The NHL Awards

I'm not officially back for blogging yet, but I figured I would make a post about the NHL Awards from last night. It looks like the turnout in Las Vegas was great which is a good sign for the league. Just no team there, please.

I watched the red carpet arrivals before the actual show on NHL.com. I was starting to wonder where Carrie Milbank went off to because I don't know if The Hockey Show got the boot or what. I enjoyed watching it every once and awhile. I think my favorite interview had to be with Sergei Fedorov, only because I had no idea his English was so perfect. You listen to retired players like Igor Larionov, and they're English is still broken but then again, I think Larionov came here in the 80s'...Maybe Fedorov did too, I don't know. I was still pretty surprised.

Ovie being the gentlemen on the red carpet, of course. I felt super bad for the showgirl on his left because for most of the time on the red carpet, she had to hold up her 2K sign. It fell down probably before they arrived and she had someone fix it later. I am glad that Ovie said an interview though that he enjoyed 'Pool. Beer. Girls. Party.' Oh NHL, what have you done by setting Alexander Ovechkin loose on the city of Las Vegas?

The first award up was the Calder Trophy, with Steve Mason winning it with a large lead ahead of Bobby Ryan. I was watching this with my mom for most of the time, and she felt like he had an incredibly long speech. I didn't mind his speech so much but I would like him to tell his girlfriend that she cakes on the eyeliner. Honey, I bet you look beautiful under all of that.

Oh, and this is for Cari because I know how much she loves Verbeauty:

That is a nice tie, Kris.

(For the rest of the time, the awards are going to be out of order because I don't have a list in front of me of how the order was.)

The Fan Fav Five(? Jeremy Roenick's going to come get me for this one.) was given to Roberto Luongo. I watched him walk up there, almost smacked my forehead and I wanted to say 'You really screwed up that last game against the Blackhawks.' I just keep thinking how he let in seven goals. Ugh. Okay Lu, next year is a new season - and as Michael Bublé said on the red carpet, if only the Stanley Cup went to you fellas. Then again, I'm a happy camper with the winners of it this year. WOOOOOOOOOO!

Jean Belivéau won the Lifetime Achievement Award from Gary Bettman. Gordie Howe won it last year, bring Mr. Hockey and all. I really love Mr. Belivéau's French accent. I also love when they show clips of old hockey games. They need to find footage from like, the 1950s' and air it on the NHL Network because I would so watch that.

Evgeni 'Geno' 'Frankenberry' Malkin won the Conn Smythe after the Penguins won the Cup, and he also won the Art Ross Trophy for having accumulated the most scoring during the regular season. I was happy to see Geno with the Conn Smythe, though I would've loved to see Max Talbot with it too. He was a big help to the Pens success this year in the playoffs. Still, it is very well deserved by Geno. He played a lot better this post season than he did last year.

Ethan Moreau (who I thought was Steve Staios, I don't know why...) won the King Clancy Award for showing a lot of dedication to the Edmonton community. I always get choked up when I watch montage with little kids who are in hospitals and are getting the chance of a lifetime to meet their heroes. From the photographs they showed on the big screen, Ethan really deserved the award.

Pavel Datsyuk won the Selke Trophy and the Lady Byng Trophy. So not only has he stolen the Lady Byng from Jason Pominville, but he stole the Selke Trophy from Ryan Kesler too! You and I are not on good terms Mr. Datsyuk.
I really didn't think Ryan has a chance against Pavel to be honest, but it would've been awesome to see him win it. I'm still mad about Pommers. ):

Jarome Iginla won the Mark Messier Leadership Award. You know, I would love to be able to watch more Flames games just for Jarome. I've heard so many great things about the guy, and I know Anne loves him, so when I get the NHL Newtork back in the fall I will have to watch more of those games. That's the unfortunate part about being on the east coast - I see the likenesses of Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Vinny Lecavalier - but what about Jarome, Roberto Luongo, Niklas Backstrom?

Alex Ovechkin won the Hart Trophy, the Rocket Richard Trophy, and Lester B. Pearson Award. He always is a crazy guy on and off the ice, but I like seeing him at this award show too because he always comes off as a humble guy. He acts like a douche sometimes but I really do like Ovie and the type of player. Obviously not when he plays against the Sabres because he scores every single game they play against him. Oh, and I was so waiting for them to show the clip of him embarrassing Hank and Toni then scoring on Ryan. The Sabres lost that game, right? I don't even remember. All I remember from that game is that Alex destroyed Thomas' leg and then he came back and scored in the second period. Take THAT!

Tim Thomas won the Jennings Trophy with Manny Fernandez, and then won the Vezina Trophy. I was listening to the NHL Hour with Gary Bettman before the Awards show and Tim Thomas explained his entire story of coming up to the NHL. He's actually been through quite a bit as a player; trying to hard to get to the big leagues. I think he's certainly established himself as a great goaltender, and this trophy is the icing on the cake. I'm sure the USA goaltender debate has already started...

Nicklas Lidstrom's Norris Trophy run was ended by the gargantuois Zdeno Chara. I guess Nicklas didn't have the exact year that he wanted and Zee had a much better one. I reall have no thoughts on the pick because even though we Sabres fans watch Boston a ton, I never really noticed how Chara played. All I know about Mike Green was that he scored over 30 goals, was it? Oh, and his fauxhawk is pure love. Derek Roy, take notes!

Boston continued to clean up as Claude Julien won the Jack Adams Trophy. Now I was talking to my mother after he got up there, and was completely confused. Lindy Ruff won it back in '06 for what he did with the Sabres after the lockout - leading them to the Eastern Conference Finals. Claude Julien this year led the team to the top of the East all year long. Lindy Ruff did that in '07, got them to the East. Conference Finals AND they won a President's Trophy, but Alain Vigneault won in Vancouver (which is fine by me). Now, how do they pick the Jack Adams winner exactly? I am just entirely confused to the whole process and what they look for.

Well, this was a really long post for my first one back. Exciting! I haven't been writing major posts lately and I wanted to make this one worthwhile. Hopefully I'll get back to being here a lot soon after I get my laptop for school.