2012 NHL Awards: Consult a Caniac

This week Cait Platt over at Flame for Thought pulled together some of the FanSided NHL crew to get our thoughts on the 2012 NHL Awards. To get to know some of the other bloggers and see what the seven of us came up with head over to the site. But wait! Don’t go yet! We have more for you from your friends at Cardiac Cane!  When asked to give my picks, I of course expounded on my selections. Brevity isn’t my strong point. Here are my personal picks for who I think will win these awards and why they will be selected. I used statistics, media buzz and gut feelings to make my predictions. Miss Cleo wouldn’t answer her phone.

• HART TROPHY (most valuable player): Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
  The man known as “Geno” has 109 points. Even with 60 goals, Steven Stamkos, still trails Geno by 12 points. Geno has been an unstoppable scoring machine this season for the Pens. Remember when he blew his knee outlast year and it seemed like he would never come back or be the same? Me neither.

• SELKE TROPHY (best defensive forward): Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins (?)
  I honestly don’t have a clue on this one hence the question mark. I am not sure who is making a splash in this department this year. Ryan Kesler is always a decent guess, but I think it’s time for some new blood. I believe Patrice Bergeron has some buzz about him as well.

• NORRIS TROPHY (best all-around defenseman): Erik Karlsson, Ottawa Senators
  Yes. He’s an more of an offensive defensemen but Erik Karlsson leads all d-men in the league with 78 points, 19 goals and 59 helpers. He’s 9th in TOI with a little over 25 minutes a game. Karlsson is also 2^nd in Game Winning Goals for d-men with 5. Not too shabby. Sounds like a pretty complete package to me. And he has a mustache.

• VEZINA TROPHY (best goaltender): Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
  Lots of folks say Jonathan Quick of the L.A. Kings should win it. I think Henrik Lundqvist will. This is the year of the Rangers and this is the year of Hank. He has been the rock of this team. They won’t give the Hart to a netminder so I think Hank gets the Vezina.

• LADY BYNG TROPHY (most gentlemanly player): Matt Moulson, New York Islanders
  This award is always the butt of jokes, but I like good sportsmanship and it’s one of my favorite awards! I’m Southern. We’re polite! My gut was going with Loui Eriksson of the Dallas Stars for the Lady Byng with 10 penalty minutes in 79 games. But there is another very worthy opponent in Matt Moulson with his 6 minutes in 79 games. I am actually going to change my guess to Moulson. I think he might be a bit of a dark horse but it could happen.

• CALDER TROPHY (rookie of the year): Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado Avalanche
  A few months ago it seemed like the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, “the Nuge,” had this award locked up. Then he got hurt and missed a bunch of games. He’s still a frontrunner with Gabriel Landeskog and Adam Henrique of the Devils. If you look at their stats they are all at 51 or 52 points. Gabe seems to lean more towards the scoring side while the others have more helpers. I think they will give it to Gabe. He is Swedish for goodness sakes.

• JACK ADAMS AWARD (coach of the year): Ken Hitchcock, St. Louis Blues
  Yeah. I don’t know that I really need to explain that one.

• GENERAL MANAGER OF THE YEAR AWARD: Dale Tallon, Dale Tallon and Dale Tallon, Florida Panthers
  When he started assembling this team it seemed like the biggest ragtag collection of players. Every one laughed. “How can this ever work?!” And now they are in the playoffs. The collection of guys he picked gelled and it worked. And after typing all of that I am second guessing and wondering if it will be David Poile of Nashville! I am not retyping!  I am going to guess Tallon.

• MASTERTON TROPHY (qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey): Max Pacioretty, Montreal Canadiens
  The Masterton is the “we know what it says but it really means the guy that got clobbered and came back and played ok.” For that reason I think they are going to give it to Max Pacioretty. If they actually follow the definition I could see Jaromir Jagr of the Flyers winning it.

Watch this space for more on the NHL 2012 Awards and picks! KP Kelly will weigh in on Friday. Maybe if we’re nice she’ll tell us the story again of how she met Pekka Rinne last year in Las Vegas!

What do you think about my picks? Does Miss Cleo take your calls? Leave us a comment! Offseason? We don’t have no stinking offseason! Find us on Facebook at  CardiacCane or on Twitter:@CardiacCaneFS, @Esbee92, @peacelovepuck, @caniac176 and @CaniacCaz.