Damn, did I ever miss a lot. Here is a quick house-cleaning session of the major events that happened over the past week before free agency starts (checks watch) IN 2 HOURS?!?!:
Awards
Norris : Nicklas Lidstrom
Probably got the "he's probably retiring, give him one more" vote even though he recently said he would return.
Frank J. Selke: Ryan Kesler
He blew out Toews and Datsyuk in the voting. It helped the Datsyuk missed quite a few games.
Jack Adams: Dan Bylsma
He edged out Alain Vigneault, HBO's 24/7 had to helped him in the voting.
Calder Trophy: Jeff Skinner
Was there any doubt he would lose? Had a good season for an 18 year old.
GM Award: Mike Gillis
You can tell the refs don't vote for this award. Vancouver did have a good year though.
Lady Byng: Martin St. Louis
Martin St. "Lewis" easily beat out Lidstrom and Loui "EIGHT friggen penalty minutes" Eriksson.
Vezina: Tim Thomas
Again, was there any doubt we would lose this one? No word though if he was willing to pump Luongo's tires afterwards.
Hart Trophy: Corey Perry
Getting hot during the voting period definitely helped. Kind of disappointed that Daniel Sedin didn't follow in his twin's footsteps.
Ted Lindsay: Daniel Sedin
Well, if the press wasn't kind to Daniel, the players were.
Bill Masterton: Ian Lapierrere
He DIDN'T play this year! I thought that was a requirement for this award.
Mark Messier Leadership: Zdeno Chara
He led Boston to a cup, can't argue with that.
Draft
Just as expected, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was picked first overall by the Oilers. Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado), Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida), Adam Larsson (New Jersey...wait what?!?!), and Ryan Strome (New York Islanders) round out the top 5. Some "new" team called the Winnipeg Jets* picked Mark Scheifele, who was ranked in the teens. Now ranking won't matter too much in a few years, but there were better players ahead of him that should have been pick, especially if your re-building the team. Other Canadian teams first round picks:
Ottawa: Mika Zibanejad (6th), Stefan Noeson (21st), Matt Puempel (24th)
Calgary: Sven Bartschi (13th)
Montreal: Nathan Beaulieu (17th)
Edmonton: Oscar Klefbom (19th)
Toronto: Tyler Biggs (22nd), Stuart Percy (25th)
Vancouver: Nicklas Jensen (29th)
I got to say one thing about the Habs: 5 Defensemen? Really? Ugh...
*DON'T get me started on the return of hockey to Winnipeg, I'll do that myself sometime before the season.
Hall of Fame
Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Eddie "Billion Dollar" Belfour were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. They are all obviously deserving of this honour.
As usual with any HHoF class is that the snubs tend to get more attention. Pavel Bure, Adam Oates, Eric Lindros, and Dave Andreychuk were among the the players getting snubbed this year. Pat Burns (for the SECOND straight year) gets snubbed as a builder.
The big question (outside of the Burns snub) is why did Mark Howe get in this year and not last year. Last year was Dino Ciccerelli ALONE. Now that there quite a few snubs this year, and even more star power eligible for next year's class, wouldn't the time to induct guys who were overlooked for so long be last year?
Stay tuned for tomorrow. I'll attempt (and most likely be lazy and forget) about the headlines and free agent signings.
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