The NHL Awards show took place in Las Vegas last night and as expected it made me want to puke everywhere. With the exception of a really moving tribute to young Canadian hockey fan Jonathan Pitre, the awards show consisted of nothing but cheesy jokes, stupid sketches, and special appearances by celebrities who have nothing to do with hockey.
I know the NHL hands out their yearly awards this way because they want to be flashy and different. For a league that isn’t necessarily super popular, why wouldn’t they? But the whole “Vegas awards show” thing needs to end. It does more harm to the league than it does good. It makes the league look like they’re trying way too hard and are desperate for attention. Not to mention year after year everyone makes fun of how bad it is. Let’s face it, the only reason they do the awards show in Vegas is because all the players and executives want to hit the casinos afterward. What the league should do to announce their yearly awards is air a special on TSN or NHL Network, hosted by several hockey analysts, who announce the finalists and then the winners for each award, and have a discussion about why they won over the other finalists. It would save the league a lot of money and would be a lot less embarrassing.
It’s not the way the awards are given out that makes me really mad, however. It’s how the awards are decided. The awards (which range from League MVP, Best Goaltender, Best Defenseman, Best Goalie, Best Coach, etc.) are decided by votes from hockey writers of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. I understand that. They should know more about hockey than anyone given they spend their winters watching game after game after game and have access to players and coaches before and after games. It is also a good idea not to have fans vote on the winners given the obvious bias fans have for players on their favorite teams. The MLB is currently experiencing this problem with their All-Star game voting, where many Kansas City Royals fans are stuffing the ballots to try to get as many Royals players in the game as possible even though most of them have no business going. However, the finalists for the awards are decided right after the regular season ends and are determined by what the players did in the regular season instead of both the regular season and postseason, which I think is asinine. I understand it’s a long regular season, but the awards should be determined by what the player did throughout the entire season, including when it mattered most. Some of the results last night truly shocked me, including Duncan Keith (who won the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smyth Trophy for playoff MVP) finishing in seventh place in the Norris Trophy (Best Defenseman) voting. Roman Josi finished ahead of him in fifth place. Roman Josi. Puke everywhere. Another shocking result was Joel Quenneville not receiving a single Coach of the Year Award vote despite leading his team to a third Stanley Cup Championship in six seasons. You know who did receive a vote? Randy Carlyle, who was fired as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs midway through the season. Puke. Everywhere. The NHL needs voters to start considering playoff performances when deciding their yearly awards.
Next year I hope to see some changes in the voting process and in the NHL Awards show. Pretty please – so I no longer have to puke everywhere.
20somethingsports 