The Hart Memorial, "Terrible" Ted Lindsay, and Trevor Linden Trophies

Since we have the same nominees, essentially for both award they are all getting thrown together. Official Hart Memorial Trophy nominees are: Daniel Sedin, Corey Perry and Martin St. Louis. The Ted Lindsay Trophy also has Sedin and Perry, but substituted St. Louis for his teammate Steven Stamkos. So the winner of this category will get both trophies, much like when Chris Jericho unified the WWF and WCW Titles. Yeah that reference just happened.

Anyway, this award is kind of a tough one. It is kind of surprising that two Tampa Bay Lightning players were nominated. Nothing against the players or the team, but they finished fifth in the Eastern Conference. Not exactly a top-ranked team. My opinion is Henrik Lundqvist should always be nominated because he seems to be the only reason the New York Rangers ever make the playoffs.

Another omission was Tim Thomas. Boston is still a good team without him, but no way they finish Top 3 in the Eastern Conference with Rask in net. This was a weird year though with no real players taking command. If you take Thornton or Heatley away from San Jose, do they really fall off that much? But dwelling on omissions is not what we are here for.  

I think this award has to go to the only 50 goal scorer in the NHL this year, Corey Perry. Not like he played on a team with scrubs, both Bobby Ryan and the ageless Teemu Selanne had plus 30 goals and plus 70 points, but where Anaheim finished and what his performance meant, you can't deny his importance.

As for the Trevor Linden Trophy this was a difficult choice. I mean who do you go with. Daniel Sedin is the obvious choice, but a case could also have been made for Henrik, Alexandre Burrows (PK and PP time taken into account), Christian Ehrhoff (for longevity on the Blueline), and Manny Malhotra (PK, Face-offs, and being the engine of the best third line in hockey). But I think a surprising break-out season takes the cake, and the trophy goes to Ryan Kesler.

He scored just over 40 goals, which I don't think anyone saw coming, and was a key component not only of the PK, but also the PP. He also had to step up his game once Malhotra went out, due to his face-off ability. He was a consistent performer, scoring timely goals, winning key face-offs, blocking shots, and using the body. Definitely the team MVP.