Campbell, Eberle, and Moulson got Lady Byng noms. That has to be Campbell's to lose.
Backes, Bergeron, Datsyuk for the Selke. Got to be Bergeron but only because Datsyuk missed time. Bergeron played :30 more on the PK per game, won a higher percentage of faceoffs (59.2 to 56.0) and had a higher +/- than Datsuyk (+36 to +21). Bergy did have far fewer takeaways (97 to 55) and on BHN's Quality of Competition metric, Datsyuk absolutely blows Bergeron out of the water (1.162 to .520. Backes at 1.158). In QoC of players that played more than 70 games, Datsyuk ranked 36th, Backes 37th, Bergeron 173rd (19th, 20th, and 115th for forwards alone).
Also Detroit's GAA is a full goal lower with Datsyuk in the lineup which is insane.
---------- Post added 2012-04-23 at 01:08 PM ----------
Alfy's playing for the Sens tonight. Good luck Rangers. You now have to beat the already emotionally high Senators on the road and now you have to face them with their best player back from injury certain to give the team another confidence boost. Gonna take a miracle to stave off elimination let alone win the series (or Richards and Gabby have to actually score which might be considered a miracle).
Last edited by conscript; 2012-04-23 at 05:07 PM.
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Oh, totally forgot about Halak / Elliot. Dumb european newbie question: Why are they not eligible?
I'd go with Quick for the Vezina, as said. I think the Rangers and the Predators would still be in the playoffs even with Biron and Lindback in the crease, probably not as first and fourth seed, but still. But I don't see how the Kings would be anywhere remotely close to anything even slightly smelling of playoffs without Quicks stellar performance this season. Same goes for Smith by the way, just that Quick was more constant over the whole season.
That said I'll still be rooting for Rinne of course, the big man deserved it. But from a neutral point of view I think Quick deserved it a bit more this season.
Vezina nominees can only be single players rather than their platoon situation (stupidly). I don't think either of them played enough games to garner the votes necessary to be a finalist for the reward. Elliot only started 36 games which will hurt him badly despite having by far the best GGA and SV% in the league.
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Pairs still win Jennings though, and since I just checked, they did win it.
I think the Vezina is working fine as it is, to show what goalie was a dominant force in the past year in the NHL.
If Lindbäck could have taken the Preds to the playoffs, yes. But my impression for Biron is limited to all losses when I've seen him play (coincidence more than anything), no matter what year as well as him playing horribly in the NHL'12 be-a-pro where I'm a defenseman. :P
It'll def be Rinne Lunqvist and Quick, but to pick a winner is so hard. Each goalie has had such good years. Rinne played more games and in turn had more wins. Both Quick and Lunqvist are below 2.00 GAA and all 3 are above .920 save % with Quick and Lunqvist being at .929 and .930 respectively. The only thing working against Rinne is the fact that his GAA is well above 2.00 (compared to the other 2 that is). It's so close but I believe it's mainly between Quick and Lunqvist. Lunqvist plays on a better team but he also plays against the most offensive teams on a regular basis. But on the other hand, Quick literally gets minimum goal support. Kings had so many 0-1 2-1 low scoring games this season it was unbelievable.
I'm going with Henrik Lunqvist because A) he took the Rangers to the #1 spot in the East and almost a Presidents Trophy while Quick plays in a significantly weaker division. B) Rangers defense is extremely inexperienced and injured this year. C) He's from the East, there are so many writers that vote on this from the East and they get more exposure to him. Same reason why everyone's so surprised at Mike Smith this post season.
edit: awkward is it still the GMs that vote or the writers?
I don't think Bettman understands that Nickelback is the most horrendus thing to come out of Canada in years. You know, other then Raffi Torres.
I would say its Datsuyk's Selke for sure, just looking at the numbers alone he should get the win. Regardless of the good years by Quick and Rinne, Lundquist has been overlooked too long imo, he'll get the Vez for sure.
You can tell WoW changed the MMO for good when players started complaining about the amount of time they sink, into a time sink.
This thread has gotten trolltastic lately. Poor Fuzz actually getting reports from the sports section.
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Do you play hockey? Like seriously, have you ever put on a pair of skates and played hockey? Apparently not. Getting cross-checked from behind 1) hurts and 2) easily knocks you off your feet. And the reason he was looking around for a call is because it was a blatant cheap shot. It wasn't even during play. It was AFTER a goal was scored. Also that wasn't in the playoffs, and it wasn't a dive. So... I don't know what purpose that clip showed, but okay. How about Giroux faking throwing a puck to a bunch of girls in Pittsburgh? That was okay though, right? It's funny how everybody loves to call our Crosby yet they'll completely ignore everything else that the Flyers do. What about Hartnell biting? That's okay. You're not a real hockey fan when you watch one side of a game. I guess it's a pretty easy way to watch though. Be as biased as you want, but all your arguments are illogical. The fact that you can call out ONE player in a league of nearly a thousand and completely be oblivious to what every other play does is pathetic. It's okay though, there's a reason why you're sitting behind a computer screen complaining about a player who is the best in the world, making millions of dollars a year.
---------- Post added 2012-04-23 at 10:06 PM ----------
So... you pick Lidstrom, a player who is what.. 16 years Crosby's senior? Has been a captain for how long? Has been in the league for how long? You can't compare Crosby to Lidstrom, you just can't. And does Lidstrom cry to the refs? Yes, he does. If you play hockey, you cry to the refs, plain and simple, especially if you're a captain. So once again, it's clear you don't play hockey but you clearly know all the inner workings of hockey, from the couch. Still waiting on an example from this series when you said Crosby dived. The Schenn cross-check to the back was regular season, and wasn't a dive. So.. I'll wait.
So who gets the Norris Nods?
Im going Weber Chara Lidstrom. (again). no idea on the winner, probably Weber.
mirix, I'm neutral but don't get the amount of hate either, but the mod asked us too stop discussing it because it was getting flame intensive, so stop. Fuzzie gets what he wants around here, lol.
I agree with the Norris nods of Weber, Chara and Lidstrom. By far the most dominating defensemen in the league by a mile. I'm going with Lids winning because its gonna he his last year (calling that too btw).
Well, my point that I was trying to make, and seemingly made, is Crosby was a "whiner" early in his career, and he recently admitted that, but he's not anymore. Also, it seems that half of the people calling him out for diving and being a whiner, haven't played hockey so they wouldn't even know what a real dive is, other than listening to the media.
I know we're supposed to drop the Crosby thing, but that "cross check" by Schenn was just hilarious.
As for the Norris discussion, Weber, Karlsson, Chara, Lidstrom and maybe even Pietrangelo are deserve nods for the award. It'll probably end up with Weber, Karlsson and Lidstrom as the nominees, imo.
Edit: Pietrangelo is 22 O_o? God damn he's gonna be good.
Last edited by Irony; 2012-04-23 at 10:32 PM.
You can tell WoW changed the MMO for good when players started complaining about the amount of time they sink, into a time sink.