It is always fun to look back at the numbers from previous years’ voting. Last year’s NHL Awards produced some obvious results and a few surprises to a point. Those surprises were deeper in the results. Here is a Your Slot Here from last June on that very thing.
———————————————————————————
On a hot and windy Friday…..hey that’s more like summer weather. Today we spotlight several different votes that completely confound me to no end. Let get the voting breakdowns thanks to the fine folks at the NHL and Puck Daddy as well.
And now the Lady Byng……….
Finally the Hart Trophy……
Let’s start off with the Selke…the closest vote of the night. Three votes??? Yes I am going to say this. The reputation crap that has gone on far too long with the NHL Awards has gone on far too long. This awards show was minus fresh blood…it was almost dead. People had more fun outside of the awards. That folks is very disappointing and disheartening for someone who is definitely considering going next year.
By the way Mike Richards got six more first place votes than Pavel Datsyuk (61-55). That usually is enough of a margin to win out but it was not. I guess you can win solely on repuation right Ray Bourque? Right Nick Lidstrom? Even right Martin Brodeur? There is no excuse for these voting bodies to say oh we cannot possibly see every player. That is BS to the nth degree! There is this thing called the goddamn internet. Perhaps even the writers have heard of it and all voters. I am sure they use it every day.
The Lady Byng was even worse. Not only did Pavel Datsyuk win but Martin St. Louis finished 2nd. I am not saying the right choice was Zach Parise but considering how hard Parise plays and how tenacious he is. The voting folks could have done something different but no they went with the safe choice. The problem with going with the safe choice is you really do snub the more deserving. Well maybe Parise will win an award someday…probably when Martin Brodeur retires.
Finally there was the Hart (voted by the writers). The Pearson was going to be Ovechkin’s no matter what. However, the Hart should have been closer. Doing rudimentary math….477 votes in a race like this is not even remotely close. Its almost a landslide. We get it the league has a hard-on for Ovechkin come award time but this was yet another case of reputation winning out. My vote honestly would have gone to Malkin….he did more overall during the season but some will always disagree. Maybe next year Evgeni?
The bottom line is that the reputation issue made this show very lackluster. It did not help most of the speeches were moribund at best. A memo to anyone who votes next year….do your homework a little later and you may save some scrutiny the day after.
Sincerely,
Chris Wassel
Director Of The Program
