The NHL Awards were held at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas tonight. All the nominees came to Sin City in hopes of walking away a winner. Among those in the crowd were Jonathon Toews, Steven Stamkos and our own, Dan Bylsma, who was nominated for Coach of the Year. All in all, it was a top night.
It was an entertaining show with a lot of highlights. Here’s some of my favorite.
• I thought comedian Jay Mohr was pretty funny. He had some really good jokes to open the show with. The crowd didn’t seem that into him, but I liked it.
• Red Wing’s Nicklas Lidstrom received the night’s first award, the Norris Trophy for Top Defensemen
• Dierks Bentley gave a flat performance. He’s usually a high energy performer, but this just didn’t seem to fit the mood of the night.
• There was a follow up video from last year’s NHL Awards featuring Bobby Ryan and Ryan Gatzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks where they battled it out to see who is better. Hilarious!
• Then came the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year. Who’s the winner you may ask? Dan Bylsma himself! Bylsma was up against Vancouver’s head coach, Alain Vigneault and Nashville’s Barry Trotz. Bylsma had a great 2010-2011 season. He had to face a ton of adversity with bad goaltending early on, HBO’s 24/7, the Winter Classic, star players being injured and pretty much everyone else, at one point or another, getting injured too. He kept his team on top when it looked like there was no hope at all.
• The Calder Memorial Trophy for Top Rookie went to Jeff Skinner of the Carolina Hurricanes. While it didn’t matter to me one way or the other who won, I’m happy for him. He was sweet and nervous and his speech was forever long.
• Steven Stamkos was named the new poster boy for the new NHL 12 video game.
• Top quote of the night, as presented by me… from host Jay Mohr, “Could we get rid of goalie fights? It’s like watching turtles trying to have sex.” Hmm.
• Doug Weight of the Islanders received the King Clancy Memorial Trophy from the US Army for outstanding leadership in the community.
• Two dumb “Real Housewives” presented the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for the most gentlemanly like guy on the ice to Martin St. Louis. It was embarrassing. They botched his name and probably had no clue who he or anyone else even was until five minutes before being on stage. Shouldn’t they screen presenters better or at all?
• The Bruin’s Zdeno Chara and Tim Thomas walked out both holding the Stanley Cup giving thanks.
• Tim Thomas was back out a few moments later when he won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltending. He thanked everyone from the doctor who performed his hip surgery last year to God. He’s a genuine guy.
• Lastly, Corey Perry of the Ducks walked away with the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP beating out St. Louis and D. Sedin.
written by Lori Pometo
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