Kudos to the Caps PR staff for putting together a great list of the historical significances of the various outcomes when the League hands out the rest of its hardware on Thursday night. Impress your friends by dropping some knowledge on 'em and acting like it's no big thing:If Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Bruce Boudreau all win the awards for which they're finalists...
- The Capitals would be the first team ever to have the League's most valuable player, rookie of the year and coach of the year in the same season (the Jack Adams Award was first handed out in 1974).
- It would be the second consecutive year and only the second time since 1963-64 that one team had the MVP and RoY (you know who pulled it off last year, but may not know that back in 1964 it was Montreal's Jean Beliveau (Hart) and Jacques Laperriere (Calder)).
- It would be the seventh time that the Adams winner was the Hart winner's bench boss (John Tortorella and Martin St. Louis were the most recent duo to fit the bill back in 2004)
- He'll be the Caps' first recipient of either award;
- He'll be the first professional athlete for a Washington, D.C. team to win an MVP award in 25 years (Joe Theismann was the NFL's MVP back in 1983); and
- He'll be the second Russian to win either award and the first since Sergei Fedorov won both for the 1993-94 Red Wings.
- He'll be the first player ever to win the Hart and the Calder Trophy within a three-season span. [read that one again before proceeding]; and
- He'll be only the fourth player ever to have won both the Calder and Hart Trophies (Bobby Orr, Bryan Trottier and Mario Lemieux are the others).
- He'll be the fourth player this decade to win both in the same season (Sidney Crosby, Martin St. Louis and Joe Sakic are the others);
- He'll be the first player since the inception of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy to win the Hart, Pearson, Art Ross and Richard; and
- He'll be just the fifth player and first since Mario Lemieux in 1996 to win the Hart, Pearson and Art Ross and lead the league in goals (Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur and Wayne Gretzky are the others).
- The Caps will be the first team with a pair of Calder winners in a three years span since Calgary did so between 1988 and 1990 (Joe Nieuwendyk and Sergei Makarov);
- He'll be the first Swede to win the Calder since Daniel Alfredsson (1996); and
- He'll be the second Cap to win the award (Alex Ovechkin, 2006... duh).
- He'll be the second Caps coach to win the award (Bryan Murray,1984);
- He'll be the first midseason hire to win the award since Bill Barber (Philadelphia, 2001).
- I'll friggin' cry.
25 comments:
Just for completeness, I think you should throw the word "major" into the MVP distinction. "He'll be the first professional athlete for a major Washington, D.C. team to win an MVP award in 25 years (Joe Theismann was the NFL's MVP back in 1983)"
Luciano Emilio (2007), Christian Gomez (2006) and Marco Etcheverry (1998) all won MVPs in the MLS.
100% that Ovechkin wins both. NHL.com T shirts don't lie, right?
I think Backstrom is as deservins as Kane or Toewes, but i think Kane will win. Of course, those two could split some votes....
Bruce deserves it, there was a night and day difference once he took over but I think its likely that Guy Carbonneau wins. Hope I am wrong.
Dervins? Man i wish I could edit my frequently typo filled comments.
I knew someone would bring up D.C. United. Thought about throwing "major" or "big four" in there... but then I realized we were talking about hockey.
Futbol can pound sand (sorry).
I've got Kane winning the Calder and Boudreau winning the Adams. But if you could vote after the playoffs, Babcock might run away with the Adams.
Rage beat me to it. Some may even quibble with the "major" distinction (it is Major League Soccer after all).
I think it was Kane's award to lose at the beginning of the season. While I think personnally that Nick deserves the award based on how he stepped up in such a critical position, I do not think Kane lost the award. I hope I am wrong, because there were a lot who had the golden boy winning it two years ago and we know how that played out.
@ Kim: No one really thought Crosby deserved the Calder, they just assumed he'd win it for reasons other than on-ice performance. Kane actually deserves the award (as does Backstrom, and if Toews had been healthy all year, it probably would have been his).
My point was just that going into the season Kane was the favorite. I guess I was just trying to say that I think Kane may have benefited this year from the defacto "preseason poll" kinda like some NCAA football teams benefit. I think that had he not been injured that Toews would probably get the award.
I did not throw in Crosby to imply there was any similarity this year to that year. Only saying that I hoped the "preseason notion" proved wrong again.
I say:
Ovechkin: 100% chance of winning both
Backstrom: 50% chance of winning
Gabby: 40% chance of winning
i think Kane deserves it more...
1 - MVP is Ovechkin, that's a lock.
2 - Backstrom I see 2nd place.
Kane
Backstrom
Toewes
3 - Boudreau should win unanimously in my unbiased opinion, but Carbonneau will take a few votes.
Boudreau
Carbo
Babcock
I just think Boudreau's case is airtight. He WAS the difference in our season. The before-after was pretty black and white. You can make a similar case for Carbo but it isn't as compelling.
Ovechkin is a virtual lock for the Pearson and Hart.
Boudreau should win the Adams, though I have a feeling he won't. My guess is it goes to Babcock.
I doubt Backstrom wins the Calder, although it will be a very close race, as all the rookies were virtually neck-and-neck all year. I'm guessing Backstrom takes a hit b/c he playerd w/ OV and the Chicago boys had a whole lot less to work with.
AO sweeps... duh.
Backs loses.
Bruce has more than a fighting chance.
AO's a lock and from what I hear Carbonneau's the odds on favorite for the Adams (though I think Bruce clearly did the best coaching job of all three). However, Backstrom might surprise. I think Toews and Kane might be stealing Western Conference votes from each other and Nik could win by collecting more second place votes. In any case, it should be a fun evening.
Whatever happens, get ready for a WaPo print edition one-paragraph article buried on page 8. Please WaPo, prove me wrong.
Sorry, some of us still need the old fashioned way of getting our news in addition to this method.
Ovechkin 100%
Backstrom 33%
Bouds 60%
Those stats are all mind blowing
further proof that Russian Machine Never Break
@ get it right:
Looks like Tarik is going. This is from his blog comments: "I am going to the awards show. I'm going up Wednesday so I can check out Ovechkin's clothing line roll out/party the night before.
Posted by: Tarik | June 9, 2008 11:48 AM "
Doubt the Post is sending him for anything less than a full Ovechkin profile.
Yeah, both fortunately and unfortunately, i tend to agree with the rest of you. I think Ovechkin wins both in a landslide, but I'm afraid that Backstrom loses to Kane because of his lack of pure flash in the beginning of the season, and that Boudreau loses to politics.
But damn, that'd be an impressive sweep. But onto more important things, I'm sad that I've yet to hear about a Green signing, yet.
Green is probably asking for $5.5mil or some shit.
I think based on winning the Hart, Ross, Richard and probably Pearson awards, I'd rate Ovechkin's season a '8' ;-)
Please do not soil this fine blog with soccer references.
I think Backstrom is 'punished' a bit for playing with Ovie when it comes to Calder voting. Plus the voting media tends to slurp that midget, Kane.
Since it is indeed regular season only, I think Boudreau can't be denied. What would be more interesting is if we could arrange for Glen Hanlon to coach the wings for 21 games.
I wouldn't mind Green *getting* 5.5 million dollars or "some shit."
Also - I love soccer, but DC United doesn't count - for the first two years of that league they were the only team that could play in it, and now they're struggling a bit. Regardless, I've never called it Futbol, JP. It's Füßball where I'm from.
It'd be interesting, by comparison, to see the reaction on other teams local sports papers if/when their players won trophies. In Tampa, did their MVP guy get front page billing? What about Detroit? (Montreal is fairly obvious, they'd have a picture of him posing nude and making out with the trophy if it was possible. For that reason ALONE I'm not rooting for Carbo).
I don't care about awards. I want signings. Mike Green & Goalie signings.
Yes, Boudreau had, in my mind, the greatest feat in the regular season in taking the Caps from last in the NHL when he took over to a division championship in a little over 4 months.
Unfortunately, I think the voters are going to just vote for the fact that the Red Wings were the best team in the NHL by a country mile (though if you extrapolate Boudreau's performance over the whole year, the Caps would challenge for that title).
I totally agree with you JP; OV has at LEAST the Hart in the bag. Maybe the Pearson, too. We don't call him the Ovechking for nothing!
I think Backstrom has a really good chance at the Calder, too. Kane is a good pick, but I think people are giving him a little TOO much credit for playing well through his size. Brucie has a really good chance too- I think he did really well turning the team around.
Check out my website: www.backstromfan.webs.com
I'd love to be wrong on this, but I see Ovechkin as the lone hardware hauler this year for the Caps. I think one of the CHI kids wins the Calder (Toews) and I am guessing Carbonneau for the Jack...
@ get it right: You clearly don't read the Post's sports section. It won't be on page 8; it will be on page 2. In "News & Notes."
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