While the NHL is still in the midst of announcing the “finalists” for the league’s regular-season awards, I have a few awards of my own to hand out based on what I’ve seen over the past 10 days of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. ↵
Awards Through First 10 Days of NHL Playoffs
↵
↵
↵↵Biggest Waste of Playoff Space: After limping into the playoffs and qualifying for the eighth and final seed in the Eastern Conference, the Montreal Canadiens hardly put up a fight before getting swept out of the first round by the Boston Bruins. The league would have been better off if the Florida Panthers, a team and an organization in desperate need of the sort of boost a playoff appearance could have provided, had qualified instead of the Habs. As for Montreal, qualifying for the playoffs only postponed the inevitable housecleaning that will probably start with GM/coach Bob Gainey. ↵
↵↵Biggest Playoff Disappointment: After importing coach Todd McLellan and winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the best record in the regular season, the San Jose Sharks find themselves in familiar territory -- on the brink of yet another postseason disappointment as they face a 3-1 deficit in their series with the Anaheim Ducks. Going into the season, the Sharks appeared to have done all they reasonably could have to contribute to success in the playoffs by bringing in McLellan, a former Detroit Red Wings assistant coach, and also by acquiring defensemen Dan Boyle and Rob Blake. But for some reason, that still isn’t enough, and it’s tough to see how anyone could perform a heart transplant on the entire roster. ↵
↵
↵Ignoring the Hockey Pundits: Before the trade deadline, plenty of folks -- including yours truly -- were openly advising Ducks GM Bob Murray to clean house and start rebuilding the franchise. Instead, Murray stuck to his guns, traded a few assets in order to restock his defense corps and held onto both Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. The result: a 3-1 lead on top-seed San Jose that has the deepest defensive corps in all of hockey. ↵
↵↵Getting the Most Out of the Lineup with the Least: I don’t want to minimize the role Rangers GM Glen Sather played in acquiring key players at the trade deadline, but it’s hard to underestimate what sort of challenge John Tortorella had on his hands when he took over in New York late in the season. Still, he not only got his team into the playoffs, but he got his players committed to playing his brand of hockey, the sort of hockey the Lightning played when Tortorella led them to the Stanley Cup in 2004. Now, the Rangers are just one win away from eliminating Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals from the playoffs. ↵
↵↵Worst Performance While Your Team is Winning: While plenty of folks expected Sean Avery to be his usual self against the Capitals, nobody expected the Caps to be so thoroughly unaffected by his antics. In fact, they have been so successful in ignoring Avery while refusing to be baited, that it’s hockey’s bad boy who seems to have been driven over the edge. After failing to get to rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov in Game 3, Avery rapped the goalie in the head in the third period, something that earned him a 10-minute misconduct and an early trip to the locker room. Avery was handling things more or less in the same manner in Game 4 -- he took two stupid penalties that put Washington back on the power play when the Rangers had a one-goal lead. If the Rangers put away the Capitals in Friday’s Game 5, they will have won the series despite Avery’s play.↵
↵
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
See More:
