NHL Awards - Selke and Larionov Trophies

There have been some surprising nominees for the NHL Awards this year. It will be interesting to see who wins. I am usually pumped when award season rolls around, but lately they have begun to be more political than based of actual merit. A perfect example this year will be when Shea Weber gets the Norris when Nick Lidstrom is clearly better. But Weber is Canadian, and anytime a Canadian has a decent year they are automatically the front runner...Barret Jackman anyone?

I am going to go through all the awards and pick my winners, and who will probably win. I am also going to pick the player that corresponds for that award on the Canucks. Kind of like a one club NHL Awards if you will. First off, the Selke:

This might be the toughest one, and I am already eliminating one of the nominees. The three finalists are: Jonathan Toews, Pavel Datsyuk, and Ryan Kesler. Nothing against Toews, and this has nothing to do with my hatred of the Blackhawks (I am mature enough to recognize skill over personal opinion), but he is a distant third in this. This is pretty much Datsyuk's trophy to lose every year. He has been lock down, but in my opinion Kesler gets the edge this year. I know the voters love voting for the guy with the most goals, which defeats the purpose of this award, but Kesler was locked in this year. He won key defensive zone face-offs on the PK and kept that machine, lowest GAA (2.20) in the NHL this season, rolling.

Datsyuk is like the guy who is steady every year. He is always going to be a great defensive player, who stays out of the box, as he shuts down the opposing teams top line, but every few seasons another player comes along and has a stellar season. That season is this one, and that player is Kesler.

Surprisingly, Kesler is not my pick for the best defensive forward on the Canucks, which I am naming the Larionov Trophy in honor of Igor Larionov. That award goes to Manny Malhotra. This is not because of his injury, however, in some respects it is, because the true value of Malhotra's presence was seen. He was the engine that ran that line. Hansen and Torres fed off his energy and heart. I said it all season and it was true all season, that was the best thrid line in all of hockey, no doubt about it. 

The proof is in the third line since Malhotra went out. There have probably been about 12 different incarnations of it. Jannik Hansen has been the only one to continue along as well as he was before, and he has been shakey at times. Manny was the man all year on that team, but just didn't get enough goals to be considered as the best defensive forward...no you read that correctly.

The Canucks Win Game Three...Wait What?!

Way to go Joel. Man you are one crafty coach. I mean you had a pretty good team last year, but the Blackhawks won the Cup clearly because of your coaching ability. I mean how can you argue with a guy who backed into the playoffs, I mean thats just good coaching. Just like that move you made last night. Dressing John Scott, just a genius move, Bowman-esque if you will.

I mean when you don't have Byfuglien interfering, errr I mean screening, Luongo you have to Byfuglien-Lite. So light that he runs into his teammates on one of the SEVEN powerplays the Blackhawks got. His lack of production was probably due to the 5:20 of ice time he got, none of which is in the third. Good move Joel, way to use your coaching genius to make up for you teams poor play (Duncan Keith) and lack of effort (Patrick Kane).

Despite the refs best effort the Canucks overcame. Hansen had another solid game, the Defense looked strong (more on them), and of course Bobby Luo did what he does. Now I know Chicago had 32 shots, but half of those came in the first period. They were bending but they didn't break. And if they slipped up, Bobby was there.

Speaking of slipping up, I am sick and tired of hearing about Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and the "great" Chicago defense (I intentionally used a lower case "d"). They give the puck away constantly, and can barely hold it in the offensive zone. Duncan Keith was a sieve on the Powerplay. He looked worse than Mikael Samuelson playing the point. We are supposed to believe this is someone who is going to win multiple Norris trophies? Please.

I will end with the news that came out today on Raffi Torres. There will be no further discipline against him for his hit on Brent Seabrook. One of the best things about Twitter is the instant reactions, and last night was full of great points made for both sides. My opinion is this, was it a bad hit? Yes. Was it a dirty hit? No. I don't think Raffi was trying to hurt Seabrook, but I think he was trying to drill him.

I don't condone hits to the head, or cheap shots at all. But in this case I don't believe Torres was trying to be dirty. He was going in to hit Seabrook and Seabrook turned and his shoulder hit his head. Its unfortunate, but Seabrook isn't exactly an innocent bystander. Last season in March, he t got Ko'd by James Wisnieski, after he went head-hunting on Corey Perry. Not saying that justifies it, but kind of the pot calling the kettle black in my opinion. The Blackhawks don't seem to have a problem when Seabrook is doing the same thing to other players.