2011 NHL Awards Update: Best performances of 2010-2011 season to be honoured –Part 2
In the previous part of this article, we dealt with the details of the upcoming 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) Awards, which will be held on June 22, at the Pearl Concert Theatre inside the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We also covered the potential winners of the Hart Trophy for the regular season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and the exciting Vezina Trophy which will be awarded to the top goalie of not only the regular season but also the playoffs.
There are still a number of categories that still need to be covered and their importance cannot be undermined. Since the playing style of ice hockey in the NHL is vast, there are categories for almost every type of contribution players provide to their
teams.
James Norris Memorial Trophy
The James Norris Memorial Trophy also known as the Norris Trophy in its short form, is different from other awards, because it concentrates on honouring a player for his performance in his specific defensive position.
Like the Hart Trophy, the Norris Trophy is also selected in a poll of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association at the end of the regular season.
This year, like every other category, there are three finalists for the reward. Boston Bruins’ captain, Zdeno Chara, Detroit Red Wings’ captain, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Nashville Predators’ defenseman, Shea Weber.
All three have been major contributing forces for their teams without which getting where they were in the playoffs would have been impossible.
Lidstrom is known as the most experienced defenseman in the league, having been nominated 11 times in the past 13 seasons and winning six times, he is not new to this position at all. The 40-year-old Red Wing’s player ranked second in the league during the
previous season with 62 points.
Chara might not be leading the league in terms of points scored, but he was the most consistent defenseman in the league. He finished the regular season with a plus/minus rating of 33, which is without doubt the highest and a real competitive point against
the other nominees. That is not all, Chara led his team to its first Stanley Cup in 39 years which is an achievement of its own kind.
Shea Weber, the 25-year-old defenseman from Nashville Predators is the only player on the list who has been inducted in the nominations for the first time in his career. At such a young age, he led Predators to its first conference semifinals in the club’s
history and is one of the top time-giving defenseman in the league.
Calder Memorial Trophy
Named after Frank Calder who gave an award out every year to a certain outstanding rookie player, the tradition continues in the form of the Calder Memorial Trophy. Like the American Hockey League (AHL) holds the Calder Cup Finals after its regular season,
rookies are awarded when they make it to the big league by the Calder Trophy.
This time around, there was serious competition from some of the youngest the league has ever seen. Logan Couture from San Jose Sharks, Michael Grabner of New York Islanders and Jeff Skinner from Carolina Hurricanes, are up for the award.
The award is also given after a selection made by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.
Centre player, Jeff Skinner, is an outstanding nomination for the award just due to the numerous achievements he has made this season. Selected as the seventh pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Skinner was the youngest, now 19, and also the only rookie out
of the three who was selected for the NHL All-Star Game. He also led Grabner and Couture in terms of points, 63 points, so seeing him win the award would not be much of a surprise.
Couture gives serious competition to Skinner. The San Jose Sharks’ centre not only took his team to the playoffs after a great regular season, he broke the franchise’s record with 32 goals and also broke the NHL’s record for most goals scored by a rookie
of his age. San Jose might not have won the cup this year, but Couture was an unstoppable force throughout.
Grabner has the most goals out of all three with 34 in the season and is also above Skinner with a plus/minus rating of 13. His stats show that he is one of the best rookies since Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby came along which also puts him at par with
the former two players.
To be continued in part 3...
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