short months. If he can, than he deserves it.
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
Lindy Ruff, because he is the master of "deflection". 'Nuff said.
Norris Trophy-
Niklas Lidstrom. Can it be only a matter of time before the NHL renames the award to the "Lidstrom Trophy".
Bubba's MAJOR Award goes to-
The other Nik, Niclas Wallin. "Nic", has done a lot for the Hurricanes over the years and everyone loves him, but after he put the kabosh on an offseason trade by utilizing the "no-movement clause" in his contract, he should have tried harder to show how it would have been a big mistake to trade him, not have fans wish that the trade would have taken place. The worst plus-minus stat on the entire team of -18 in just 66 games played, says it all.
I think even Nicky would admit that he is better than that.
Masterton Trophy-
I like Fernando Pisani to win this, but I wouldn't bet on it.
There will be a few bloggers live-blogging the event tonight. I'm not sure that there will be enough happening to write an on-going blog about, but we will see. Good luck and congratulations to all the nominees.