Will Arnett shouldn’t host things in the future. Harsh but true. Get Amy Poehler and Tina Fey next year NHL. I don’t care if they don’t know anything about hockey. Icing on the cake if they do.
Winners:
Hart: Patrick Kane
Vezina: Braden Holtby
Jack Adams: Barry Trotz
Norris: Drew Doughty
Selke: Anze Kopitar
Lady Byng: Anze Kopitar
Bill Masterton: Jaromir Jagr
Ted Lindsay: Patrick Kane
Rookie of the Year: Artemi Panarin
GM: Jim Rutherford
King Clancy: Henrik Sedin
Messier: Shea Weber
Foundation: Giordano
I mean, there was a lot of predictability in this year’s awards. Kane was MVP in December. Everyone saw Holtby coming three miles away. Rutherford won as soon as Mike Sullivan was proven to be effective.
There were three big upsets this year, and those include: Drew Doughty (Norris), Jaromir Jagr (Bill Masterton), and Anze Kopitar (Lady Byng). There were other upsets, like Shea Weber beating Alexander Ovechkin for the captain award, and PK Subban not winning the Foundation award, and even a soulless twin getting the King Clancy, but the people presenting those awards have an understanding of what they’re doing, and the Messier relies upon the opinions of a single person, which isn’t a great idea, even if that person is Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking, and Messier is not their hockey equivalent (if I had to name one, it would be Friedman. He was funnier than Arnett).
Why are these awards upsets? Let’s take it one at a time.
Jaromir Jagr was nominated for the Bill Masterton because he’s in his forties. He trains, works, and plays like he’s not. While this is very admirable, there have been older players than him in the league. Gordie Howe was putting up excellent numbers at 50. Age should not be a winning factor in hardship, especially when one of Jagr’s fellow nominees took a slapshot to the skull, had that skull fracture, and then lose the ability to speak and to walk, who got out of bed, said no, this is not how it ends, and recover. Mats Zuccarello was one of the best players on the Rangers, and his was one of the most underrated stories of the year. He deserved that award, and I feel like even Jaromir Jagr would admit it, and I have the sinking feeling that in a few years this will be the Macklemore/Kendrick Lamar situation, where the guy who lost is amazing, and the other guy hasn’t been heard from, but Jaromir Jagr isn’t Mackelmore. And if anyone in the NHL is Kendrick, it’s Jonathon Toews. In a world full of Chances, J. Coles, and Kanyes (without the personality), Toews is the underrated megastar. The point is, Zuccarello deserved this award for skating before he could talk, for running before he could walk, for doing what seemed impossible. Jagr’s feat has been done and will be done again.
Drew Doughty won the Norris trophy, despite finishing only 11th in goals, 12th in assists, and 10th in points. This is the offensive defenseman award, and the only place Doughty finished in the top 5 was in plus/minus, and he barely qualified in the top 5 there. This award is about his past, being nominated three times and never winning, always bested by better defensemen (or better offensive defensemen), namely Duncan Keith and Erik Karlsson. While I appreciate the break from Karlsson wins, going with Brett Burns would have been the better choice, especially considering that Burns led or was in the top three in points, goals, and assists. But again, this was about past successes more than current successes, and Burns didn’t have the resume that Doughy does. But if this was a fair, year by year voting system, Burns would have won.
And lastly, Kopitar was the most penalized of all the Lady Byng finalists, and it is for that purpose that I cannot see why he was given the award. If the award is a combination of sportsmanship and talent, then yes, I can see it going to Kopitar. But if it’s all about sportsmanship, which it claims to be, for that reason it should have gone to Barkov with only 8 penalty minutes this year. Eriksson is also in this conversation, because he had only 12, four less than Kopitar and squarely in the middle, but led the three nominees in goals with thirty. But ultimately, Kopitar was penalized eight times over eighty games, and led the three in points. I can see where they’re coming from more than I can see what the Bill Masterton is about. That’s what I’m most upset about this year.
Nope. What I’m most upset about is that Brent Seabrook, despite finishing 13th in defensemen scoring, came in 20th in Norris voting. Behind guys like Hampus Lindholm, Ryan McDonagh, and Brian Campbell, who he is definitively better than, and scored more than. Keith wasn’t robbed at 11th, and that’s actually where Seabrook should have finished instead. Stop trying to do two things at once, Norris, and let’s just introduce a defensive defenseman award. Niklas Hjalmarsson deserves some hardware.
Lets also get some fresh blood in the voters. The fact the Selke came down to a guy going for his fourth, a guy going for his third, and a guy going for his first is embarrassing, but relieving that that the first timer won. This is not the Patrice Bergeron award, and I’m glad it got away from the faceoff award too.