The 2016 NHL Awards is about to get underway momentarily and I am here to give you the highlights of the show and my take on the winners. This blog will be frequently updated through-out the evening so come back often and get the latest.
Before the show gets started I want to offer up congratulations to Bill Foley and his new Las Vegas franchise! Great stuff, if for no other reason that it should at least guarantee that our beloved Oilers don’t finish dead last again in 2017-18! Superb!
The first award of the evening is the Calder and the award that all the Edmonton Oilers fans are interested! The three finalists are our own, Connor McDavid, Shane Gostisbehere and the senior citizen Artemi Panarin. Of course the award has gone to the old man. Not taking anything away from the season that Panarin had but let’s be serious folks. Connor is the best player to enter the league in over a decade, if not longer!
Don’t worry about it Connor, there is always the Art Ross and Hart trophy you will win next year!
Am I the only one that is completely over Tony X? Good to see the NHL trying to grow the game and bring in new fans but enough is enough as far as I’m concerned! Just let it go people.
Ted Lindsay Award is up now. The three nominees are Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn, and Braden Holtby. If I am voting my choice is Patty Kane folks, and I suspect that will be the final result as well. And the winner is??? Patrick Kane, adding to his already impressive trophy case. Don’t forget folks, Kaner is the Art Ross winner this year as well!
Up next we have magician duo Penn and Teller for what I am not exactly sure. Watching their predictions they are making for the upcoming Las Vegas franchise is painful. Nominees for the GM of the year award are Jim Nill, Jim Rutherford and Washington’s, McLellan. No surprise here folks but Rutherford walks away with the hardware after his team wrapped up the Stanley Cup little over a week ago. Can’t say as this surprises me at all. I’m just thankful that Penn or Teller, whichever one never shuts up, is done talking!
The Bill Masterton trophy is up next. The three nominees this year are recently retired, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Zuccerello and the legendary Jaromir Jagr. Jagr wins! That to me is the first surprise of the evening. Jagr is a tremendous competitor but in my opinion this award was Dupuis’ or Zucc’s. Both returned from possible career ending injury or illness and although Duper retired I think he should have been the one being called on stage.
The Mark Messier leadership award is next. Thankfully it is presented by Moose. The three nominees for the trophy are Alex Ovechkin, Shea Weber, and John Tavares. I have no clue which way this one is going to go and really does anyone care? I mean leadership is tremendous and all but we are here for hockey awards, am I right?
The winner is Shea Weber, captain of the Nashville Predators. I guess at least this way Weber will finally win an award after being nominated for the Norris trophy three times only to lose out on all three occasions.
Moose and Tara Sloane stay on stage and get ready to present the King Clancy trophy for best community involvement or something along those lines. Henrik Sedin is the winner of the award and is obviously quite the humanitarian! Good work Sedin!!!
The NHL foundation player award is next folks. Mark Giordano, Matt Martin and PK Subban are the three nominees. This is another community service award and this years recipient is Mark Giordano! Good on you guys all for your awesome work!
Stay tuned for additional updates through out the evening folks! The awards show will continue!
Cheers,
Rob
