Woo Hoo, the NHL Vezina Awards are tonight!

Okay okay, so it's not all about the goalies....this time!! But I will admit the Vezina Award is the most important for me.


We have a new group of candidates this year.

Rookie Phenom, Steve Mason. When Pascal LeClaire went down in the season due to injury, the Blue Jackets thought they were in trouble. They called up Steve from the Syracuse Crunch. He exploded onto the scene putting up ridiculous stats. In 61 games he had 33 wins and 20 losses. his GAA is 2.29 (putting him in 2nd place in the league) and a sv% of .916 which ties him for 11th.



Next up for the Vezina is Niklas Backstrom. Despite a nagging hip injury that needed surgery, Backes soldiered through the season anyway (did you get that, Gaborik?) putting up consistently good numbers. Nicklas played in 71 games and had 37 wins and 24 losses. He had a GAA of 2.33 (tying him for 3rd) and a sv% of .923(4th place in the league).



Next is my beloved Tim Thomas. If you haven't read the article in "The Hockey News" on Tim Thomas, please do so. It's fantastic. If you want, email me (sunshine36616@yahoo.com) and I'll see if I have the pdf of it still. He has had an amazing journey to the NHL.
Aside from the feel good story of Thomas, his numbers are undeniable. He played in 54 games and had 36 wins. An example of his consistency...he only lost back to back games ONCE this season and the second game was a 0-1 loss. His GAA is 2.10 (1st place in the nhl) and his sv% is 9.33 (again 1st place).



Nice job, Backes. Mason, take your baby trophy and go home. The Vezina is coming home with Timmy!







And, so apparently they give away some other trophies that aren't goalie related.

The trophy that most (non-goalie obsessed) people are excited about is the Hart Trophy for the Most Valuable Players.

This year's nominees are:
Pavel Datsyuk
Alexander Ovechkin
Evgeni Malkin

In my opinion (which is worth a sack of crap), Ovechkin deserves this. Without a doubt he is the most valuable player on his team. I would love Geno to win it, but he is part of a team that is very team oriented. If Geno gets injured, they have someone that can step in and help out until he returns. Same thing with Datsyuk. I think Ovy is more valuable to the Caps. If he goes down, they are screwed.

Another important award is the Norris Trophy for best defenseman.

Nominees:

Nicklas Lidstrom

Zhedeno Chara

Mike Green

I'm gonna go with Chara on this one. Mike Green is a great offensive defenseman, but as my husband loves to (repeatedly) point out, he focuses more on the offense part. Lidstrom is always a great choice. He's won a ton of these awards for a reason. This could be Chara's year. Chara had a strong season and lead his team to the top of the regular season, while Lidstrom did get off to a slower start. I'm not sure if Lidstrom can handle not winning, he's still crying about Crosby not shaking his hand after the Pens won.



The award that I'm second most excited for (because there is a goalie involved) is the Calder Trophy for best rookie performance.

Nominees:

Kristopher Versteeg

Steve Mason

Bobby Ryan

Versteeg had a great season with Chicago, scoring 22 goals and 31 assists. Bobby Ryan started the season in the AHL but came to the NHL and ended up leading all rookies in scoring (57 points and became the only first year player to reach the 30 goal plateau in 2008-09.

This award is Masons. As I mentioned above, he exploded onto the scene and took charge. He is the catalyst that got the Blue Jackets to their first ever play off spot.

Kris Versteeg SHOULD get an award for this though:

Oh, and what does Marty Brodeur do on the rare chance he isn't nominated? Well he gets honored by the General Assembly of course! New Jersey State Senate in a special ceremony at the State House will declare a Martin Brodeur Day! To celebrate, everyone bangs their sister in law. I'm KIDDING! I love you, Marty!

Congratulations Marty, enjoy your day!

Forgot to add....there are more awards being handed out, but I don't have pictures of the nominees, lol.