Jay Mohr will again be hosting the NHL Awards 2011, a year after the hockey-hating comedian entertained a cavalcade of hockey stars in Las Vegas for the first time a year ago. Joining him this year will be all of those trophies and just about everybody in the hockey world -- from Tim Thomas and the Stanley Cup winning Boston Bruins to Sidney Crosby, who surprisingly won't be winning an award this year thanks to injuries.
NHL Awards 2011: Hockey’s Biggest Stars (And Jay Mohr) Gather In Las Vegas
But they’ll all be there, along with such award-winning acts as Dierks Bentley, who’s apparently a popular country singer, and Far East Movement, who I’ve also never heard of.
The real focus of the night isn’t the list of B and C-list celebrties who will gather at the Palms Hotel, though. It’s all about the heroes of the game, notably Thomas, who’s expected to go home with his third piece of hardware in less than a week when he adds the Vezina Trophy to his collection.
The race for the Hart Trophy is also a pretty heated one, with Corey Perry, Daniel Sedin and Martin St. Louis all up for the award. Perry led the Ducks to a playoff berth with an unbelievable final few months of the season, while Sedin will try to keep the award in the family after his brother Henrik won it a year ago.
In total, 11 awards will be handed out on Wednesday night. Here are those awards and the finalists for them.
Hart Memorial Trophy: Corey Perry, Daniel Sedin, Martin St. Louis
Vezina Trophy: Roberto Luongo, Pekka Rinne, Tim Thomas
Norris Trophy: Zdeno Chara, Nicklas Lidstrom, Shea Weber
Calder Trophy: Logan Couture, Michael Grabner, Jeff Skinner
Lady Byng Trophy: Loui Eriksson, Nicklas Lidstrom, Martin St. Louis
Selke Trophy: Pavel Datsyuk, Ryan Kesler, Jonathan Toews
Jack Adams Award: Dan Bylsma, Barry Trotz, Alain Vigneault
Masterton Trophy: Ray Emery, Daymond Langkow, Ian Laperriere
Ted Lindsay Award: Corey Perry, Daniel Sedin, Steven Stamkos
The Awards have a bit of a bad reputation for being overly lame, but one thing is for sure -- if there's a skit like last year's with Bobby Ryan and Scott Niedermayer, all should be well. The show hits Versus and CBC at 7 p.m. ET.
For more coverage from the NHL Awards in Vegas, follow SB Nation’s Canes Country and Anaheim Calling, who are on the ground in Vegas for the event.
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