Heres and article we wrote for the awards article that didn't make it's way in.
Crosby recognized for exceptional rookie season
The Buffalo Sabres star center Sidney Crosby received the first of what will be presumably many big awards throughout his career. The 18-year old native of Cole Harbour, NS is the youngest player to ever receive the Calder Trophy.
Florida Panthers G Henrik Lundqvist and Pittsburgh Penguins W Marek Svatos gave Crosby tough competition, but Crosby took the honor with 11 first place votes.
Crosby notched 28 goals and 44 assists in his rookie campaign. Many most impressively Crosby put up 72 points on a team who was 28th in total scoring and whos next closest scorer was defenseman Jay Bouwmeesterwith 57 points. Crosby also led the Sabres with an astounding +8 in +/- while the team averaged -13.
While Crosby is thrilled with the individual achievement, he cant help but remain unsatisfied with the teams performance- the Sabres finished dead last in the league this season. Crosby's next goal is to win the Stanley Cup, but he'll savour his big night of awards. "There's something above and beyond this I want to achieve but this is a great honour," he said
lol don't you mean Buffalo Sabres/Sidney Crosby discussion...
Very nice awards writeups, classy way to close out season #1
However there seems to be one small error with this award
The next award was the coveted Commissioner's Award for the top 3 General Managers as voted on by Eric Dolegowski and Bryce Shuck. Early consideration has been thrown to the way of Tampa Bay Lightning's GM Philippe Dussault. After turning in a pretty successful campaign, his GM skills were exemplified quite well. While the Minnesota Wild and Buffalo Sabres, two teams who are co-GM'ed, also are receiving strong contention. An outside shot was Kirk Shuck of the Atlanta Thrashers to possible take home the award. The envelope has been been opened and the winner has been announced.
Philippe Dussault of the Tampa Bay Lightning has been awarded the Commissioners Trophy.
That award was to go to the top 3 most active general managers, not the best general managers as voted by the commissioners, unless we are still waiting on that award. Only 1 GM was listed. And while Minny and Atlanta may have been good GMs, I don't think they could be considered the most active. This award is also for cash, so it is at least semi important.
Thank-you Eric. I take offense to the statement that we should not be considered for the most active GMs. Good for our commishes and their ability to differentiate between quality and quantity!
Thank-you Eric. I take offense to the statement that we should not be considered for the most active GMs. Good for our commishes and their ability to differentiate between quality and quantity!
You're Welcome.
Btw, just because a GM doesn't post a lot on the board. The award was also based on Line submissions, response time to questions / trades, fulfilling GM requirements and stuff of the like. There are a handful of GMs who qualified.
__________________
"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
First of all, congrats to all of the award winners!
Don't take this as sour grapes, but which team won the "trade of the year" the Oilers or the Leafs? Honestly, looks like a pretty solid trade to me. Lidstrom is obviously the best player in the deal, but comes with a price tag too. I'm guessing the team that got Lidstrom won the deal, but whoever lost that deal certainly has nothing to be ashamed of.
Lastly, thanks to the commishes for doing a thankless job that takes a whole lot of work and patience on both of their behalfs.
BTW, Rod Edwards came up with some of the awards that didn't have names. Only one of his I didn't use was the Roger Nielsen award (for the best trade of the year - rebuilder) Went with Brian Burke.
Don't care for Nielson. Someone, I know a lot of other people like.
Plus, I enjoy sticking it to the Nuck's fans by naming an award after a previous GM who left them. :)
__________________
"As long as those gnome elite molecules emerge, we certainly can reduce casualties. Their warplanes troops would be nice."
No sweat for Canucks fans... most good fans know we had something good and the moron that ownership had hired to run the team sent Burke packing. Good on him winning a Stanley Cup... and I am still a Burke fan!
haha the names were clever I thought. Well done. Also, I think EDM easily won that deal as a deal that made him a contender. He deserves the money their, it was a deal that pushed him to the finals. You cant split that award with both teams if the criteria is a deal that makes a team a contendor. If it also was the rebuilder trade of the year then Toronto coulda won the money for that, but it turns out there was a better rebuilder trade.
