Brent Johnson Named Third Star Of The Week

Via Kukla:

NEW YORK (Nov. 10, 2008)—Goaltenders Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks, Steve Mason of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Brent Johnson of the Washington Capitals have been named the NHL ‘Three Stars’ for the week ending Sunday, Nov. 9.

...

THIRD STAR—BRENT JOHNSON, G, WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Making three consecutive starts for the first time since March 2007, Johnson posted a 2-0-1 record with a 1.63 goals-against average and .953 save percentage as the Capitals collected five of six available points. He made a season-high 42 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss at Ottawa Nov. 4, stopped 32 shots in a 3-2 victory over Carolina Nov. 6 and made 28 stops in a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers Nov. 8. Johnson improved his season record to 3-1-2 with a 2.12 goals-against average and .929 save percentage in six appearances. Since Bruce Boudreau was named head coach on Nov. 22, 2007, Johnson is 9-3-3 with a 2.19 goals-against average and .925 save percentage as a starter.

Nate Ewell Is Everywhere

Fresh off receiving a second consecutive Dick Dillman Award (given annually to the team judged to be the best in media relations by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association), Nate Ewell, the Caps' Director of Media Relations (and editor of Inside College Hockey), chronicled his experiences at this past weekend's Draft for USAToday. Check it out, and congrats to the entire media relations staff on the award.

Encore! Encore!

Alex Ovechkin sure did have a nice 2007-08 season, but now that the hardware has headed back to Toronto and the player they will honor for the next year(s) has headed back to Russia, we can wholeheartedly turn our gaze to 2008-09 and ask, "What's next?" While the sky may not even be a high enough limit for Alex, a look back at how former Hart Trophy winners followed up their MVP seasons may provide a baseline for reasonable expectations.

The NHL has handed out the Hart 40 times in what most consider to be the sport's "modern era," that is, since the 1967 expansion. The average stats of the 37 non-goalie Hart winners over that span is 76.86 games played, 50.97 goals and 87.22 assists (75.89 if you don't include Wayne Gretzky's nine MVP seasons, during which he averaged 121.22 helpers). AO's award-winning season, of course, saw him play all 82 and rack up 65 goals and 47 assists along the way.

So what did the previous 36 winners do for Act II (and Act III in Bobby Orr's case and Acts III-VIII in Gretz's)? One-third of them scored more goals-per-game than in their Hart-winning season (and twice for Orr and four times for Gretzky these follow-up seasons earned another Hart), 15 of them had more assists-per-game (earning back-to-back Harts for Orr, Bobby Clarke and Gretzky six times), and one-third had more points per game (Orr, Clarke and Gretzky four times turned these increases into consecutive Harts).

On average, however, production decreased across the board (which is not surprising given that it's difficult to improve upon what is for many a career season). The average Hart winner has seen his games played drop by 7.86%, his goals-per-game falls by 9.43% and his assists-per-game declines by 5.45%.

Unlike Ovechkin, though, many of the previous Hart winners were already well into (or perhaps past) their prime playing years when they won the award. Only two other players since 1967-68 have won the Hart in their third years in the League, and both improved the following season - Gretzky won the award with a 55-goal/109-assist campaign and came back with 92 goals, 120 assists and this killer SI cover the next year (and a half-dozen more MVPs in a row); and Eric Lindros was the Hart winner in the strike-shortened 1994-95 season (which was really just the 1995 season), and bumped his per game and raw goal and assist totals up a bit the following season.

Drilling a little deeper on players winning the Hart early in their careers, Ovechkin was the 11th player since 1967-68 to win the award in his 22-year-old season (age as of February 1 of the given season) or earlier. Of the previous ten, seven had more goals-per-game the following year (only Bryan Trottier in 1978-79, Gretzky in 1981-82 - what, couldn't top 92? - and Sidney Crosby this past year did not) and seven had more assists-per-game in that second year (only Orr in 1970-71, Trottier in 1978-79 and Crosby in 2007-08 did not). All told, the average under-23 Hart winner followed up his big season with 8.31% more goals (9% more per game) and 5.54% more assists (6.6% more per game) in 1.22% fewer games, and six of the ten have increased their points-per-game.

So what should we expect from Ovechkin in 2008-09? Applying the 36-player averages, he regresses to 54 goals and 40 assists in 75 games (bump it up to 58 goals and 44 assists if Ovie plays his third-straight 82-game season). Taking just the averages from the 10-player 22-and-under subset (a smaller but likely more representative sample), we'd expect 69 goals and 49 assists in 81 games. I'd buy that. You?

One last note: ten times in the modern era (but not since the late '80s), a Hart Trophy winner's team won the following year's Stanley Cup, and we all know which hardware Alex Ovechkin would rather be posing with one year from now.

Ovechkin Welcomed Home In Style

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in our nation's capital, Alexander Ovechkin was given a royal welcome upon returning to D.C. from Toronto a conquering hero, holding four major awards.

After receiving the key to the city in an afternoon ceremony downtown, Ovechkin was feted at a celebration at the posh K Street eatery Teatro Goldoni. There was plenty of, um, talent on hand, and Japers' Rink was lucky enough to be there as well, joined by fellow bloggers Puck Daddy and Ordered Chaos from OFB.

I'll let those fellas tell you more about the event (as I think they may have stayed sober longer got the audio of the conversation the three of us had with Ovie), but needless to say, with Caps royalty like Rod Langway and Peter Bondra on hand (pictured), it was one heck of a celebration.

Photos: Japers' Rink
Update: Here's Puck Daddy's post and here's OFB's.

The Final Numbers Are In...

OK, one last post on awards voting, I promise.

In addition to the numbers I told you about last night, here are a few more vote totals:

• Alexander Ovechkin finished ninth (8-4-1-0-2) in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy and 29th (0-0-2-1-1) in Selke Trophy voting;
• Nicklas Backstrom finished 72nd (0-0-0-1-0) in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy and 66th (0-0-0-0-1) in Selke Trophy voting;
• Viktor Kozlov finished 26th (0-0-3-0-0) in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy and 25th (1-0-0-2-0) in Selke Trophy voting;
• Boyd Gordon finished 49th (0-0-1-0-0) in Selke Trophy voting; and
• Sergei Fedorov finished 66th (0-0-0-0-1) in Selke Trophy voting.

Mirtle promises to have much more on the voting breakdown later, but this shows how silly open ballot/write-in voting can be.

An argument can be made (maybe not a strong one) that Ovechkin is one of the top 29 defensive forwards in hockey. He was, after all, fifth among all forwards in plus/minus, ninth in takeaways and sixth in hits. Might Backstrom be the 66th-best defensive forward in the game? Sure. He was sixth in takeaways and had fewer giveaways than Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg.

But while the end result may not be completely outlandish (ok, Kozlov at 25th is), the more ridiculous part is not where they finished in the voting as much as the fact that multiple voters had a guy like Ovechkin - who got all of nine seconds of shorthanded time per game - in their top five. One writer thought that Viktor Kozlov was the best defensive forward in hockey this past season... or at least voted that way (and there are plenty of examples League-wide of this silliness, of course, but these are the handful I happen to give a crap about).

Bottom line: the NHL needs to come up with a list of, say, ten players for each award, mail out ballots with those names on them and force voters to select from that list. It'll make the final results more meaningful and the awards more reflective of the individual accomplishments they're intended to reward. But if the NHL is cool with a voter ostensibly thinking that Jiri Hudler was the fifth best defensive forward in hockey in 2007-08, they might as well leave things the way they are.

The Remaining Awards Questions

Alexander Ovechkin received 128 of a possible 134 first-place votes for the Hart trophy. He also received four second-place votes, a third-place vote and no fourth- or fifth-place votes.

A little quick math reveals that Ovie was on 133 of 134 ballots, meaning that some joker - a member of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association - didn't think that Alex was one of the top five players "adjudged to be the most valuable to his team" in the NHL this year.

Does that guy/gal really deserve a future vote? Should he/she be identified? Drawn and quartered? Discuss.

H/t to Pensblog on the math.

Award Voting Breakdown

Alex Ovechkin received 128 of 134 first-place votes for the Hart and a total of 1,313 points. Evgeni Malkin finished second with one first-place vote and 659 total points.

Bruce Boudreau received 31 of 74 first-place votes for the Adams and 208 points. Guy Carbonneau was second with 24 first-place votes and 196 points.

Patrick Kane received 71 of 133 first-place votes for the Calder and 1,078 points. Nicklas Backstrom was second with 30 first-place votes and 872 points.

Oh, and Ovechkin was named to his third consecutive NHL First All-Star Team, becoming the first player since Terry Sawchuk in the early 1950s to accomplish that feat in his first three seasons in the League (he received 133 of a possible 134 first-team votes in the balloting by the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, presumably because some Detroit writer has a man-crush on Henrik Zetterberg).

For what it's worth, Cristobal Huet finished eighth in Vezina voting and Mike Green finished seventh in Norris voting.

Sweet, Sweet And Sweet

MPV! MPV!

Well done, WaPo.

H/t Tyler

NHL Awards Open Thread

Not that it will matter, but why the hell is Adrian Fenty letting 134 hockey writers determine whether or not Alex Ovechkin is worthy of a key to the city? It's called home rule, Mister Mayor. Look into it.

Anyway, here's your open thread to discuss any and everything related to tonight's NHL Awards show. Go nuts.

"Your awards. Give them to me. All of them."

Oops!... They Did It Again?

Is it possible that less than a week after T-shirtgate, the NHL has accidentally revealed all of its award winners online on the eve of its big awards show? Yep. It's possible.

CP Calls For A Sweep

If the Canadian Press is right, the Caps will be checking a lot of hardware at Customs on Friday, as the news service has predicted a clean sweep of the four awards for which employees of the organization are nominated. Let's take a look:

Hart Memorial Trophy (most valuable player to his team) - Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames was dynamite and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins saved his team's season when Sidney Crosby was out. But this is a no-brainer. Alex Ovechkin's NHL-leading 65 goals, the most in 12 years, is the single-biggest reason the Washington Capitals made the playoffs. His year typified what the award is about - most valuable to his team.

Winner: Ovechkin.

Lester B. Pearson Award (most outstanding player as voted by fellow players) - Same finalists as the Hart. The players don't always see it the same way as the writers, often because the voting begins in mid-March for the NHLPA while the writers mostly wait until the end of the regular season. Still, it seems pretty obvious this year.

Winner: Ovechkin.

Calder Memorial Trophy (outstanding rookie) - The Chicago Blackhawks have a 66 per cent chance of winning it. Hawks centre Patrick Kane led all rookies with 72 points (21-51) in 82 games while linemate Jonathan Toews led rookies with 24 goals despite missing more than a month with a knee injury. Washington's Nicklas Backstrom was second in rookie scoring with 69 points in 82 games, his 55 assists leading all rookies. This is the toughest of them all to call, with all three fully deserving of the award. But it should be noted that Backstrom had a huge second half while helping his team make the playoffs.

Winner: Backstrom.

Jack Adams Award (outstanding coach) - Detroit's Mike Babcock posted his third consecutive 50-win season with the Wings, leading his team to the best record in the NHL. Bruce Boudreau stepped behind the Washington bench in late November and led his club to a 37-17-7 record the rest of the way while winning the Southeast Division. Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens coached a young and rising team to the Eastern Confererence title. There is no wrong choice here.

Winner: Boudreau.

If They Win...

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).

If Ovechkin and Backstrom win...

• 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)).
  

If Ovechkin and Boudreau win...

• 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)
  

If Ovechkin wins the Hart (if?) or the Lester B. Pearson Award (the player-voted best player)...

• 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.
  

If When Ovechkin wins the Hart...

• 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).
  

If Ovechkin wins the Hart and the Pearson...

• 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).
  

If Backstrom wins...

• 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).
  

If Boudreau wins...

• 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).

If no one wins...

• I'll friggin' cry.

So now that you see the history to be made, place your bets so you can come back on Friday and say, "I told you so." Can the Caps pull off a clean sweep? Who wins and who loses?

My, Um, Friend Hates It When That Happens

You couldn't swing a dead penguin in hockey's little corner of the internet this weekend without hitting a post or article on "t-shirtgate," but Bodog Beat's headline may have been the best of them all:

Ovechkin Wins The Hart

At least that's what NHL.com's shop is telling us...

H/t to Sombrero Guy on the link.

Update: And the link has gone dead. For more on the apparent gaffe, head over to FanHouse, Puck Daddy and Mirtle.

Of course, if you can't wait to get your hands on an AO/Hart t-shirt, there are other options.

Update2: TSN.ca now has an article up on the story, as does CanWest. Obviously they found it on their own. Definitely not via Puck Daddy, FanHouse or Mirtle. Clearly.

Pretty In Pink

Alex Ovechkin was in Pittsburgh today to accept the Art Ross and Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophies, and his look was vintage Alex, simultaneously scruffy and sharp:


Ovie also dropped a little tidbit in his conference call, noting that Sergei Fedorov "wants to stay in Washington." Now, that may be news in the 'he's not going to retire' sense, but the fact that he wants to return to the Caps can hardly be seen as surprising. After all, given a desire to play another season (or more), of course he'd be thrilled to stay in D.C.... for the right price.

Award Season Is Underway

We'll have to wait until June 12 to see who the NHL's most gentlemanly player is (here are the über-manly nominees), but if you're more a fan of the type of guys who are more likely to be elected Prime Minister of Canada than to be nominated for that award, you don't have to wait to see and participate in the voting for the annual hockeyfights.com Awards.

Not surprisingly, Donald Brashear is up for slew of awards, including those for Fight of the Year (the video below), KO/TKO of the Year (for his costly shot at Shane Hnidy), the Probert Award (for fighter of the year), the People's Choice Award and the Grimson Award (for "Best Punching Power/Most Destructive Fighter").

So head on over and view and vote often. Enjoy.

And The Loser Is... Mike Babcock

Alright, over at FanHouse I've officially eliminated Mike Babcock from Jack Adams Award contention. Now, if we can just knock off Guy Carbonneau, the award is all Gabby's.

SN Awards As A Predictor Of NHL Hardware

By now you've no doubt seen that Alex Ovechkin was named Sporting News Hockey Player of the Year (as voted by his peers) and that he and Mike Green were named to the publication's All-Star team.

You might have also seen that the Sporting News named Mike Babcock its Coach of the Year and handed Patrick Kane its Rookie of the Year (again, peer-voted). Does this make it any more or less likely that Bruce Boudreau and Nicklas Backstrom will be shutout when the NHL hands out its version of those awards in June? Let's take a look at some recent history:

• 2007 SN Player of the Year: Sidney Crosby; Hart Trophy Winner: Sidney Crosby
  
• 2007 SN Coach of the Year: Barry Trotz; Jack Adams Winner: Alain Vigneault
  
• 2007 SN Rookie of the Year: Evgeni Malkin; Calder Trophy Winner: Malkin
• 2006 SN Player of the Year: Jaromir Jagr; Hart Trophy Winner: Joe Thornton
  
• 2006 SN Coach of the Year: Lindy Ruff; Jack Adams Winner: Ruff
  
• 2006 SN Rookie of the Year: Alexander Ovechkin; Calder Trophy Winner: Ovechkin
• 2004 SN Player of the Year: Martin St. Louis; Hart Trophy Winner: St. Louis
  
• 2004 SN Coach of the Year: John Tortorella; Jack Adams Winner: Tortorella
  
• 2004 SN Rookie of the Year: Michael Ryder; Calder Trophy Winner: Andrew Raycroft
• 2003 SN Player of the Year: Peter Forsberg; Hart Trophy Winner: Forsberg
  
• 2003 SN Coach of the Year: Jacques Lemaire; Jack Adams Winner: Lemaire
  
• 2003 SN Rookie of the Year: Henrik Zetterberg; Calder Trophy Winner: Barret Jackman
  
• 2002 SN Player of the Year: Jarome Iginla; Hart Trophy Winner: Jose Theodore
  
• 2002 SN Coach of the Year: Brian Sutter; Jack Adams Winner: Bob Francis
  
• 2002 SN Rookie of the Year: Dany Heatley; Calder Trophy Winner: Heatley
  
• 2001 SN Player of the Year: Joe Sakic; Hart Trophy Winner: Sakic
  
• 2001 SN Coach of the Year: Scotty Bowman; Jack Adams Winner: Bill Barber
  
• 2001 SN Rookie of the Year: Evgeni Nabokov; Calder Trophy Winner: Nabokov
  

You get the point - there are some hits and some misses. Overall, the Sporting News was 11-for-18 as a predictor in the sample above, including 3-for-6 on Coach of the Year and 4-for-6 on Rookie of the Year. So odds are that they'll be wrong on either Coach or Rookie (they've only nailed 'em both in two of the six years), opening the door for either Boudreau or Backstrom to join Ovechkin as a big winner in Toronto.

Boudreau Nominated For Adams

First things first - here's the big, clumsy reveal, in case you missed it (and want to see some Don Cherry self-indulgence).

Anyway, per the Caps:

"The National Hockey League announced today that Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau is one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award, which is presented annually to the coach who has contributed the most to his team’s success. Boudreau joins Detroit’s Mike Babcock and Montreal’s Guy Carbonneau as the three finalists.

"Members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association submitted ballots for the Jack Adams Award at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters announced as finalists. The winner will be announced Thursday, June 12 during the 2008 NHL Awards Television Special, which will be broadcast live throughout Canada on CBC and the United States on VERSUS from the historic Elgin Theatre in Toronto.

"Boudreau is the third Capital finalist for a postseason award and will be joined in Toronto by Alex Ovechkin (Hart Trophy finalist) and Nicklas Backstrom (Calder Memorial Trophy finalist). The Capitals could become the first team since the inception of the Jack Adams Award (1973-74) to have the coach of the year, player of the year and rookie of the year. Boudreau would be the second Capital head coach to win the award, as Bryan Murray received the honor after the 1983-84 season.

"Boudreau became the 14th head coach in Washington history when he was named to the position on an interim basis on Nov. 22, 2007. The interim tag was removed on Dec. 26, 2007.

"The Capitals were in 30th place when he accepted the job, but Boudreau quickly turned things around starting with a stirring overtime victory in Philadelphia on Nov. 23, 2007. In his 61 games behind the bench the Capitals posted a 37-17-7 record and ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak to win the Southeast Division.

"Washington became the first team in NHL history to come back from 14th or 15th place at midseason and make the playoffs and became only the second team in NHL history to finish a season in first place in its division immediately after three or more consecutive last-place finishes.

"Boudreau, who had the Capitals on a 109-point pace had he coached the entire season, was the fastest coach in team history to reach 20 wins (34 games) and 30 wins (53 games). Washington earned 81 points after Boudreau was hired, which was only three points behind Detroit and Pittsburgh, which led the league with 84 points during the same timeframe.

"Boudreau rallied the Caps to 17 comeback victories and posted a 20-6-7 record in games decided by one goal. Washington ended the regular season with a club record 11 wins in overtime or shootout."

If I had to handicap the race, I'd say Babcock has no chance and that Gabby should edge Carbo. Since the media votes for the award, you'd think that the Boudreau story and his endless quotability work in his favor. Then again, he's going up against the Habs' bench boss, so who knows?

Oh, and a discussion on Karl Alzner's new hardware has sprouted up in the comments as well, FYI.