First of all, PHBA stands for the "Professional Hockey Bloggers Association." Laugh at will. Anyway, The Royal Half, a Kings blog (curse them), put together a monstrous event where they summoned a bunch of us bloggers to predict the winners of each of the "main" NHL award based on a points system. We were to choose the top 5 candidates for each award. When I say "we" I mean, a huge host of bloggers out there. I personally represented Nucks Misconduct's choices because, you know, predicting is fun even if I watched the least amount of hockey this season than I have in years.
Here is the general consensus from all da bloggers, and I will include my picks as well AND the top 3 picks of the professional hockey writer's association (PHWA), even though they just list their top 3, not in order, or whatever)
HART TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Sidney Crosby 2. Ryan Getzlaf 3. Claude Giroux
NM: 1.Crosby 2. Varlamov 3. Getzlaf
PHWA: Crosby, Getzlaf, Giroux
LADY BYNG TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Ryan O'Reilly 2. Tyler Seguin 3. Martin St. Louis
NM: 1. O'Reilly 2. Selanne 3. St. Louis
PHWA: Marleau, O'Reilly, St. Louis
VEZINA TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Tuuka Rask 2. Semyon Varlamov 3. Ben Bishop
NM: 1. Rask 2. Varlamov 3. Price
PHWA: Bishop, Rask, Varlamov
SELKE TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Patrice Bergeron 2. Anze Kopitar 3. Jonathan Toews
NM:1. Bergeron 2. Krejci 3. Backes ( ah geez, I know. WTF)
PHWA: Bergeron, Kopitar, Toews
CALDER TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Nathan MacKinnon 2. Ondrej Palat 3. Tyler Johnson
NM: 1. MacKinnon 2. Palat 3. Torrey Krug
PHWA: Johnson, MacKinnon, Palat
NORRIS TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Duncan Keith 2. Zdeno Chara 3. Shea Weber
NM:1. Keith (spits) 2. Weber 3. Alex Pietrangelo
PHWA: Chara, Keith, Weber
ADAMS TROPHY
PHBA: 1. Patrick Roy 2. Mike Babcock 3. Jon Cooper
NM: 1. Roy 2. Cooper 3. Boudreau
PHWA: Babcock, Cooper, Roy
Check out the picks of all the bloggers out there at The Royal Half.
MASTERTON TROPHY?
Jagr still playing as an old man? Who cares. The real candidates are Manny Malhotra and Dominic Moore.
Manny suffered a career-threatening eye injury as a Canuck and was dropped by the Canucks in the summer of 2011. He didn't quit tho. Well, Mike Gillis did quit on him, but Manny was signed by the Carolina organization. He was an associate captain with the Canes and had the 2nd-best faceoff % in the NHL.
Dominic Moore faced massive-fucked up situations. I'm just gonna quote NHL.com here:
Moore, 33, returned to the NHL this season after taking a leave of absence from the League in the spring of 2012 in order to care for his wife, Katie, after she had been diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. Katie passed away at the age of 32 in January of 2013. Moore thereafter established the Katie Moore Foundation (katiemoore.org), dedicated to helping patients and families with rare cancers through research, advocacy and community.
My choice: Dominic Moore. End of fucking story.
The NHL players (peers) have selected Crosby, Getzlaf and Giroux as the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award.
But let's hear YOUR opinions for the awards. What did you see? Are the PHBA and PHWA full of shit? Of course we are! Let your thoughts be heard in the comments section!