NHL Awards Preview Part 1

This week I start my awards preview, a four-part series of who should win, might win, who probably won't win, and who should've been nominated. This week, I start with the obvious, the favourites. WARNING: You may disagree.

We'll start off with an easy one for the first award; the Vezina Trophy. The description of this award is "An annual award 'to the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position' as voted by the general managers of each of the 26 clubs," or best goalie for short. When you want to think about great goaltending, think about the Nagano games. Hockey writers, who vote on the MVP award, try to think like coaches. Therefore, coaches will most likely vote for the Dominator, Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres.

The '98 Olympics are only a sample of this young goaltender's talent, though robbing five of hockey's best players consecutively helps. As you read this, the Sabres are in the Stanley Cup semifinals, with Hasek keeping them there. If I asked you to name three Sabres other than Hasek three weeks ago, could you? Hasek was fourth in the league in goal against average with a 2.09 goals per game. He tied for the league lead in games played with a whopping 72 out of 82 team games. He lead the league in minutes played with 4220. He also lead the league in save percentage with a huge 0.932 percentage. Pretty good because he faced 2149 shots, 248 ahead of the next guy, so he faced an average of 31 shots per game. He also led the league in shutouts with 13, an amazing number this day in age. Last year's Vezina trophy winner and Hart trophy winner should be a lock for this year's Vezina.

The next award is the Lady Byng Trophy. This award is defined as An annual award "to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." It, like the Hart trophy, is selected by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. A nominee for the Hart trophy is in this field, so why should the result be any different? Teemu Selanne is now the backbone of the Mighty Ducks with Paul Kariya out following the Suter cheap shot. Selanne tied for the league lead in goals with 52. With 34 assists, 86 points (in this scoring deprived season) and a miniscule 30 penalty minutes, it's only icing on the cake. His stats may not be as impressive as opponents Wayne Gretzky and Ronnie Francis, but those two were on star-studded teams. The Ducks weren't as star-studded after January. The Finnish Flash will most likely add this trophy to his overstocked trophy case.

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