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| nhl.com |
The NHL has announced
its 2014 award trophy finalists. Some
are obvious nominees and some may be a little surprising. Winners will be announced on June 24 during
the 2014 NHL awards ceremony at the Wynn in Las Vegas. I break down the awards, the finalists, and
who will be going home with the hardware.
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| cdn.com |
Finalists: Patrick Marleau (San Jose Sharks), Ryan
O’Reilly (Colorado Avalanche), Martin St. Louis (New York Rangers).
Prediction: Patrick Marleau. He captured his seventh 30 goal season in 9
years and helped San Jose to another 100 point season. He’s the heart of the San Jose Sharks and
leads by example. This is his 2nd nomination for the trophy.
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| sportsinteraction.com |
Finalists: Tyler Johnson
(Tampa Bay Lightning), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), Ondrej Palat
(Tampa Bay Lightning)
Prediction: Nathan
Mackinnon. Nathan was electric for the
Avs in his rookie season. He led all
rookies in points (63) and broke a Wayne Gretzky record for single season point
streak (13 games with a point) for a player 18 or under. Anytime you break a Gretzky record you
deserve to win something.
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| politikis.com |
Finalists: Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins), Anze Kopitar
(Los Angeles Kings), Jonathan Toews (Chicago Blackhawks)
Prediction: Anze
Kopitar. Anze is one of the premier back
checkers in the league. He logged the
most shorthanded ice time among the top 30 scorers in the league and is tied
for fourth in the league in plus-minus (+34).
Having seen all 3 players in person he is the best choice for this
award.
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| nhle.com |
Finalists: Ben Bishop (Tampa Bay Lightning), Tuukka Rask
(Boston Bruins), Semyon Varlamov (Colorado Avalanche)
Prediction: Tuukka
Rask. Helping lead the Bruins to their
first Presidents Trophy (best team) since 1990, Tuukka was the only goaltender
in the league to be top 5 in all major statistical categories. He was 4th in GAA (2.04), 5th
in wins (36), 2nd in save percentage (.930), and 1st in
shutouts (7). He also led Finland to a
Bronze medal in the Sochi Olympics and is currently having a good playoff
performance.
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| bleacherreport.com |
Finalists: Zdeno Chara (Boston Bruins), Duncan Keith
(Chicago Blackhawks), Shea Weber (Nashville Predators)
Prediction: Zdeno
Chara. He is a 6’9”, 255 lbs menace and
may be the best defensemen in the league.
Boston was ranked 2nd in the league with goals against (177)
and Chara was ranked top ten among defensemen with goals (17), plus/ minus
(+25), power play goals (10), and game winning goals (3).
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| washingtonpost.com |
Finalists: Mike Babcock (Detroit Red Wings), Jon Cooper
(Tampa Bay Lightning), Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche)
Prediction: Patrick
Roy. As well as Mike Babcock did this
year with half of his team being new and under the age of 25, Patrick Roy got
the Colorado Avalanche back into the playoffs with new purpose. This was Roy’s rookie season and after the
Avs finished 29th overall last year, Patrick propelled them to 112
points and 2nd place in the west.
Colorado also tied a franchise record with 52 wins.
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| thehockeynews.com |
Finalists: Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins), Ryan
Getzlaf (Anaheim Ducks), Claude Giroux (Philadelphia Flyers)
Prediction: Ryan
Getzlaf. With a career high 31 goals and
87 points (second in the league), Getzlaf helped the Ducks take the top spot in
the West this season. Ryan posted a 14
game point streak and set a career high with game winning goals (7). He was also part of the gold medal winning
Canadian hockey team at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Interesting!
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