Back on May 2 I posted up the list of nominees for the NHL individual awards and my predictions of who would win.
The awards I covered included the Calder, Selke, Hart, Adams, Norris, Lady Byng, Pearson and the Vezina.
And except for the Adams, Lady Byng and Pearson, I was spot-on with my other predictions.
Evgeni Malkin won the Calder, Rod Brind'amour the Selke, Sidney Crosby the Hart (and the Pearson), Nicklas Lidstrom the Norris and Martin Brodeur the Vezina.
The Adams went to Vancouver's Alain Vigneault (I'd picked Buffalo's Lindy Ruff), the Pearson to Crosby (I'd picked Vincent Lecavalier) and the Lady Byng went to Pavel Datsyuk (I'd picked Colorado's Joe Sakic).
OK, so I went five for eight. Still not bad, eh?
Other awards that I didn't post predictions on were the Masterton Trophy, which went to Boston's Phil Kessel for returning back to action after surgery for testicular cancer, and the King Clancy went to Montreal's Saku Koivu for his charity work.
The biggest surprise for me was Crosby winning the Pearson, as there was a perception that he might not yet have the full respect of his peers at such a young age to garner enough votes to win. The fact that he has should now cast no doubt as to his greatness.
It's one thing for fans to be critical of his getting awarded the Hart as that's voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association, but when the players vote him the Pearson, signifying their choice as the league's MVP, that ends the debate. They play the game and know true greatness when they see it.
TKF: We've had this debate before regarding your claims of "East Coast bias", and I've disproven your baseless claim.
To refresh your memory, prior to this year's awards, the winners of the recent NHL awards clearly indicates no bias against Western players.
The professional hockey writers association votes for the Hart, Norris, Calder and Selke trophies. The GMs vote for the Vezina winner, and the NHL Broadcasters Association votes for the Adams winner. I fail to see where bias enters into it.
Prior to this season, four of the last six Hart winners were from the West, as were three of the last seven Calder Winners, three of the last six Adams winners, five of the last 8 Selke winners, and 7 of the last 8 Norris winners.
Since the GMs select the Vezina winners, and there can be no suggestion of too many GMs in the East, then obviously a number of Western GMs believed only two Western goalies of the last 13 Vezina winners were worthy of the award."
This year, the Adams went to a Western Conference coach, and the Byng and Norris to Datsyuk and Lidstrom, who play in the Western Conference with the Red Wings.
And if you believe there's "bias" against Western Conference teams not called Detroit, remember that Evgeny Nabokov, Barrett Jackman and Chris Drury won the Calder; Jere Lehtinen was a three-time Selke winner; Joe Thornton, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic, Chris Pronger, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky the Hart; Jacques Lemaire, Bob Francis, Joel Quenneville, Marc Crawford, Pat Quinn, Brian Sutter, Bob Murdoch, and Glen Sather the Adams; Chris Pronger, Al MacInnis, Rob Blake, Chris Chelios, and Paul Coffey the Norris; Joe Sakic, Pavol Demitra, Paul Kariya, Wayne Gretzky, Brett Hull and Joe Mullen the Lady Byng; Markus Naslund, Hull, Messier and Gretzky the Pearson; Miikka Kiprusoff and Ed Belfour the Vezina.
All won with teams not called the Detroit Red Wings.
I too was surprised that Crosby received the Pearson. All I've heard in the media/messageboards/blogs (not yours spec, but just in general) is that he's an immature whiner, he dives, (insert other baseless claim here) ... well if the guys out there on the ice with him think he's worthy of a Pearson, that's certainly not their perception. And I would trust their judgement over anyone else.
Seriously, the only legitimate claim you would have at bias is if Brodeur didnt have the year he had, and Luongo stood alone as the best goalie, and he still didnt win it ... but that wasn't the case. Both were great, but Brodeur is the one that broke the record, and he deserved it. As much as everyone was saying the Byng goes to Sakic, he still had more penalty minutes than TWO other candidates. So I'm not sure where bias comes in.
One more thing : East coast bias? That implies that the American media actually gives a #### about hockey ... which is pretty humorous, especially given that anyone who tuned into the awards show last night in the US was treated to UFC and boxing ... woohoo.
Well spec there's another piece of hardware for Marty and more fuel for the never ending debate.
I'm very surprised Crosby won both Pearson and Hart. But he is pretty darn good.(understatement of the year) Looks like the start of an award filled career.
No other big surprises except the Byng, I thought that was Sakic all the way.
As far as Versus goes, that's just par for the course. I've been complaining all year about the lack of hockey coverage here in the states. To tell the truth, I'm not disapointed because I didn't expect the awards show to be aired at all.
Actually, guys, regarding Versus, it wasn't their fault. CBC was to provide the feed to Versus but one of their trucks overheated (in fact, it nearly caught fire) and thus Versus couldn't get the feed in time, hence the reason they went with their ultimate fighting show.
I am really becoming increasingly alarmed at the poor decisions made by the NHL. During the playoffs, the officiating (the Alfredsson kick in goal overturned - an actual philosphical impossibility - the two missed diving penalties, the lack of an Alfredsson suspension for firing the puck at Niedermayer...) and the selections for all the hardware are horribly wrong. If the NHL wants to sell its sport, it needs to forget about all the marketing expertise of some fancy NYC or LA firm. What makes hockey great is the honour, the respect, the values and the sense of it being pure. When the league proclaims that Vancouver did well due to their coach and not their goalie, they are robbing their goalie. Luongo clearly was more valuable to his team than any other player. Nothing against Crosby - he's clearly the top talent. But the award isn't for the top talent. It is for the player who is most valuable to their team. I don't agree with much of what is happening with the powers that be. Help! Let's get this game's dignity back to where it used to be.
I don't think there is any east coast bias in the NHL, maybe in MLB or NFL. The only East Bias i see is actually pretty prevelant in US college hockey, when teams like BU, BC and Maine are ranked number one at season start and then when they travel west to play North Dakota or Minnesota or any WCHA team and get trounsed.
hmmm ... i was involved in that whole east coast bias debate too ... and IIRC I thought there was one ... but not as strong as some others ... and for entirely different reasons.
In the case of these awards I think that Luongo deserved MVP but I don't believe the reason he didn't win was east coast bias ... I just think it was because there was a voting split for goalies because of Brodeur and Luongo ... As to Brodeur getting the Vezina ... as far as I am concerned you can shut your eyes and throw a dart for the decision between those two so I don't think Canuck fans should feel robbed or bitter or anything like that.
Especially after Vigneault won. I really thought he deserved it because I believe he did more with less. I was worried that it would be awarded to one of the other two candidates ... particularly Therrien because he held together such a young team. But I think he had a lot more talent to work with ... especially up front.
Wildgopher: Except for the fact that Maine started the season ranked significantly lower than ND and Minnesota, and 1. Beat Minnesota in their first game of the season in Minneapolis (Hall of Fame Game), and 2. Swept North Dakota when they travelled there
I do agree, however, that BC was ranked number 1 for no good reason for a long time where those Western teams should have been ranked higher--at least at the beginning of the season
And you can argue for bias in the rankings, but despite that the WCHA has totally owned the national championship (the only ranking that matters) in recent years until this year .... which (as a Hockey East and Maine fan) is tough for me to even admit.
Herman: The "powers that be" messing up the hardware? If you want to argue that, you have to also say the players are part of the problem in not recognizing their best players, because they too voted for Crosby. It seems to me the players would know better than anyone who the best players are.
Toaster: Granted what you said, those things did happen last year. However, they were just a small statistical "excepetion" of a larger trend. There has been a divide in college hockey since the 1970's between the East and West. It reached its pinnacle with the selection of the 1980 Olympic team, when the team came from two camps: Minnesota and Boston. I think the rivalry/bias is good for hockey,especially in the US. It shows that Americans are loyal to their roots and passionate about hockey, and Canadians are not the sole appriecators or the only true "choosen" fans of hockey, which I hear so much about.
Last edited by WildGophers on June 15th at 9:58 AM.
Toaster: The Lester B. Pearson award is voted for the most outstanding player, not the most valuable. I concur with the popular vote of Mr. Crosby's colleauges that he is the most outstanding player. There is a subtle, yet massively significant difference.
Versus did show the awards show last night, it just didn't air until 11pm EST.
Spector,
I didn't realize the GMs vote for the Vezina. That is actually somewhat unfair; for both East and West coast goalies. Because of scheduling, GMs won't necessarily see every goalie. By the end of the regular season when they're ready to cast a vote, they won't be able to vote for a goalie that they may have deemed worthy because they saw their team play them only once or not at all. I'm sure this evens out somehow and it's hard to argue with the nominees for this season, but I wonder how much different the final votes would have been if there was a more balanced schedule.
What I don't understand is, you've got a pretty even hardware split among east and west this season, and the west won the cup (arguably the most important piece), yet still there's westerners crying wolf over bias. What happens if next season all the awards go to the Western conference? Will the eastern-bias wagoneers be silenced? Will they bother to remember at the close of the following season, when everything goes to the Eastern conference?
Each award has it's own voting pool. The media have a vote for some awards, players have their votes, GM's have their votes, etc. Maybe the media wants something to write about, maybe they're biased so they can keep their jobs. But the players? The GMs? Not everybody involved with hockey is as shallow as one Gary Bettman.
KingsFan: I don't believe scheduling has anything to do with it. If it did, Kiprusoff wouldn't have won it last season, now would he?
Look, there's nothing unfair about it. Luongo had a great season, and it wouldn't surprise me if he wins the Vezina next season, but Brodeur led the league in wins and shutouts, and had a better GAA and SP than Luongo. It's a no-brainer.
As for Crosby winning the Hart over Luongo, the fact is that 19-year-old Crosby accomplished more with less in Pittsburgh than Luongo, an older player whose coach preached team defense above offense this season.
Not only that, but the Canucks were never in any danger of moving, the Penguins were, and Crosby's star power was enough to convince the powers-that-be in Pittsburgh to kick in for a new arena to keep the Pens in Steeltown.
Put simply, Crosby was more valuable to his team than any other player. Maybe next year somebody else (Luongo, perhaps? Ovechkin?)will win the Hart over Crosby, but I doubt it because the kid's that valuable.
Secondly, cyrmu mentioned that Sid only won the Hart because the voters split between Luongo and Brodeur, which watered down their chances. That's absolutely false. If you take Luongo and Brodeur's first place votes COMBINED, they do not add up to the number of first place votes that Crosby received.
Crosby got 91 first place votes, Brodeur 25, and Luongo got 21. Face it people, the VAST MAJORITY of those who voted felt Sid deserved it. The only valid argument here is to argue that they were ALL, in fact, wrong ... not a stance I'd be taking anytime too soon.
Spector,
That is my point exactly. Brodeur deserved to win this year, but how many GMs from the East didn't vote for him because they saw more of Luongo. I'd hate to think they merely voted because they looked at a goalie's numbers or admire a goalie because of their reputation. It's great that Brodeur won and I for one am delighted that he did, not because of a bias. I'm also thinking about the future and will this eventually be an issue regarding final votes?
I wrote a couple months back that Sid should have won the Hart, and I think it was more then justly deserved. Stasny charged late, but Malkin was great the whole season, and he deserved that as well. I was a bit disappointed that Micheal Terrian didn't win the Jack Adams, he has done an amazing job turning around the whole mentality in Pittsburgh, and did a great job allowing his young players play. Tell I'm a Pens fan yet? Haha. But yeah, I was surprised that Crosby won the Pearson, because it really isn't that loved around the league, he already gets booed heavily in Philly and across Canada. Other players are renowned for taking shots on and off the ice for his supposed diving and whining. But I guess his overall greatness was to tough to deny, and he can now be said justly that he is the best player right now in the NHL.
I still can't figure out why Kopitar wasn't nominated for the Calder. Sure he got injured towards the end of the season, but you can't argue how great he was. I'm not taking aything away from Malkin, but Kopitar should have atleast been nominated.
Its Simple. Kopitar was not nomnitaded because he plays in the Western Confrence.
How could you say that Detroit is a Western team. True they play in the west. but they are in the eastern Time zone. Most "voters" are bed when our games out here start. It's ####. Luongo has that kind of season and wins "####" I 1000 percent garentee you if Luongo has that exact same season with Tornonto or Philly he wins an Award.
Spector I do not want to hear about past award winners. The only time someone West of the Rockies wins an award is if 1. No one out East has a great year or 2. Your name is Wanyne Gretzky. Thorton got lucky last season because he played in the East for som long that people know his name. Flat out Palssson Luongo and Pronger got SCREWED
Kings fans, I tell you, there is no east-west bias in the NHL. Only North-South; check Spector's last blog about sun belt teams(very good). Yes, Kopitar put up second line stats, which might win you a rookie trophey as long as Malkin is not in the mix. The team I follow also plays in the West, and I dont think there is any bias. In college/High School hockey, Yes. But pros, no way. Loungo should have never come close to the Hart. Backstrom put up the best numbers by far(Loungo and Brodeur stats are weak against Backstrom), and he(Backstrom) doesn't even get a wiff of Hart/Vezina status. Next year Backstrom will win the Vezina. Quote me now! I've watched every NHL game Backstrom has played, and he is the real deal, and I know how good Brodeur is(i get Center ice and play fantasy hockey). Maybe Backstrom didn't win the Vezina, because he plays in the Upper Midwest!!!
TKF: The only reason you don't want to hear about past award winners is because it doesn't support your little conspiracy theory, which like all conspiracy theories falls apart in the face of the cold, hard facts.
Of the Selke nominees, Brind'amour was the only one on the happy side of plus-minus, and posted those stats on a non-playoff team. Pahlsson was a minus player on a Cup contender. That doesn't mean he's not a good checking forward (and he was my choice for the Conn Smythe), but when voting for the Selke one must take the stats into consideration, and for checking forwards plus-minus is a big one.
I've already stated why Brodeur and Crosby were deserving of the Vezina and Hart respectively so I won't chew my own cabbage twice.
As for Pronger, had he played more games this season compared to Lidstrom he might've won this award. As it stands, Lidstrom had more points and a superior plus-minus rating (+40 compared to Pronger's +27).
WildGophers: Backstrom only played half a season; Brodeur and Luongo full seasons. It wouldn't be fair for Backstrom to win the Vezina over those two. Now, if he posts those kind of stats throughout a full 2007-08 season, then yes, hand Backstrom the Vezina as he'll have earned it.
Personally, and i know everyone will disagree with me because i am a Devils fan, but feel like Pahlsson diddn;t even deserve to be in the same bretha as Brind'Amour and Pandolofo, and maybe its because i watced every devils game this season but i really feel like "Pando" got robbed this season. He did what he did every night against the oppositions best, and Marty's GAA SO and SP show the results. Yes marty had a hand in it, but if not for Pandolfo and Madden his numbers wouldn;t have been as good. Also i think its a travesty that this is THE FIRST TIME pandolfo has been nominated for this award. His role on the Devils hasn;t changed in almost 10 years, and he plays that checking role so well that he has 2 Championship rings on his fingers. As well as Brindy played, i think the nod should have gone to Pando. There is too much attention paid to offensive numbers when the voting goes on for the Selke
As for East vs. Bias. i agree with whoever said that there is no bias because simply put the MEDIA DOESN:T CARE... PERIOD END OF STORY. the MEDIA SUCKS!!!
I'm Lyle Richardson, also known as Spector, Foxsports.com 's "Prince of Pucks".,which is based on the fact I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada and I couldn't think of a better byline. I've been an NHL hockey commentator since 1998 on my website, Spector's Hockey, and I'm a contributing writer for Foxsports.com , The Hockey News and Eishockey News. I'm also a regular on The Faceoff Hockey Show and a frequent guest on "The Late Crew" on The Team 1200 Ottawa.
