The players and owners of the NHL fought an ugly battle during the most recent lockout. There were times when it seemed neither side would budge an inch on certain issues. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman worked to ensure the owners would make all the money in world, while Donald Fehr headed up the NHLPA working to ensure as many player rights (and cash) as possible. In the end, compromises were made to salvage what remained of a 2012-13 season, but they came at a price...
As a result of the lockout, the players lost their trip to Las Vegas for the NHL Awards Show. Instead the NHL is presenting their annual awards on the Internet and on NHL Network between Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Respected veterans like Jean-Sebastian Giguere understand how much players value their Vegas vacation, but this year, the league couldn't give it to them. What a disgrace.
That's why this year, The Hart of Hockey will try to make it up to the athletes of the NHL with this year's HARTY Awards. I would like to extend a formal invitation to all of the winners of the 2013 HARTYs to come to lovely Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and meet at the Primanti Brothers location on Route 60 to receive your award in person! Of course, you'll have to pay for your plane ticket... and hotel... and anything else you decide to do for entertainment. But The Hart of Hockey would be more than happy to cover the expense of Primanti's sandwich upon the presentation of your award!
With that generous offer on the table, this year's winners are...
COACH OF THE YEAR
Paul MacLean
Last year, MacLean coached an underdog Senators team that many people predicted to finish in the basement of the Eastern Conference and led them to a playoff berth. That performance earned him last year's HARTY for Coach of the Year. Now he's back again with the Coach of the Year title belt around his "husky" waist for getting Ottawa back to the playoffs despite losing their best players to injury for a majority of the season. Jason Spezza: gone. Erik Karlsson, the reigning Norris Trophy winner: gone. Craig Anderson, arguably the best goalie in the NHL for the first half of the shortened season: gone. Scatter in some minor injuries to other key players, and no one would believe that the Senators would hold a playoff seed for the entirety of the season.
Runners-up:
Todd Richards
Joel Quenneville
BEST BLUELINER
Ryan Suter
A very tight race between this year's recipient of Best Blueliner and the two runners-up, but in the end, it came down to this: No one averaged more time on ice per game than Suter. He had 10 games in which he logged more than 30 minutes. Twice in the final few games of the year he played in over 32 minutes, and his team won both those games, huge for their late-season playoff push. He was also a plus player on the only playoff team with a negative goal differential. Factor in he was 3rd among all defensemen in points, and surely you can see no one was as reliable in all three zones per time spent on the ice than Sir Suter.
Runners-up:
P.K. Subban
Zdeno Chara
BEST DEFENSIVE FORWARD a.k.a. THE FANS-DON'T-APPRECIATE-EVERYTHING-I-DO-NO-MATTER-HOW-MUCH-THEY-SAY-I-DO AWARD
Patrice Bergeron
For the second year in a row, Patrice Bergeron is the guy for this award. He ran away with the league's best face-off percentage at 62.1%. Perhaps even more impressive (and more valuable to his defensive game) is that he had a whopping 61.3% face-off success rate on the penalty kill, second best in the NHL. Not recorded in a stat book, however, is how he is always in proper position, preventing most opponents from even thinking about moving the puck his way.
I also want to give a very honorable mention to Ryan Callahan, who just couldn't crack a runner-up position, but played so well I feel obligated to give him some form of recognition.
Runners-up:
Jonathan Toews
Pavel Datsyuk
MANLY BYNG (HIGH LEVEL OF PLAY & GENTLEMANLY CONDUCT)
Martin St. Louis
Marty is one of the classiest guys in the show, and "high level of play" doesn't get much higher than finishing with more points than anyone else in the league. Gentlemanly play is not to be confused with "soft play", either (that's why this is no "Lady" Byng award,) and Marty isn't afraid to engage physically or battle in the tough areas, unlike some others nominated for a similar award in the NHL. Do not think for a second anyone else would be more worthy of this award this season than this guy.
Runners-up:
Pavel Datsyuk
Rob Scuderi
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Jonathan Huberdeau
Because the lockout-shortened season eliminated 34 extra games of consistency to consider, this award became another very close call. In the end, it's hard to argue against someone tied for the league lead in points for rookies. Huby was a steady offensive producer for a Panthers team that was hit by devastating injury after devastating injury. He was an immediate impact player and was threat every time he stepped on the ice despite having zero NHL experience prior to this year. Yeah, his +/- was a little ugly, but no one who donned the red, navy, and gold this season for more than two games had a positive rating, and know his didn't drop due to incompetence or lack of effort. He showed the willingness to block shots (19 in 48 games) and many of those goals against had little to do with him.
Runners-up:
Jonas Brodin
Brendan Gallagher
BEST GOALIE
Sergei Bobrovsky
Let's play make believe. Imagine a group of hockey fans who all watched Bobrovsky's play in his first few seasons as the back-up/occasional de factor starter with the Philadelphia Flyers. Those fans then cryogenically froze themselves for a year in an attempt to avoid the impending season-long lockout. They unfreeze today, and then not only would they be upset for missing 48 games of thrilling hockey plus three rounds of playoffs, but their jaws might become permanently unattached after seeing Sergei Bobrovsky, the Columbus Blue Jackets' Sergei Bobrovky, was the best goalie in the NHL. As shocking as that would sound, it's true.
The Jackets played very admirably in 2013, but reality is they aren't even close to where they ended up in the standings without the amazing play of Bobrovsky. His technique was at a career high, and his battle level was Hasek-esque. He also played well enough to earn the league's second-best save percentage (.932) behind Craig Anderson, who only played half the season. Yeah, so the Jackets ultimately missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker, but even without a postseason berth, Bobrovsky still rightfully earned the title of number one cop on the force.
It's worth noting that this award would have probably went to Montréal's Carey Price, if not for his massive implosion in the last few weeks of the season.
Runners-up:
Antti Niemi
Carey Price
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Sidney Crosby
The very language of this award makes it debatable. It is phrased as Most "Valuable" Player, but does that mean the individual most valuable to his team, or the player who has the greatest overall value regardless of who he belongs to? For the sake of playing devil's advocate with myself, I like contemplating the answer to both interpretations of this award, but the HARTYs defer to the ladder when determining the criteria for MVP. In that case, Sidney Crosby is the clear MVP of the NHL.
Sid perplexed teams on a regular basis, scoring nasty goals and demonstrating other-worldly hockey sense to set up teammates. His effort was always at 110% at all 16,327 square feet of the ice. Game after game, post-game interviews with opposing players and coaches alike referred to him as "the best player in the world". Heck, despite missing the final 12 games of the season with a broken jaw, it took Martin St. Louis until the final game of the regular season to overtake him for the league lead in points.
Alex Ovechkin finally returned to his electrifying self again, but if someone wants to hold Crosby's 12 missed games due to injury against him, you have to hold Ovi responsible for sleepwalking through the first half of this shortened season.
For what it's worth, if the HARTYs did by the "most valuable player to his team" approach, John Tavares would be the winner.
Runners-up:
Jonathan Toews
Alex Ovechkin
THE "GREAT SEASON FOR NOTHING" AWARD
Steven Stamkos
This one was easy. No playoff berth, no major award nominations, heck, he missed out on the scoring title by one point to his 37-year old teammate! The Lightning's sniper was well over a goal-a-game player, recording 29 goals in 48 games, the NHL's second highest total. It just seemed like everything went right yet everything went wrong at the same for Stamkos in 2013. If it's any consolation, Stammer, the greatest player in the world did publicly tell the media you were his pick for "most outstanding player". So you got that goin' for ya... which is nice.
Runners-up:
Jakub Voracek
Jiri Tlusty
SICKEST FLOW AWARD
Kristopher Letang
Several front runners for this award either chopped their flow too soon or started to grow it too late in the season for them to be considered for this very prestigious accolade. Nevertheless, Pittsburgh defenseman Kristopher Letang, an annual favorite himself, stands tall with the alpha hair in the NHL. He effectively mesmerizes opponents on the rush with his dark brown hair swimming out of the back of his bucket, allowing him to weave in and out of defenders with ease. An effective, yet underutilized strategy by some of his colleagues.
Runners-up:
Tyler Bozak
Patrick Eaves
RAGU™ SAUCE AWARD
Patrick Kane
Patrick Kane has developed into quite a great hockey player since being drafted first overall in 2007. More importantly, he has developed his sauce game from ugly, airborne flicks to a smooth, yet lethal weapon. He's unafraid to chuck some tantalizing marinara through penalty killers, and uses some filthy alfredo from time to time to set up teammates on odd-man rushes. It brings a tear to my eye to see a young man work so hard to perfect his sauce. That's the American dream, right there.
Runners-up:
Pavel Datsyuk
Sidney Crosby
MATTHEW WITTMAN MEMORIAL AWARD
Roberto Luongo
Awarded annually to the "Class clown" of the NHL, and this year, this HARTY proudly belongs to Vancouver's(?) Bobby Lou. The consummate professional, Lou kept his smile on through a rough, elongated off-season. He remained friendly and personable at the start of the season, when he was rumored to be traded "at any moment" while he had to adjust to playing in a back-up role for the first time in a long time. Then the trade deadline came and passed, and after months of uncertainty, Lou couldn't be moved out of Vancouver. Lou took to the podium after Canucks practice that day and told the media with a smirk, "My contract sucks."
He would also frequently take to Twitter on his "Oh, it's not really me because my name isn't on it and it's not verified but we all know it's actually me" account where he would often make fun of himself or take playful jabs at other pros. Lou's Twitter account proved no other athlete in the world can take his own criticisms and shortcomings and turn them into perfectly-timed punch-lines in 140 characters or less.
Few people could maintain their sense of humor through the roller coaster of a year he went through, and understandably so. Say what you will about the amount of money they make, when the future of someone's career and family is in limbo, it will be a very stressful time in their life. Roberto Luongo, however, always laughed in the face of off-ice adversity, and was kind enough to let us all in on the joke.
Runners-up:
Paul Bissonnette
Paul MacLean
CELLY OF THE YEAR
Nail Yakupov, 1/24/13
This is without a doubt the easiest choice on the ballot. Nail Yakupov's Theo Fleury-esque celebration after batting the puck out of midair to tie a game with the defending Stanley Cup champions with seconds remaining in regulation had no competition in this category this season. The raw emotion that just comes spilling out of the 19 year-old Yakupov is something to behold, and who can blame him? Well, Don Cherry and other people who hate fun could blame him, but for anyone else on the planet with a sense of joy and what adrenaline is, this was gorgeous.
As a result of the lockout, the players lost their trip to Las Vegas for the NHL Awards Show. Instead the NHL is presenting their annual awards on the Internet and on NHL Network between Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Respected veterans like Jean-Sebastian Giguere understand how much players value their Vegas vacation, but this year, the league couldn't give it to them. What a disgrace.
That's why this year, The Hart of Hockey will try to make it up to the athletes of the NHL with this year's HARTY Awards. I would like to extend a formal invitation to all of the winners of the 2013 HARTYs to come to lovely Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and meet at the Primanti Brothers location on Route 60 to receive your award in person! Of course, you'll have to pay for your plane ticket... and hotel... and anything else you decide to do for entertainment. But The Hart of Hockey would be more than happy to cover the expense of Primanti's sandwich upon the presentation of your award!
With that generous offer on the table, this year's winners are...
COACH OF THE YEARPaul MacLean
Last year, MacLean coached an underdog Senators team that many people predicted to finish in the basement of the Eastern Conference and led them to a playoff berth. That performance earned him last year's HARTY for Coach of the Year. Now he's back again with the Coach of the Year title belt around his "husky" waist for getting Ottawa back to the playoffs despite losing their best players to injury for a majority of the season. Jason Spezza: gone. Erik Karlsson, the reigning Norris Trophy winner: gone. Craig Anderson, arguably the best goalie in the NHL for the first half of the shortened season: gone. Scatter in some minor injuries to other key players, and no one would believe that the Senators would hold a playoff seed for the entirety of the season.
Runners-up:
Todd Richards
Joel Quenneville
BEST BLUELINER
Ryan SuterA very tight race between this year's recipient of Best Blueliner and the two runners-up, but in the end, it came down to this: No one averaged more time on ice per game than Suter. He had 10 games in which he logged more than 30 minutes. Twice in the final few games of the year he played in over 32 minutes, and his team won both those games, huge for their late-season playoff push. He was also a plus player on the only playoff team with a negative goal differential. Factor in he was 3rd among all defensemen in points, and surely you can see no one was as reliable in all three zones per time spent on the ice than Sir Suter.
Runners-up:
P.K. Subban
Zdeno Chara
BEST DEFENSIVE FORWARD a.k.a. THE FANS-DON'T-APPRECIATE-EVERYTHING-I-DO-NO-MATTER-HOW-MUCH-THEY-SAY-I-DO AWARD
For the second year in a row, Patrice Bergeron is the guy for this award. He ran away with the league's best face-off percentage at 62.1%. Perhaps even more impressive (and more valuable to his defensive game) is that he had a whopping 61.3% face-off success rate on the penalty kill, second best in the NHL. Not recorded in a stat book, however, is how he is always in proper position, preventing most opponents from even thinking about moving the puck his way.
I also want to give a very honorable mention to Ryan Callahan, who just couldn't crack a runner-up position, but played so well I feel obligated to give him some form of recognition.
Runners-up:
Jonathan Toews
Pavel Datsyuk
MANLY BYNG (HIGH LEVEL OF PLAY & GENTLEMANLY CONDUCT)
Martin St. LouisMarty is one of the classiest guys in the show, and "high level of play" doesn't get much higher than finishing with more points than anyone else in the league. Gentlemanly play is not to be confused with "soft play", either (that's why this is no "Lady" Byng award,) and Marty isn't afraid to engage physically or battle in the tough areas, unlike some others nominated for a similar award in the NHL. Do not think for a second anyone else would be more worthy of this award this season than this guy.
Runners-up:
Pavel Datsyuk
Rob Scuderi
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Jonathan Huberdeau
Because the lockout-shortened season eliminated 34 extra games of consistency to consider, this award became another very close call. In the end, it's hard to argue against someone tied for the league lead in points for rookies. Huby was a steady offensive producer for a Panthers team that was hit by devastating injury after devastating injury. He was an immediate impact player and was threat every time he stepped on the ice despite having zero NHL experience prior to this year. Yeah, his +/- was a little ugly, but no one who donned the red, navy, and gold this season for more than two games had a positive rating, and know his didn't drop due to incompetence or lack of effort. He showed the willingness to block shots (19 in 48 games) and many of those goals against had little to do with him.Runners-up:
Jonas Brodin
Brendan Gallagher
BEST GOALIE
Sergei Bobrovsky
Let's play make believe. Imagine a group of hockey fans who all watched Bobrovsky's play in his first few seasons as the back-up/occasional de factor starter with the Philadelphia Flyers. Those fans then cryogenically froze themselves for a year in an attempt to avoid the impending season-long lockout. They unfreeze today, and then not only would they be upset for missing 48 games of thrilling hockey plus three rounds of playoffs, but their jaws might become permanently unattached after seeing Sergei Bobrovsky, the Columbus Blue Jackets' Sergei Bobrovky, was the best goalie in the NHL. As shocking as that would sound, it's true.The Jackets played very admirably in 2013, but reality is they aren't even close to where they ended up in the standings without the amazing play of Bobrovsky. His technique was at a career high, and his battle level was Hasek-esque. He also played well enough to earn the league's second-best save percentage (.932) behind Craig Anderson, who only played half the season. Yeah, so the Jackets ultimately missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker, but even without a postseason berth, Bobrovsky still rightfully earned the title of number one cop on the force.
It's worth noting that this award would have probably went to Montréal's Carey Price, if not for his massive implosion in the last few weeks of the season.
Runners-up:
Antti Niemi
Carey Price
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Sidney CrosbyThe very language of this award makes it debatable. It is phrased as Most "Valuable" Player, but does that mean the individual most valuable to his team, or the player who has the greatest overall value regardless of who he belongs to? For the sake of playing devil's advocate with myself, I like contemplating the answer to both interpretations of this award, but the HARTYs defer to the ladder when determining the criteria for MVP. In that case, Sidney Crosby is the clear MVP of the NHL.
Sid perplexed teams on a regular basis, scoring nasty goals and demonstrating other-worldly hockey sense to set up teammates. His effort was always at 110% at all 16,327 square feet of the ice. Game after game, post-game interviews with opposing players and coaches alike referred to him as "the best player in the world". Heck, despite missing the final 12 games of the season with a broken jaw, it took Martin St. Louis until the final game of the regular season to overtake him for the league lead in points.
Alex Ovechkin finally returned to his electrifying self again, but if someone wants to hold Crosby's 12 missed games due to injury against him, you have to hold Ovi responsible for sleepwalking through the first half of this shortened season.
For what it's worth, if the HARTYs did by the "most valuable player to his team" approach, John Tavares would be the winner.
Runners-up:
Jonathan Toews
Alex Ovechkin
THE "GREAT SEASON FOR NOTHING" AWARD
Steven StamkosThis one was easy. No playoff berth, no major award nominations, heck, he missed out on the scoring title by one point to his 37-year old teammate! The Lightning's sniper was well over a goal-a-game player, recording 29 goals in 48 games, the NHL's second highest total. It just seemed like everything went right yet everything went wrong at the same for Stamkos in 2013. If it's any consolation, Stammer, the greatest player in the world did publicly tell the media you were his pick for "most outstanding player". So you got that goin' for ya... which is nice.
Runners-up:
Jakub Voracek
Jiri Tlusty
SICKEST FLOW AWARD
Kristopher LetangSeveral front runners for this award either chopped their flow too soon or started to grow it too late in the season for them to be considered for this very prestigious accolade. Nevertheless, Pittsburgh defenseman Kristopher Letang, an annual favorite himself, stands tall with the alpha hair in the NHL. He effectively mesmerizes opponents on the rush with his dark brown hair swimming out of the back of his bucket, allowing him to weave in and out of defenders with ease. An effective, yet underutilized strategy by some of his colleagues.
Runners-up:
Tyler Bozak
Patrick Eaves
RAGU™ SAUCE AWARD
Patrick KanePatrick Kane has developed into quite a great hockey player since being drafted first overall in 2007. More importantly, he has developed his sauce game from ugly, airborne flicks to a smooth, yet lethal weapon. He's unafraid to chuck some tantalizing marinara through penalty killers, and uses some filthy alfredo from time to time to set up teammates on odd-man rushes. It brings a tear to my eye to see a young man work so hard to perfect his sauce. That's the American dream, right there.
Runners-up:
Pavel Datsyuk
Sidney Crosby
MATTHEW WITTMAN MEMORIAL AWARD
Roberto Luongo
Awarded annually to the "Class clown" of the NHL, and this year, this HARTY proudly belongs to Vancouver's(?) Bobby Lou. The consummate professional, Lou kept his smile on through a rough, elongated off-season. He remained friendly and personable at the start of the season, when he was rumored to be traded "at any moment" while he had to adjust to playing in a back-up role for the first time in a long time. Then the trade deadline came and passed, and after months of uncertainty, Lou couldn't be moved out of Vancouver. Lou took to the podium after Canucks practice that day and told the media with a smirk, "My contract sucks."He would also frequently take to Twitter on his "Oh, it's not really me because my name isn't on it and it's not verified but we all know it's actually me" account where he would often make fun of himself or take playful jabs at other pros. Lou's Twitter account proved no other athlete in the world can take his own criticisms and shortcomings and turn them into perfectly-timed punch-lines in 140 characters or less.
Few people could maintain their sense of humor through the roller coaster of a year he went through, and understandably so. Say what you will about the amount of money they make, when the future of someone's career and family is in limbo, it will be a very stressful time in their life. Roberto Luongo, however, always laughed in the face of off-ice adversity, and was kind enough to let us all in on the joke.
Runners-up:
Paul Bissonnette
Paul MacLean
CELLY OF THE YEAR
Nail Yakupov, 1/24/13
This is without a doubt the easiest choice on the ballot. Nail Yakupov's Theo Fleury-esque celebration after batting the puck out of midair to tie a game with the defending Stanley Cup champions with seconds remaining in regulation had no competition in this category this season. The raw emotion that just comes spilling out of the 19 year-old Yakupov is something to behold, and who can blame him? Well, Don Cherry and other people who hate fun could blame him, but for anyone else on the planet with a sense of joy and what adrenaline is, this was gorgeous.
SAVE OF THE YEAR
Jake Allen, 1/24/13
Jake Allen, 22, has not had a very long NHL career up to this point. Even if he never starts another game (which would be highly unlikely considering how well the youngster played during Jaroslav Halak's injuries and Brian Elliott's early season struggles) he can hold his head high knowing that he gave us a highlight for the ages with his save on T.J. Brodie. Plus, Darren Pang screaming like a 10 year-old girl at her first Bieber concert makes it all the better.
PLAY OF THE YEAR
Pavel Datsyuk, 2/15/13
This man has made into just as many defenders' nightmares as he has highlight packages. After swimming laps around children kicking around in the kiddie pool known as the KHL during the lockout, Pasha returned to the NHL with such a graceful dive into the deep end... you know what, enough with the analogies. It was awesome. Datsyuk skates through the entire Nashville team and then beats a world-class goalie, Pekka Rinne, with a tricky shot. All hail Pavel Datsyuk.
