Some see Vincent Lecavalier as the front-runner for the Hart Trophy as the leagues MVP. I don't get that. The Hart Trophy is awarded to the player considered to be the most valuable to his team. Lecavalier is the most dominant and dynamic player in the NHL right now, no argument there. But, to be honest, he is playing on a team that really stinks right now. Sorry Vinny, to get my nod the team has to benefit from your efforts, at least a lot more than Tampa is right now.
Instead my Hart Trophy would go to Henrik Lundqvist. Only Phoenix and the Islanders have scored less goals than the New York Rangers, and only St. Louis has given up less. Despite this glitch in the offense the Rangers sit on top of their division and third in the eastern conference. That along with his 14 wins is enough to be the MVP for now.
When naming his early choices for the All Stars, ESPN's Barry Melrose wished he could pick Nicklas Lidstrom twice for the West. The Norris Trophy is no contest. Lidstrom is top-3 in most categories and he needs to retire for anyone else to get a fair shot at that trophy.
Some say Patrick Kane, I say sure. Some say Jonathan Toews, yeah why not? Kane leads all rookies in points, but Toews a more complete package. That considered, they are both awesome and it's hard to pick, so I pick Tobias Enstrom. He leads all rookies in ice-time, averaging 23.26 in Atlanta. He is not a big guy but he plays with the confidence worthy of a veteran against the opponent's best players. His smooth playing reminds a bit of certain five-time Norris winner.
Henrik Lundqvist is the only goalie who is top-4 in all of the categories. His 14 wins is league leading. We've seen and heard it all before. At the moment it would be pretty damn difficult to hand the Vezina Trophy to someone else. However, come back in about 20 games and I will not be surprised if Martin Brodeur is leading the race once again.
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Interestingly, if the playoffs were upon us right now, seven of the league's top-10 point scorers would not be participating. Only Henrik Zetterberg, Daniel Alfredsson, and Cory Stillman would be making a push for the cup, while Crosby, Lecavalier, Kovalchuk, Sundin, Ovechkin, Iginla, and St. Louis would take an early vacation. Luckily, there is still time to turn things around.
2 comments:
You're right on the money that the Hart Trophy is supposed to go to the "player most valuable to his team". That is the official criteria for giving out this prize. But in practice the NHL has never really enforced that rule and this has been debated for as long as I can remember. It has simply become customary to award the Hart to the most dominant/prolific skater the league has to offer each year.
Another anomaly about the same trophy is that it is supposed to be attributed to the team MVP's performance during the regular season. In other words, not the post-season. However, the Hart Trophy is (hardly) ever awarded to a player whose team missed out on the playoffs. A great example of this was when Jarome Iginla won the NHL scoring title a number of years ago. Had the Flames made the playoffs that year, Iginla would have been a lock for the Hart. Instead, it was handed over to Montreal's Theodore.
B-Fox
I agree, Iginla would have gotten the Hart, had the Flames made it to the post season. But I think Theodore deserved it. He had great stats and led a crap team, where Yanic Perreault led all skaters with 56 points, to the playoffs. I believe a team should make the playoffs for any player to be considered. What I mean is, there should be some level of team success that can be attributed to, to a large extent, that MVP. In this case the playoff berth was the deciding factor, and rightly so.
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