NHL Awards Preview Part 3

This week is the third part of the awards preview, the underdogs. These are the guys who most consider to be the guys who came in third place, and therefore lucky to be mentioned. But some, like the Hart Trophy, have three guys who deserve to get the free invitation. Here are the guys you probably won't see on the podium at the NHL Awards.

We start with the Vezina Trophy, the goaltending award. While Dominik Hasek has it in the bag, and Martin Brodeur is way off, Tom Barrasso probably just doesn't have a chance. He missed most of last season (and Patrick Lalime thanks him for that), and has never really gotten back to his 1991-1992 form, when he won back-to-back Stanley Cups with Pittsburgh. His 2.07 GAA was only an indicator of the lower scoring overall in the NHL, though it was third in the league, but he was behind Brodeur. He only played in 63 games, 11th place in the league. His 14 PIMs was 12th highest in the league, ahead of his rivals, and his seven shutouts was behind the others. Tom Barrasso is a good goalie, but just not as good as the Dominator and Brodeur.

For the Lady Byng Trophy, I have selected Wayne Gretzky as the underdog. He had a great season, don't get me wrong, but he had less goals than the other two, and more PIMs than Francis. The greatest scorer of all time can't win every award, so this year will have to prove that. Gretzky finished tied for third in points, but only three ahead of Francis and four ahead of Selanne. Gretzky also had a poor -11 while Francis and Selanne both had +12's. He's not physical at all, throwing only four hits all year. His 244 giveaways led the league, a whopping 62 giveaways ahead of second place Alexei Kovalev. Out of the three, Gretzky had the lowest faceoff percentage, the only one of the three who had less than a 50% rating, and his shooting percentage was also the lowest.

For the Jack Adams Trophy, it's a race between Pat Burns and Ken Hitchcock. Larry Robinson is just that third guy whose added for flavour. True he guided the Kings to their first playoff berth in five years, but the Bruins also missed the playoffs last year and Pat Burns got them back in it. Boston had beaten LA this year in the standings by four points. Burns also kept his team more disciplined, as did Hitchcock. Boston had a total 285 penalties (not penalty minutes) while Dallas had 351 and L.A. had 399. So in this race, Burns and Hitchcock just have the leg up on Robinson. Besides, Robinson is the most exciting one on the ice out of the three.

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