The NHL all-star break has arrived, so it is time to share my 10 award winners to date:

MVP: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh). Despite missing the last nine games with a concussion, Crosby carried the Penguins during a 25-game point streak that included a whopping 24 goals. Overall, he is sitting with 66 points in 41 games. Crosby is still the game’s best player.

Honourable mention: Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay). The NHL goal scoring leader with 38 and points leader with 67 is shining in just his third season.

Top goalie: Tim Thomas (Boston). The Bruins are first in the NE Division largely because of Thomas who leads the NHL in save percentage, goals against average and shutouts. He is well on his way to a second Vezina trophy in three years.

Honourable mentions: Pekka Rinne (Nashville) and Henrik Lundqvist (NYR). Both are carrying the load for their team with terrific save percentages.

Comeback player: Tim Thomas. Just last season he lost his starting role to Tukka Rask. Now the roles are reversed.

Honorable mention: Justin Williams (LA). Williams had been hurt much of the last three seasons but is second on the Kings with 39 points and an impressive +16 mark.

Best defenceman: Dustin Byfuglien. (Atlanta) The ex PG Cougar has been a tower of strength on the Thrashers back end both offensively and defensively. He leads all rearguards in goals with 16 and game winners with six. Byfuglien is the Thrashers leading scorer even though he does not have
a point in his last 10 games. Atlanta is in the hunt for a playoff spot thanks to players like “Big Buff”.

Honorable mention: Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit). Kris Letang (Pittsburgh). At age 40, Lidstrom is in the running for another Norris Trophy with 42 points, but he is a minus-3. Letang has 41 points and is an eye popping + 22.

Top rookie: Jeff Skinner (Carolina). Skinner, a recent addition to the all-star game, leads all freshmen in scoring with 40 points in 50 games. The 7th overall draft pick last year is second to Eric Staal on the Hurricanes in goals with 18.

Honorable mention: Sergei Bobrovsky (Philadelphia). Had anyone heard of this Russian goalie prior to this season? Bobrovsky has a respectable 2.42 GAA and .920 save percentage.

Top coach: Ron Wilson (Toronto): Sorry, I lost my mind for a moment. Barry Trotz (Nashville): Every season Trotz does more with less. The Predators are in a playoff spot battling for home ice advantage despite a roster that is largely comprised of role players. Nashville does not have a player in the top 100 of league scoring. My goodness, even Habs reject Sergei Kostitsyn, is the Predators third leading scorer. Does anyone even notice that ex-Cougars captain Dan Hamhuis is no longer there?

Honorable mention: Guy Boucher (Tampa), Alain Vigneault (Vancouver). Remember the Lightning missed the playoffs last season.

 

Best team: Vancouver. The Canucks had a stretch of 17 consecutive games with at least one point. Ryan Kesler’s emergence is a huge contributing factor to the team’s season. Keep in mind, reaching the pinnacle at this time of the year does not necessarily mean the Canucks faithful should be mapping out a parade route.

Honorable mention: Philadelphia and Detroit. Both teams are experienced and dangerous, but still have a question mark in goal.

Most fan apathy: NY Islanders. A once proud franchise is averaging just 9,856 fans per game or 60 per cent of capacity. What did John Tavares do to deserve this?

Honorable mention: Phoenix (10,796 fans per game) and Atlanta (13,053).

 

Biggest decline: Martin Brodeur (New Jersey). Age catches up to all of us. The 38-year old Brodeur has nearly twice as many losses as wins, a GAA of nearly three and a save percentage below .900. Hard to imagine just a year ago he started for Canada in game one of the Olympics.
Oh well, he is still the best of the Brodeurs as Mike Brodeur of Ottawa has a 4.33 GAA and a .833 save percentage in just four appearances.

Honorable mention: Alexei Kovalev (Ottawa) and Chris Phillips (Ottawa). This explains why the Senators are where they are in the standings.

Biggest Bust: Ilya Kovalchuk (New Jersey). Hands down winner with a league worst -29 plus/minus rating. Over 800 players have a better mark. How is that $100 million dollar contract looking now? At least the Russian forward made the highlight (low light?) reel for badly mishandling the puck during a futile shootout attempt against Buffalo on November 10th.

Honorable mention: Sorry Kovalchuk owns this category all to himself.

Now, we can all sit back and watch (yawn!) Sunday’s all-star game, in Raleigh; and cheer for Team Lidstrom, or Team Staal. That’s about as exciting as watching Kovalchuk in a shootout.

 

 

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Comedy writer Jerry Perishohttp://monologuewriter.blogspot.com/

 

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