NHL – Robbery at NHL Awards
Last night the NHL held their yearly award ceremony where the top hardware, besides the Stanley Cup, was given out. Most of the trophies went to the most deserving such as the Hart going to Alexander Ovechkin and Bruce Boudreau winning the Jack Adams award. There was one travesty that did occur however and that was Martin Brodeur winning the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender.
In my opinion Evgeni Nabokov (San Jose Sharks) was robbed last night in front of a huge audience of his peers. The 33-year-old Russian net-minder finished the regular season as undoubtedly the best goalie in hockey and yet he wasn’t given the award. Instead it was given to Martin Brodeur for what can be called “sentimental reasons.” The award is voted on by the General Managers around the league and has been sin 1982. Which makes you wonder if that’s the fairest way to do it.
Nabokov was better goalie in almost every single stat category that matters. He even led his Sharks deeper into the playoffs in a much tougher conference than Brodeur did and looked great doing it unlike his counterpart in New Jersey. Brodeur on the other hand was shown not practicing or doing his warm ups before games and then was immediately lit up by the New York Rangers. I actually heard he needed some SPF 55 due to the sunburn he got from the goal light going off so frequently.
Here are the two goalies stats put side by side:
Wins Losses GAA SV % SO
Nabokov 46 21 2.14 9.10 6
Brodeur 44 27 2.17 9.20 4
Nabokov clearly has the better regular season numbers, went further into the playoffs, and accomplished both hose feats while playing in the much much tougher conference. What makes this robbery even worse is that Nabokov isn’t a young goalie liked Henrik Lundqvist who will have more opportunities to win a Vezina. He is 33 and doesn’t have many chances left which is even more reason to give the man the award that he worked so hard for and clearly deserved.
I’m not a fan of the fact that Brodeur won simply because he is Martin Brodeur I find that unfair and wrong. This is yet another example of why the NHL is such a poorly run league in so many different ways. With something as simple as giving a trophy to the most deserving player they cant even do it properly.
